I knew the plan.

It made sense, but as I peeled out of the driveway, my stomach fell and guilt slammed into me. From what I’d seen, Ren was kicking that asshole’s ass, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to get hurt. For all I knew, he already was. I had run so fast, following my own sense of survival, that I wasn’t thinking about what the right thing to do was.

I stopped at the red light and found myself turning on my blinker to go around the block only to find myself on a one way road maze from hell. Mapleville had a lot of things, but at least it wasn’t filled with one way streets that emptied into more one way streets. Eventually, I got back to where I’d started and went back toward the parking lot, very grateful to see Ren meandering toward The Fallen Nut...or maybe he was just on his way home. I wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter because he was alright.

Pulling to the side of the road, I rolled down the window and called out to him. “Need a lift?”

His head snapped in my direction, and as his eyes met mine, his smile grew.

“Yeah.” He stepped up to the window. “If you’re sure it’s no trouble.”

He sounded fine. Thank goodness. If I’d have let him get seriously hurt to save my dumb butt, I would not be okay with that.

“Get in here. You just drew blood for me. Least I can do is drive you home.”

As he climbed in, his scent hit me. All balsam with a hint of mint—two scents that shouldn’t blend so beautifully together but somehow made this perfect blend of yum.

I cracked my window.

Absolutely no good would come of me getting lost in the scent of him. None. Tonight wasn’t a night for that. He was my knight in shining denim. That was that. It wasn’t a date or even a hook up. I was just giving him a ride home.

Not that my dick understood my intentions.

He had a whole different set of ideas brewing, and all of them began with me doing a lot more than just dropping off the sexy man beside me.

“Sorry I ruined your birthday.” I began to pull away and realized I didn’t have a clue where he lived. “Umm, where should I go?”

“Oh, sorry,” he sputtered. I turned to see him examining his knuckles.

Shit.

I pulled over again. “Let me see.” I flicked the overhead light on and grabbed his hand, going straight into nurse mode. It was habit, something I did daily at the NICU. But there, my patients were babies usually born too soon into this world and not sexy, and possibly tipsy, hotties who share my birthday.

“I’m fine,” he insisted. Aside from a little bit of swelling, I had to agree with him, even if it meant letting go of his hand. “I was just making sure I didn’t have any of his blood on me.”

And for some reason, that made me far more giddy than it should. John the “asshole- wannabe-rapist” was bleeding. A lot, I hoped.

“Thanks.” I gave him back his hand, hating doing so. “I mean for that...with John. You didn’t need to do that—any of it.”

“I kind of did.” He shrugged. “That guy was an asshole. No offense, but your taste sucks.”

He so very much wasn’t wrong.

“I used a stupid dating app.” I still couldn’t believe I’d let myself get talked into that one. “And yeah, he was awful. I swear, the asshole tried to put something in my drink.”

I turned off the overhead light, knowing we were on borrowed time. Technically, we were in a no standing zone, and possibly a fire lane, which meant people were circling around the block to get our spot, probably suspecting that we were leaving soon.

“He confessed as much to me before I kicked him in the nads. You should report that.”

I envisioned the jackass huddled on the parking lot pavement, writhing in pain. Perfect. He deserved every ounce of pain and more.

“I can’t report it to the cops because I don’t even know his real name or anything.” I’d already had that discussion with the bouncer at the club who had encouraged me to call as well. “I seriously doubt he is John Juan.” And if that really was his name, his parents so shit the bed on that naming.

“Seriously… You made that up.” Ren’s rich laughter filled the car. It was a beautiful sound and exactly what I needed given the night I’d just had.

“Wish I did. But I’ll report him to the app.” Before I could continue my train of thought, someone in a small VW Beetle laid on their horn, giving me the finger and most likely calling me some choice names. “So, which way?”

“The easiest way is to go down three blocks, turn right, turn right again, and it’s just a bit up there.”

I put on my blinker, and the honking blissfully ended as I turned onto the street. We passed the parking lot John had been left in, and from the looks of things, he’d left—hopefully to go find some ice for his very bruised junk.

“Those directions sound like we’re driving extra,” I teased as we went backward to go forward.

“Although, I won’t lie and say that’s not a bonus, it’s the stupid one way street cluster of a road layout that makes all journeys in this part of the city twice as long as necessary.”

“This I noticed. Uber drivers must make a killing here.” I stopped at the light, waiting for some drunks to cross the street before turning down the block.

“Probably, although most places are within walking distance from my apartment complex, so I haven’t had to deal with that much.”

“I’m from Mapleville, so you know—there’s nothing there to Uber to.” It was mostly true, although the town had been growing slowly over the past couple years.

“I’ve never been—”

“—but you feel like you know it.” I continued on with the television commercial he was quoting. Mapleville’s only claim to fame was one season of a cooking show my friend Harrison’s husband was the star of.

“I guess people say that all the time.”

I turned again, not loving that our time was almost over.

“It happens.” I slowed down as a crowd was deciding whether or not they really were crossing the street. “So, Ren, what do you do?”

“I’m a tax preparer. Oh, I’m up here on the left. In front of the broken desk is fine.”

Sure enough, on the side of the road in front of an apartment building entrance was a broken down desk with half the drawer hanging down and a sign all but begging someone to take it away.

“Wait, a broken—oh. Do they really think someone will pick that up just because it has a free sign on it?” I put the car in park, knowing that I was in front of a fire hydrant and needed to be heading out of said spot right away, even if the sexy man next to me invited me in, which he’d given no indication was in his plans.

“They’re hoping, I guess.” He unclicked his seatbelt with one hand and reached for the door handle with the other. “Thanks for the lift. It was nice meeting you, Thad.” He hesitated slightly before climbing out of the car.

That hesitation was just long enough for me to get the courage to roll down the window and call to him, “Hey, Ren?”

“Yeah.” He twisted his body in my direction but took no steps to get any closer to me.

“Happy Birthday, and I’m Thad Heart on the app.” I called out the stupid name I’d thought clever at the time before checking my rearview mirror and driving off. After the night I’d had, sticking around to see if he was going to accept my offer to reconnect, as lame as said offer was, just seemed pathetic.

It wasn’t until I was halfway home that I realized I forgot to tell him which of the four thousand dating apps I was talking about. I was such an idiot.

Happy Birthday to me.