Page 60 of Challenge Me

“Ask Reddit, not Google, you clueless bat fucker.”

“Yeah, let’s not add that to our vocabulary.”

“It sounded better in my head. Anyway, I don’t want to keep them waiting, so let me run everything by you. Avery and I are getting along just fine, even though there’s an assload of awkwardness floating around between us. Your spawn is shy as hell and didn’t crack a smile when I made a poem for her. Also, she knows about us.”

“What?” My stomach flipped as I glanced at her. She was watching me already, and when I smiled, she returned it before she went back to her notebook. “Why would you tell her?”

He scoffed. “Me? My lips were sealed. How she found out is a question for you and your family.”

“Anything else?”

“Yes. It was your fault that guy in the eighth inning got to home, Mal thinks I’m a gold digger, and they’re both staying at the apartment tonight.” He clapped his hands together. “And that’s it.”

“Wait, go back.”

“No, I don’t think we need to.”

“We absolutely need to. What do you mean they’re staying with us?”

His lips twisted to the side. “You don’t want to revisit the gold digger bit?”

“Not nearly as much as the other thing.”

“Okay, you’re right. I shouldn’t have blamed you. Baseball is a multifaceted game, and to be honest, I still don’t fully understand it.”

“Remi.”

“Fine, I don’t understand it one bit except for throw ball, hit ball, run for your life.”

“Remi.”

“By Odin’s one good eye.” He sighed. “Avery was clearly struggling with the boundaries of this whole thing, so I offered them our spare room.”

“Oh, that’s how we solve a boundaries issue, huh? We don’t have a spare room.”

He scrunched up his nose, and if I wasn’t on the verge of a nervous breakdown, I might have found it cute.

“Not to worry,” he said, sounding incredibly confident. “Our mutual friend is taking care of it as we speak, making a little switcheroo with my things.”

“Our mutual friend?”

“Tall, beautiful complexion, the strength of a boar, the hand of da Vinci, more agreeable than you or I.”

“Roman, agreeable?” I snorted. “His boyfriend would both kill and die for him, but even he calls him an asshole.”

“I happen to find him lovely. Maybe you and Trav are the real monsters.”

I swiped a hand down my face. Somewhere in the midst of all this, there was a silver lining. Looking over at Mal, I decided it was right there.

“Kiss me, darling,” Remi said in a posh accent. “We’ve got a crowd to please.”

“I should tell Avery.”

He frowned. “Why haven’t you, then?”

“I don’t know.”

“Are you sure she wouldn’t rat you out?”