Page 208 of Rising Heat

“Yeah.” His eyes move over me slowly. “I noticed.”

For a second, I don’t understand what he means. Then I remember I’m still wearing Tyler’s jacket.

Brett takes in the oversized sleeves wrapped around my hands before his gaze drifts past me. His eyes flick from Tyler to Mack and back again, lingering just long enough that I know he’s taking them in now. The height. The shoulders. The fact that neither of them looks particularly interested in leaving.

His mouth tightens briefly before he smooths it away again.

“Who are these guys?”

“We live here,” Mack says.

Tyler looks at me instead of Brett.

“You want us inside?”

The question catches me off guard because he’s asking instead of deciding for me or stepping in because he thinks I need to be managed.

“No,” I shake my head. “Stay.”

Brett’s eyes narrow at that.

“I didn’t realize that you had roommates.”

“I didn’t realize you’d be showing up uninvited to my apartment.”

His jaw clenches.

A cab turns the corner at the end of the block while nobody says anything, music floating faintly from somewhere further down the street. The city keeps moving around us while my entire nervous system tries to catch up to the fact that Brett is standing on my stoop holding flowers, like we’re still living in the same version of our lives as six months ago.

“You look good,” he eventually says.

His eyes dip briefly toward the dress before coming back up.

“That color always looked good on you.”

Tyler goes still beside me, which I’ve learned is usually a sign he’s trying very hard not to say the first thing that comes to mind.

“I asked you what you’re doing here.”

He lets out a slow breath through his nose.

“You left.”

That same calm certainty he’d use whenever we argued, like if he stayed steady long enough I’d eventually realize he was right and I was just making everything harder than it needed to be.

“Yes,” I say carefully. “I did.”

“You disappeared.”

“I moved.”

“You cut everybody off.”

I blink at him.

“I moved to Boston, Brett. I didn’t fake my own death.”

Tyler makes a sound beside me that he tries to turn into a cough.