Page 49 of Ring Rust

Ryan didn’t respond, just bent down to pick up paint cans, stacking them in the wagon.

“Remember? When you got mad at me about the tree root I cut for the fence?”

“I remember,” Ryan said through gritted teeth.

Beni grimaced. “Okay. Let’s, uh… Logan, help me find some rags. There should be some in the kitchen, and you’ll be able to slip in through the window pretty easily.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Take your pants and shoes off first. Do not get the walls painty, Logan!” Ryan snapped.

“I’ll meet you there in a minute!” Beni yelled at a retreating Logan.

Ryan did what he could to shove the excess paint back in the cans—it was ruined regardless, but at least he could protect the soil if he got most of it off the ground. But with every attempt at scooping the paint, he grew more frustrated. His boots were ruined. His hands were covered. His heart was confused, and Logan was always around. The trees surrounding them became fuzzy as Ryan’s breathing sped up and his heart raced. A hand on his shoulder grounded him and led him to a spot in the dirt where there was no paint.

“Hey,” Beni said, crouching in front of him. “Breathe. In through your nose, out through your mouth. That’s good. Why don’t you head out? Logan and I can finish cleaning this up, and then I’ll send him home. I’ll get a pizza for dinner, and we can divide up the kid activities so you don’t have to see Jasper as much next week.”

Ryan blew out a big breath and nodded, giving himself a few minutes to collect himself before leaving to find his car.

“Oh, man,”Stevie said. “Did you see what happened to Ryan?”

“What?” Jasper walked over to where she was sitting at the kitchen counter and peered over her shoulder.

She lifted her phone and laughed. “Poor guy.”

“What happened?”

“He dropped a wrench on his face.”

“Oh,” Jasper said, taking her phone. He zoomed in on his face, frowning at the bruise surrounding his eye—deep purple and swollen, jarring against the pale pink color of his normallychiseled cheek. His thumb swiped against Ryan’s eye, gently enough that it didn’t move the photo.

Stevie’s eyebrow raised. “What is this?”

“What is what?”

“You’re zooming in on his bruised eye? After you humped him in front of the entire Friendsmas party while on a date with my coworker.”

“It wasn’t a date with Shawn. We’re friends.”

“I don’t think he thinks you’re friends,” she said, laughing.

“Okay, fine. Not helpful.”

Stevie moved her face in front of Jasper’s, forcing him to look at her. “Are you… what is this? Do you want to fix things with Ryan?”

He didn’t. He’d spent the last couple years working towards where he was now—nearly free, unable to be let down by his partner for the seven hundredth time.

“No.”

“That was not convincing.”

“I don’t want to be with him. But I guess I do feel like maybe I’ve been unnecessarily mean to him. His black eye made me feel bad, is all.”

“He didn’t look too upset at the party. Well, no, he looked really upset for a lot of the party. But once you got outside…”

Jasper climbed into a seat next to his sister and groaned, putting his head in his hands. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Stevie shrugged. “Yeah, that was pretty fucked up. But not fucked up enough that his hands didn’t end up down your pants, right? That must mean he’s not too broken up over it.”