Page 77 of Almost Ours

There is a reason I keep people at arm’s length and I just forgot all about them.

What the fuck am I doing?

I want her so badly it’s starting to interfere with basic survival instincts.

Oscar slams the door again and I tense beneath her, my grip on her waist tightening before I remember that being found clutching her probably isn’t going to improve my chances of leaving with both testicles attached.

“Rubes! Open the fucking door.”

I glance towards it, then back at her. “He sounds livid.”

Ruby worries her lip. “He always sounds like that when he’s worried.”

“Reckon he knows I’m here?”

Her brows pull together. “Why would he?”

“I don’t know. Twin radar. Brooke told him. Divine intervention. Maybe he can smell fear through walls?”

She giggles, which is lovely, except I’m about to have a fucking breakdown.

“Ruby!” He slams both hands against the wood, making her jump against me. “I can hear you.”

For one spilt second, Ruby looks scared.

Oh, fuck no.

Every thought I had about Oscar killing me seems to vanish at the idea she’s afraid.

My hands slide from her waist to the backs of her thighs and I lift her off me, setting her carefully onto the mattress before getting to my feet.

Ruby looks at me like I’ve completely lost my mind. “Josh, what are you—”

I’m already crossing the room, and when I yank the door back I’m met with Oscar standing on the other side looking wrecked, hair sticking up in tufts and dark bags sitting beneath his eyes. I give him a hard look. “Stop fucking banging on her door like that.”

Nothing happens as he looks at me, like he’s trying to compute it’s me stood here and not his sister.

Then his eyes drop over the fact I’m standing there in nothing but my boxers, before snapping past my shoulder towards Ruby’s room. The exhaustion on his face gets swallowed whole by rage. “What the fuck are you doing in here?”

I square myself in the doorway. “I’m hanging out with your sister, the fuck are you doing here?”

“Is this some kind of fucking joke?” Oscar fumes.

“Do I look like I’m joking?”

His jaw clenches so hard I can see the muscle jumping in it. “Mate, I am giving you one chance to get the fuck out of my way.”

I hear Ruby get off the bed. “Oscar—”

“No.” His voice cuts straight across hers as his eyes stay fixed on me. “Why the fuck are you in my sister’s room at half nine in the morning, in your fucking boxers, telling me how I can speak to her?”

“Why the fuck are you banging on your sister’s door this early in the morning and disturbing her entire corridor?”

Oscar is blistering. “Because she disappeared last night and didn’t answer her fucking phone.”

“So what?”

“So she should answer her phone!”