Page 31 of Ring Rust

Jasper rolled his eyes. “Thanks for your help, Mav. I think we’re just about done. Are we on for tomorrow at eight?”

Maverick nodded. “Yeah, for sure. I’ll pick you up.” He stepped closer to Jasper and smiled at him flirtatiously. Ryan knew it was, because it was the exact sort of smile he gave Jasper when they first met.

Ryan pushed that aside, though, caught off guard by the offer to give Jasper a ride to the park. “Where’s your car?—"

Maverick spoke at the same time. “Do you want a coffee tomorrow? I usually stop on my way out of town.”

“He doesn’t like coff?—"

“Yeah,” Jasper said. His elbow reached out to gently bump against Maverick’s forearm, turning the heat in Ryan’s chest into an inferno. “You know I’ve been into lattes lately.”

“Since when?” Ryan asked. “And why is he picking you up? Where’s your car?”

“Since the other day when I met up with Logan and we got coffee to go over the list of projects. Maverick was there. They’re friends. He’s helping with the trees at the park. Anyway, I had a latte, and it was good!” He turned to Maverick. “I’ll have whatever we got that day.”

“Sounds good. I’ll see you at eight. Nice to meet you, Ryan,” Maverick said. “Uh, I guess.”

“Sure. Nice to meet you.” Ryan scratched the side of his neck before turning towards Maverick’s truck. “Nice truck.”

Maverick nodded. “Thanks, man.”

“Drive carefully,” Ryan said.

He gave Ryan an awkward smile. “What?”

“I hope you get home safely. Be careful out there.”

“I mean… okay. Yeah, I will.”

“Good,” Ryan said. “Make sure you wear your seatbelt.”

“I always do,” Maverick said, eyes darting to Jasper.

“Ryan—"

Ryan nodded. “Hope your brakes are up to the weather.”

“Um, Jasper?—"

“You just never know what might happen. Life is unpredictable, like brakes in trucks.”

Jasper pinched Ryan’s arm, hard, and smiled at Maverick. “You’ll be fine. Sometimes the driveway gets slippery in heavy rain, but itjuststarted raining. I’ll see you at eight. With coffee, right?” he asked, waving at Maverick’s slowly retreating figure.

Maverick didn’t reply again, just nodded and climbed into his truck, starting down the driveway at a snail’s pace.

Jasper didn’t waste any time before spinning around and glaring at Ryan. “What the hell was that?”

“What was what?”

“Be careful out there?Brakes are unpredictable?Who says that to someone they’ve never met?”

Ryan scoffed. “I’m sorry that I wanted the arborist you hired to survive the trip down our driveway, which youknowgets sketchy in rainy weather.”

“You are ridiculous.” Jasper turned sharply and walked towards the house. “Such a fucking baby.”

“Because I care about safety?” Ryan yelled, chasing after Jasper. “I’vealwaysloved safety! You know this about me!”

Jasper shoved through the front door and made his way towards the basement stairs, then started stripping off his wet clothes. The rain wasn’t falling too heavily, but he’d been outside trimming dead branches, most of which were dripping wet from overnight rainfall. Jasper’s clothes had been sticking to his body when Ryan arrived, but Ryan hadn’t been able to pay any attention since his focus had been on Maverick. Who, for what it was worth, did not seem trustworthy at all. He seemed like a conman trying to get into Jasper’s damp, plastered-to-his-ass pants, and that was the sort of thing Ryan needed to pay attention to. For evidence. In case this guy was, in fact, a conman. Like Logan.