I did the same, wondering if Ryn put her phone on sleep or charged it overnight somewhere not close to her so a text wouldn’t disturb her.

I decided, just in case, to wait until morning.

I then looked out the side window again.

And my brows drew together.

“Are we going to your place?” I asked the route that was not a route that took us in the direction of my apartment.

“No, we’re going to Pantera’s place.”

I rotated swiftly in my seat, crying, “What?”

“I’m dropping you off so you can sort things out,” he stated.

“It’s after two thirty in the morning,” I told him something he knew.

“Trust me, he won’t give a shit, you show at his door to fix things.”

Oh my God!

“I’m not prepared.”

“How do you prepare for this? You don’t. You just do it.”

He was right.

Argh!

“I’m tired. And I don’t want him to be in a bad mood because I’ve woken him up when I start explaining.”

“Right, Hattie, you get I got a dick?”

“Of course!”

“And you get that, if outside factors did not skew shit, I could be into you in a way I’d stop at nothing to make you mine?”

Oh man.

“Uh…”

“Which is how Pantera is into you.”

Yikes!

And tentatively…

Yay!

“So trust me, he will not give a shit you show at his door at two thirty in the morning,” Brett finished with quite a bit of emphasis.

“All right, all right,” I mumbled.

“You can do this,” he encouraged.

“What if I can’t? What if I blew things big time this morning?”

“This is how it’s gonna go,” he began. “He’s gonna open the door. He’s then gonna see you. And shit will be sorted. Boom.”

Seriously?

“Do you really think it’ll be that easy?”

“Have you looked in a mirror?”

“I know I’m not hard to look at, Brett, but that isn’t the only important thing.”

“You’re cute. You’re sweet. You’re nice. You’re talented. Outside a few important glitches that fuck you up, which, Hattie, everyone’s got in one way or another, you got it together. Great pad. Sweet jammies. Studio full of money waiting to be made. And last, it wasn’t me kissing him on the deck the way you two were kissing. You were doing that, and you can’t tell me you don’t know way more than me what that was about. So, not to be crude, you on his doorstep takes him a huge step closer to being in your pants. So absolutely. It’s going to be that easy.”

All he said was very nice.

But at the last part, my heart stopped beating.

“Ohmigod, I’m so not ready for sex with Axl. We have to turn back,” I breathed.