Page 96 of Fighting Spirit

“But nothing,” I sigh.

“You guys do give off married couple energy,” Ruth pipes up between sips of wine.

“She knows what’s up.” Trevor grins at her.

Fantastic. Apparently she’s ready to join in this nonsense. I should have known that getting these two together was going to be an issue.

“I don’t want to be the one to break up a family,” she says earnestly.

“I hate this,” I groan.

“I love this,” Trevor giggles.

“I should have never brought you home.” I nip at Ruth’s ear.

“You make me sound like a stray cat.”

“I told you that you didn’t need to worry,” I say quietly. “I think I’m the one who needs to be afraid.”

“Should I be offended that you were scared to meet me?” Trevor doesn’t look up from whatever he’s doing with the lasagna sheets. “You guys are not good at being quiet, which doesn’t bode well.”

“I just wanted to make a good impression.” She fusses with her hair. “I told Rowan it was like meeting the parents.”

“You’ve already met my dad,” I point out.

“Yeah, but I’m the one you actually like,” Trevor says.

“Not right now, I don’t.”

“And I yelled at your dad,” says Ruth.

“Nice work with that, by the way,” Trevor says, putting on oven mitts. “It was about time someone handed his ass to him.”

“Oh no, I didn’t-”

“Sure you did!” he says brightly. “From what Ro said, it was awesome.”

“It was fuckin’ awesome,” I mutter.

“So,” Trevor announces as he sets down the giant bowl of leafy salad, “the reason I asked for this dinner is because I want to know what your intentions are.”

“Trevor,” I growl. “What the fuck are you doing?”

He slides into the seat across from us and starts furiously eating lasagna.

“Hey!” I try and get his attention. “Dude, you can’t just drop something like that and then just start eating.”

“Sorry,” he talks through a mouthful, “this is just really good. I’ve kind of outdone myself here.”

“Spit it out.”

He swallows and sets down his fork. “Ruth, you seem like a lovely person, but you gotta tell me if you’re serious about this.” He levels her with a stare. “I know we were joking about you breaking up our family, but I really care about him, and if you’re just gonna fuck around with his feelings, I gotta tell you I’m not gonna take that well.”

“Jesus, Trevor,” I say.

“It’s fine,” Ruth says as she sets a hand on my arm. “I get that you’re being protective and I think that’s really cool of you, but this really isn’t any of your business. I like him, like a lot. But that’s between the two of us. We’ll figure things out on our own time, without any input from anybody else.” She barely stops for breath, building up some momentum. “I’m really happy that Rowan has a friend like you, but as his friend, I’d hope you would give him enough credit to make his own decisions. If he wants to be with me, if he trusts me not to hurt him, then that’s his prerogative, and I hope you can support that without trying to interfere.”

Silence falls over the dinner table. I hold my breath, not a clue what I should say, if I should even say anything. I mean, how do I even respond to that? She’s not wrong, but I don’t want them to get off on the wrong foot.

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