Page 428 of Face Off

“My clinical style is confrontational.”

“You aren’t my therapist.”

“No. I’m your future best friend.”

“Those applications are currently closed.”

“I have watched you threaten bodily harm over Ryan, drink beer before noon, and insult my legal knowledge. Your approval is no longer required.”

He leads me down the hall. Ryan’s bedroom door remains closed, and I feel my attention move toward it before I can stop myself.

Briggs notices.

“You counted the shoes by the front door, checked the bathroom counter while washing your hands, and looked at the dining table for evidence that someone else eats here,” he says. “Now you want to open that door and confirm the bed belongs to only him.”

Heat reaches my face. “I wasn’t going to open it.”

“I know.”

“How?”

“Because you respect his privacy even while your nervous system conducts a full criminal investigation.”

“That was unnecessarily specific.”

“You and Ryan do the same thing with different targets. He scans for threats. You scan for disapproval. Both of you believe noticing danger early enough will keep it from reaching you.”

The accuracy leaves me staring at him.

“Same nervous system,” Briggs says as he points between us, “different outfit.”

“That sounds like something you read on a throw pillow.”

“It’ll be in my book.”

“You’re writing a book?”

“No, but I enjoy preparing for imaginary success.”

He passes Ryan’s bedroom without touching the handle. The small display of respect beneath all his nonsense warms something inside me.

“You enter that room with him,” he says. “Not me.”

“Thank you.”

“The guest room is fair territory because I live there.”

“You live six doors away.”

“You keep saying that as if distance changes intimacy.”

He opens the guest-room door.

An Inferno duffel rests on the floor beside three pairs of shoes. Two hoodies hang over the back of a chair, and a framed photograph of the boys from KFU occupies the nightstand. A phone charger, unopened mail, and half a package of cookies cover the dresser.

“You really are his unwanted roommate.”

“Pseudo-roommate.”