I didn’t want him to go alone since he’d not only made a food run but also paid. “I’ll go too,” I said.

“Yeah?” Zeke asked, his eyes sparkling with hope and surprise.

“See you later,” I said to Trex then waved to Darby. She was already eating, stuffing noodles in her mouth.

Zeke carried a sack in each hand, taking the first six stairs two at a time before slowing down. “Sorry. Habit,” he said, continuing up.

He turned right, stopping at the last door on the left. After fumbling with his key card, he held it against the black rectangle under the lever, waiting for the locking mechanism to click. The hinges complained with a high-pitched squeal as he opened the door and held it open just as he held his breath waiting for me to come in.

I didn’t realize until then that walking through his threshold was a bigger step than it should have been, and I stood frozen in the hall.

His eyebrows shot up. “Changed your mind?”

“No.” His question and my pride and spite fueled me to move forward.

His room wasn’t what I expected. No dirty clothes laying on the floor, no empty beer bottles on the corner table, and the familiar pungent stench that lingered when more than one man resided in a small space was absent.

“Well?” he asked, watching me walk slowly as I scanned the room.

“It doesn’t suck,” I said, sitting in the desk chair. “What do you think?”

“It’s several steps up from sleeping on the freezing ground.”

“Yes, it is.”

“You’ve done that?”

“All seven continents, but it wasn’t always cold. Sometimes I’d want to sleep naked just to keep from soaking my clothes with my own sweat, but tropical climates tend to breed bugs and parasites.”

Zeke made a face, handing me my food. “The cold ground suddenly sounds pleasant.”

I chuckled, digging into my food.

We didn’t speak while we stuffed our faces. The silence was comfortable—as quiet as it could be with Zeke slurping noodles into his face.

“Can you tell me more?” he asked.

“No.”

He chuckled. “Didn’t think so. It’s pretty cool, though, having such a bad ass right here in my room.”

“You’re kind of a bad ass too, right? Hike up mountains and put out fires with dirt and tools? And you’re surrounded by a whole team of them.”

He sat up a bit taller. “Thanks. I wasn’t sure if bringing my A game would even help.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Help?”

“You know … with this,” he said, gesturing to the space between us. When I didn’t answer, he closed one eye, already cringing at what he was about to say. “Is that a maybe?”