Save Me, page 19
“You have another convention coming up! You can’t go looking all…you know…normal, can you? I mean, I didn’t see any artists who looked so…”
“So…?”
“Neat and clean and preppy,” she said, giggling softly.
“Preppy? Seriously?”
“You look like you should be having lunch at the yacht club right now.”
He was instantly on his feet and pulling Ryleigh to hers. “Oh, good Lord…Go fix your makeup so we can swing by my house so I can change!”
“This must be what animals in the zoo feel like,” he muttered an hour later as every member of the Donovan family mutely stared at him.
Ryleigh stepped farther into the room and clapped her hands loudly, as if to get everyone’s attention. “Okay, that’s enough! Ryker shaved and got a haircut. It’s not a big deal,” she said loudly.
Ryker stood back in awe when everyone seemed to relax at the same time.
And then they were all talking at once.
“I can’t believe you kids bought dinner!” Kate said with obvious delight.
“We didn’t want you to have to cook…”
“How are you feeling, Dad?”
“Did you remember the fritters?”
“I forgot to bring the salad dressing!”
“You had one job!”
“Tessa made that caramel apple cake you liked so much…”
“I also made cookies and brought ice cream too!”
“Mom? Where’s the corkscrew?”
“Ew…what kind of wine is this?”
“Like you know good wine. Last night I caught you drinking an Alaskan Merlot…”
“I ordered it by mistake!”
“Why are you ordering the wrong wine? Does Ronan know?”
“So then I told the therapist that he’s not going to do those exercises…”
“Did you get the invoice for the lumber delivery straightened out?”
All he could do was stand back and blink, but Ryleigh took the charcuterie board from his hands and kissed him on the cheek. “Go mingle. They won’t bite.”
Big words from the woman who’d been avoiding these people for almost a month, he thought.
Even though most of the time he considered himself to be a bit anti-social, he also knew how to behave and interact with other people. This shouldn’t be a big deal, but after the whole faux pas with the haircut, he was suddenly afraid to say the wrong thing.
Ugh…why is this so damn hard?
He was saved from having to join a conversation when Liam Donovan walked over and formally introduced himself. “I’ve heard all about you and I’ve seen you around town,” he said, “but no one’s ever introduced us.”
They shook hands, and Ryker turned to accept a glass of wine from Ryleigh as she walked by. “Yeah, so…you’re building the fishing resort, right?”
“I am,” Liam agreed. “Well, Will and I started a company and we’re building it. Do you fish?”
“Not since I was a kid. I used to go with my grandfather, but once he passed away, no one else ever wanted to go.”
“Well, if ever you want to try it again, let me know. Even without the resort, we all tend to go once in a while.”
“Go where?” Patrick asked as he joined them and shook Ryker’s hand.
“Fishing,” Liam told him.
Nodding, Patrick looked at Ryker. “If you want to go, make sure it’s just us guys. Arianna is crazy competitive and Ryleigh’s not far behind her. And they are both lousy winners.”
The image made him laugh. “I can see that.”
They both studied him and he kind of had a feeling he knew what was coming. “Okay, just go ahead and say what you need to say or ask what you need to ask. I can tell you’ve both got something on your mind.”
The brothers looked at each other before putting their focus back on him.
Liam went first. “Fine. Standard older brother question: Is this serious?”
Ryker nodded. “It is. I’ve been trying to get your sister to go out with me for months. I saw her and I just…I knew,” he said with a shrug.
“How’d you get her to change her mind?” Patrick asked.
Awkward.
Did he tell them the truth or…
Before he could answer, Ryleigh was back at his side, hooking her arm with his. “I kissed him in the parking lot of the pub to piss Mom off. Then he drove me home when I forgot my keys inside the pub after arguing with Mom, and…” She smiled up at him. “We’ve been together ever since.”
“Yikes, Ry. Even I knew Ryker was into you for a while. I can’t believe you’d mess with him like that,” Patrick said with more than a hint of disapproval. “What the hell?”
“I know Mom was making you crazy,” Liam commented, “but…jeez.”
He fought a smile when he saw her roll her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, yeah…I’m the bad guy,” she mocked. And before her brothers could say anything else, Ryker chimed in.
“Honestly, it was my idea. I mean…who wouldn’t want to help a beautiful girl in distress?” This time he did smile down at her. “And I’d do it again and again and again.”
“Aww…you are the sweetest,” she cooed up at him.
“Alright, that’s enough,” Patrick said. “No need to get all…you know…ga-ga with each other. This is a family dinner, you know.”
“Oh, don’t be such a baby,” Ryleigh told him. “And who knows? Maybe now that I’m happily involved, Mom can put her focus on someone else.”
Patrick’s eyes went wide. “Nuh-uh. Not me. She wouldn’t. Besides, I’ll bet it’s Jamie. He’s the one that needs the most help. I mean…think about it. He’s a serial dater, you know that’s got to make Mom crazy.”
“Dude, relax,” Liam said, patting him on the shoulder. “She’s just messing with you.”
“Yeah, well…it’s not funny. With Ry and Ari both in relationships, it is only a matter of time before Mom sets her sights on me and Jamie and I’m not looking forward to it.”
“Not looking forward to what?” Jamie asked as he walked over and Patrick shared the conversation. His eyes went wide for a moment, and then he seemed to collect himself. “Okay, no one needs to go there right now. I think Mom’s learned her lesson so…everything’s cool. No one bring it up, and everything will be okay.”
“What’s okay?” Arianna asked as she and Will walked over.
Now it was Jamie’s turn to share the whole conversation. “And if she starts sniffing around, Patrick and I are going to need one of you three to either set a wedding date or get engaged or have a baby. Preferably the baby because then she’s the baby’s problem.”
They all laughed at that.
“What’s so funny?” Kate asked as she walked over. “You’re all huddled over here like you’re sharing secrets.” Then she gasped and looked directly at Ryleigh. “Are you and Ryker getting engaged?”
“What?!” she cried. “No! Why would you even ask that? We’ve only been together a little more than a month! Why don’t you ask Liam if he’s going to propose to Tessa, huh?”
Kate turned to her oldest child. “Are you? Did you? Oh…oh…are we going to start planning a second wedding?”
“Wait…who else is getting married?” Jamie asked.
Arianna smacked him on the back of the head. “I am, you doofus.” She waved her engagement ring in his face. “Remember?”
“You’re just engaged. You haven’t set a date yet,” he corrected.
That’s when Kate turned to Arianna and Will. “Did you set a date? Is that why you’re all whispering over here? Were you going to surprise your father and I over dinner?”
“Oh God…” Ari whined. “No one’s set a date, Liam hasn’t proposed, Ryker hasn’t proposed, and Jamie never will propose because no woman would put up with him.” She smiled broadly. “That’s why we were all laughing.”
Nodding, Kate glanced at all of them. “That makes sense.” Then she put her arm around Jamie. “It doesn’t mean no one will ever love you,” she told him. “It just means that maybe you should pay a little more attention to the things you do and say.”
“Wait…what?” he asked.
“I’ll bet Mom knows a couple of nice girls she could fix you up with,” Liam said with a straight face, while the rest of the family seemed to struggle not to laugh.
“Oh! I do!” Kate said excitedly. “One of the nurses who comes to do physical therapy on your father is very sweet. I’ll bet you’d really hit it off with her. Maybe I should call and see if she can stop by today so you can meet her?”
“Mom!” Jamie snapped before glaring at his siblings. “Not cool. All of you…not cool.” Then he stormed off toward the kitchen. When he was out of earshot, Kate smiled at all of them.
“Now that was fun.” And with a wink, she motioned them all toward the dining room. “Come, we’ve got a ton of food in there. Ari, I have plenty of salad dressings in the kitchen that you can grab.”
And just like that, a dozen different conversations started up again.
It wasn’t until everyone was seated around the large dining room table that the conversation turned to him.
“So Ryker,” Shane Donovan began from the head of the table. “Have you settled on a name for the business? Everyone’s been speculating. I think Ronan’s got a pool going on what you end up with.”
That made him chuckle because it sounded exactly like the kind of thing Ronan would do. “I think I’ll have it finalized this week, but I don’t want to jinx it. Several things will have to fall into place for it to happen.”
He looked over and saw the confusion on Ryleigh’s face, and he reached for her hand and gave it a slight squeeze.
“Actually, your daughter was a big help with it. She got me to be creative, so…”
“Did she also get you to cut your hair?” Kate asked with a knowing smile.
“No, ma’am,” he said firmly. “That was all on me. I thought it would be a thoughtful gesture so that maybe you wouldn’t be so hard on Ryleigh when we came for dinner.”
You could have heard a pin drop in that moment.
Kate’s eyes went wide for just a second before they narrowed at him. “Why would a haircut do that?”
Clearing his throat and straightening slightly in his seat, he kept his gaze directed at her. “I’ve seen all the men you’ve tried fixing her up with, and I thought if I looked like one of them, maybe you’d be willing to accept me as the man in Ryleigh’s life and not be secretly plotting to find her someone else.”
She arched a brow at him. “I’m sure Ryleigh’s already explained to you how I promised to stop doing that.”
Ryker kept his expression neutral. “She told me, but I’m not sure I believe it. It seems like you gave in too easily. Plus, you hadn’t spent any time with the two of us as a couple, so I was trying to stack the deck in our favor.”
“Interesting,” she slowly replied. “You’ve only been dating my daughter for such a short time and yet you think you know this family so well?”
“Not the whole family, just you,” he clarified.
“Ryker,” Ryleigh whispered from beside him, but he simply gave her hand another squeeze.
“What I know is that I watched Ryleigh spend far too much time crying and doubting herself. I’ve held her while she wondered what was wrong with her and why you treated her the way you did.” He leaned forward slightly. “I sat and held her while we talked things through. And I did it to help her see just how amazing she is. I didn’t mind doing it because she deserved to have someone on her side. But I didn’t do the one thing that I should have.”
“Oh?” Kate asked. “And what was that?”
“I should have come here weeks ago and put a stop to it. Just like I should have gone to the pub and kicked Jamie’s ass the day he came over and made her cry.”
“Hey!” Jamie hissed. “Dude, what the hell?”
Ryker spared him a look. “You and I both know what you did and why, and maybe Ryleigh’s forgiven you—because she’s got a bigger heart than anyone I’ve ever known—but I don’t. You hurt your sister and it’s going to take me a while before I can trust you.”
“Now just a minute,” Jamie argued.
“Stop!” Shane snapped, his word directed at his youngest son. “Let him finish.” Then he nodded at Ryker.
With his attention back on Kate, he went on. “I should have put a stop to this a long time ago. I should have gone to the pub and sat you down and made you listen. I love your daughter more than any of these guys you keep digging up for her. None of them are good enough for her. Hell, I don’t think I’m good enough for her. But I can promise you this—no one is going to encourage her and support her and lift her up the way that I will. And as her mother, that should be your biggest priority—finding a man who sees your daughter’s worth and will cherish it.” He leaned back in his chair. “I foolishly thought if I didn’t look quite so rough around the edges that you’d like me, but now I realize I don’t need that. The only opinion that matters to me is Ryleigh’s.”
He looked over at her, expecting to see gratitude or a smile or maybe even love, but what he saw was absolute horror.
“Ryleigh, I…”
Pulling her hand from his, she stood and stormed out of the room.
Shit.
He got up to go after her when Kate called his name.
“I have to go after her,” he said as he began to walk away.
“She’ll be fine. She’s out on the back deck,” Kate said. “Arianna, go check on your sister.”
Ryker froze, but wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do.
Then Kate gave him a serene smile. “You want to know something funny, Ryker?”
“Right now? Not particularly.”
There were a few snickers at that and he heard someone whisper, “It’s like a train wreck, but I can’t look away!” but kept his attention on the family matriarch.
“Let me tell you something, Mr. Big Shot, I have liked you all along. I watched the way you gently pursued Ryleigh and how you respected her by not pushing too hard. But you know what else I noticed?”
He shook his head.
“That she actually enjoyed the game of cat and mouse. When she thought no one was watching, I was. I saw the way she watched you. You intrigued her and she didn’t know what to do about it.”
“But…”
“If I had encouraged her to talk to you, do you know what would have happened?” she asked. “She never would have gone out with you. Ever.” She shrugged. “So I kept quiet and kept finding men I knew she’d hate.”
“Why?!”
“Ryker, think. I didn’t want to endorse you because I knew Ryleigh would reject you just on principle. So by not giving my blessing or encouraging her to go out with you, I knew she’d eventually give you a chance.”
Dumbfounded, he could only stare at her. Then he looked over at Shane, who nodded with a serene smile of his own. “She speaks the truth,” he said. “Although…to be fair, Ronan was the one you can thank for it. He watches everyone too and genuinely thinks the world of you. When he noticed my Kate getting ready to intervene, he stopped her and made her see reason.” Pausing, he took his wife’s hand in his and kissed it. “That’s not always an easy task. Her heart is always in the right place; it’s her mouth that gets her into trouble.”
“Shane!” she cried in mock offense, but then leaned in and kissed him.
“Um…should I go after her now?” he asked, feeling a little dizzy from all the ways this day had thrown him for a loop.
“One more thing,” Shane said before Ryker could turn away. “Ryleigh’s stubborn, but you probably know that. And…she holds a grudge. So if she’s mad at you, just give her time. She’ll come around.”
He nodded. “I will.”
“You love her? Truly?” he asked, and again, you could have heard a pin drop.
“I do. Truly.” It occurred to him he hadn’t said those words to Ryleigh yet, and he’d already said it multiple times in front of her family. It wasn’t his smartest move, but hopefully a forgivable one.
“Then go talk to her,” her father said. “Just know that we’re all going to eat because all this food is getting cold.”
With a curt nod, he stormed from the room and went to hopefully smooth things over with Ryleigh and not make things worse than he already had.
Chapter Fourteen
Ryleigh turned at the sound of the sliding glass doors opening and was surprised to see her sister walking out.
“I can tell by the scrunchy look on your face that you were expecting Ryker.”
“Of course I was expecting Ryker!” she cried.
“Yeah, well…Mom’s dropping some truth bombs in there and I’m kind of bummed that I’m missing that.”
“Then why are you out here?”
“Because I’m worried about you!”
Ryleigh simply stared at her.
“Fine. Mom said to come out here, but I would have done it on my own if the discussion wasn’t so damn juicy!” She laughed. “I have to admit, the highlights of most family disagreements are when you get tipsy and put us all in our places, but I think Ryker’s cool and calm in-your-face approach is my new favorite thing.”
“Would you shut up? Ari, in case you haven’t noticed, I ran out of there because of your new favorite thing!”
“Yeah, okay, I noticed that. But…um…why?”
“Because it was all just…it was like the damn haircut! He just does these things without thinking of me or how I’ll react!”
“Or…maybe all he’s done is think of you and he was trying to defuse a situation,” she countered. “Maybe seeing you get upset all the damn time is hard on him and he hates seeing that? Maybe in his own misguided way, he was making sure that nothing like what’s been going on in this last month happens again.” Stepping in close, she gave Ryleigh a small poke in the shoulder. “And maybe you should be grateful to have a man who cares about you enough to go to such extremes.”
“It wasn’t an extreme. I’m sure Will…”
“Will never confronted anyone,” Ari reminded her. “We lost an entire year together because he refused to confront Liam and then when he showed up here, he didn’t want to rock the boat to such an extreme that he let Mom fix him up with you! Or did you forget about that? I mean…I wish Will had been as bold as Ryker just was! Do you have any idea how lucky you are?”
“So…?”
“Neat and clean and preppy,” she said, giggling softly.
“Preppy? Seriously?”
“You look like you should be having lunch at the yacht club right now.”
He was instantly on his feet and pulling Ryleigh to hers. “Oh, good Lord…Go fix your makeup so we can swing by my house so I can change!”
“This must be what animals in the zoo feel like,” he muttered an hour later as every member of the Donovan family mutely stared at him.
Ryleigh stepped farther into the room and clapped her hands loudly, as if to get everyone’s attention. “Okay, that’s enough! Ryker shaved and got a haircut. It’s not a big deal,” she said loudly.
Ryker stood back in awe when everyone seemed to relax at the same time.
And then they were all talking at once.
“I can’t believe you kids bought dinner!” Kate said with obvious delight.
“We didn’t want you to have to cook…”
“How are you feeling, Dad?”
“Did you remember the fritters?”
“I forgot to bring the salad dressing!”
“You had one job!”
“Tessa made that caramel apple cake you liked so much…”
“I also made cookies and brought ice cream too!”
“Mom? Where’s the corkscrew?”
“Ew…what kind of wine is this?”
“Like you know good wine. Last night I caught you drinking an Alaskan Merlot…”
“I ordered it by mistake!”
“Why are you ordering the wrong wine? Does Ronan know?”
“So then I told the therapist that he’s not going to do those exercises…”
“Did you get the invoice for the lumber delivery straightened out?”
All he could do was stand back and blink, but Ryleigh took the charcuterie board from his hands and kissed him on the cheek. “Go mingle. They won’t bite.”
Big words from the woman who’d been avoiding these people for almost a month, he thought.
Even though most of the time he considered himself to be a bit anti-social, he also knew how to behave and interact with other people. This shouldn’t be a big deal, but after the whole faux pas with the haircut, he was suddenly afraid to say the wrong thing.
Ugh…why is this so damn hard?
He was saved from having to join a conversation when Liam Donovan walked over and formally introduced himself. “I’ve heard all about you and I’ve seen you around town,” he said, “but no one’s ever introduced us.”
They shook hands, and Ryker turned to accept a glass of wine from Ryleigh as she walked by. “Yeah, so…you’re building the fishing resort, right?”
“I am,” Liam agreed. “Well, Will and I started a company and we’re building it. Do you fish?”
“Not since I was a kid. I used to go with my grandfather, but once he passed away, no one else ever wanted to go.”
“Well, if ever you want to try it again, let me know. Even without the resort, we all tend to go once in a while.”
“Go where?” Patrick asked as he joined them and shook Ryker’s hand.
“Fishing,” Liam told him.
Nodding, Patrick looked at Ryker. “If you want to go, make sure it’s just us guys. Arianna is crazy competitive and Ryleigh’s not far behind her. And they are both lousy winners.”
The image made him laugh. “I can see that.”
They both studied him and he kind of had a feeling he knew what was coming. “Okay, just go ahead and say what you need to say or ask what you need to ask. I can tell you’ve both got something on your mind.”
The brothers looked at each other before putting their focus back on him.
Liam went first. “Fine. Standard older brother question: Is this serious?”
Ryker nodded. “It is. I’ve been trying to get your sister to go out with me for months. I saw her and I just…I knew,” he said with a shrug.
“How’d you get her to change her mind?” Patrick asked.
Awkward.
Did he tell them the truth or…
Before he could answer, Ryleigh was back at his side, hooking her arm with his. “I kissed him in the parking lot of the pub to piss Mom off. Then he drove me home when I forgot my keys inside the pub after arguing with Mom, and…” She smiled up at him. “We’ve been together ever since.”
“Yikes, Ry. Even I knew Ryker was into you for a while. I can’t believe you’d mess with him like that,” Patrick said with more than a hint of disapproval. “What the hell?”
“I know Mom was making you crazy,” Liam commented, “but…jeez.”
He fought a smile when he saw her roll her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, yeah…I’m the bad guy,” she mocked. And before her brothers could say anything else, Ryker chimed in.
“Honestly, it was my idea. I mean…who wouldn’t want to help a beautiful girl in distress?” This time he did smile down at her. “And I’d do it again and again and again.”
“Aww…you are the sweetest,” she cooed up at him.
“Alright, that’s enough,” Patrick said. “No need to get all…you know…ga-ga with each other. This is a family dinner, you know.”
“Oh, don’t be such a baby,” Ryleigh told him. “And who knows? Maybe now that I’m happily involved, Mom can put her focus on someone else.”
Patrick’s eyes went wide. “Nuh-uh. Not me. She wouldn’t. Besides, I’ll bet it’s Jamie. He’s the one that needs the most help. I mean…think about it. He’s a serial dater, you know that’s got to make Mom crazy.”
“Dude, relax,” Liam said, patting him on the shoulder. “She’s just messing with you.”
“Yeah, well…it’s not funny. With Ry and Ari both in relationships, it is only a matter of time before Mom sets her sights on me and Jamie and I’m not looking forward to it.”
“Not looking forward to what?” Jamie asked as he walked over and Patrick shared the conversation. His eyes went wide for a moment, and then he seemed to collect himself. “Okay, no one needs to go there right now. I think Mom’s learned her lesson so…everything’s cool. No one bring it up, and everything will be okay.”
“What’s okay?” Arianna asked as she and Will walked over.
Now it was Jamie’s turn to share the whole conversation. “And if she starts sniffing around, Patrick and I are going to need one of you three to either set a wedding date or get engaged or have a baby. Preferably the baby because then she’s the baby’s problem.”
They all laughed at that.
“What’s so funny?” Kate asked as she walked over. “You’re all huddled over here like you’re sharing secrets.” Then she gasped and looked directly at Ryleigh. “Are you and Ryker getting engaged?”
“What?!” she cried. “No! Why would you even ask that? We’ve only been together a little more than a month! Why don’t you ask Liam if he’s going to propose to Tessa, huh?”
Kate turned to her oldest child. “Are you? Did you? Oh…oh…are we going to start planning a second wedding?”
“Wait…who else is getting married?” Jamie asked.
Arianna smacked him on the back of the head. “I am, you doofus.” She waved her engagement ring in his face. “Remember?”
“You’re just engaged. You haven’t set a date yet,” he corrected.
That’s when Kate turned to Arianna and Will. “Did you set a date? Is that why you’re all whispering over here? Were you going to surprise your father and I over dinner?”
“Oh God…” Ari whined. “No one’s set a date, Liam hasn’t proposed, Ryker hasn’t proposed, and Jamie never will propose because no woman would put up with him.” She smiled broadly. “That’s why we were all laughing.”
Nodding, Kate glanced at all of them. “That makes sense.” Then she put her arm around Jamie. “It doesn’t mean no one will ever love you,” she told him. “It just means that maybe you should pay a little more attention to the things you do and say.”
“Wait…what?” he asked.
“I’ll bet Mom knows a couple of nice girls she could fix you up with,” Liam said with a straight face, while the rest of the family seemed to struggle not to laugh.
“Oh! I do!” Kate said excitedly. “One of the nurses who comes to do physical therapy on your father is very sweet. I’ll bet you’d really hit it off with her. Maybe I should call and see if she can stop by today so you can meet her?”
“Mom!” Jamie snapped before glaring at his siblings. “Not cool. All of you…not cool.” Then he stormed off toward the kitchen. When he was out of earshot, Kate smiled at all of them.
“Now that was fun.” And with a wink, she motioned them all toward the dining room. “Come, we’ve got a ton of food in there. Ari, I have plenty of salad dressings in the kitchen that you can grab.”
And just like that, a dozen different conversations started up again.
It wasn’t until everyone was seated around the large dining room table that the conversation turned to him.
“So Ryker,” Shane Donovan began from the head of the table. “Have you settled on a name for the business? Everyone’s been speculating. I think Ronan’s got a pool going on what you end up with.”
That made him chuckle because it sounded exactly like the kind of thing Ronan would do. “I think I’ll have it finalized this week, but I don’t want to jinx it. Several things will have to fall into place for it to happen.”
He looked over and saw the confusion on Ryleigh’s face, and he reached for her hand and gave it a slight squeeze.
“Actually, your daughter was a big help with it. She got me to be creative, so…”
“Did she also get you to cut your hair?” Kate asked with a knowing smile.
“No, ma’am,” he said firmly. “That was all on me. I thought it would be a thoughtful gesture so that maybe you wouldn’t be so hard on Ryleigh when we came for dinner.”
You could have heard a pin drop in that moment.
Kate’s eyes went wide for just a second before they narrowed at him. “Why would a haircut do that?”
Clearing his throat and straightening slightly in his seat, he kept his gaze directed at her. “I’ve seen all the men you’ve tried fixing her up with, and I thought if I looked like one of them, maybe you’d be willing to accept me as the man in Ryleigh’s life and not be secretly plotting to find her someone else.”
She arched a brow at him. “I’m sure Ryleigh’s already explained to you how I promised to stop doing that.”
Ryker kept his expression neutral. “She told me, but I’m not sure I believe it. It seems like you gave in too easily. Plus, you hadn’t spent any time with the two of us as a couple, so I was trying to stack the deck in our favor.”
“Interesting,” she slowly replied. “You’ve only been dating my daughter for such a short time and yet you think you know this family so well?”
“Not the whole family, just you,” he clarified.
“Ryker,” Ryleigh whispered from beside him, but he simply gave her hand another squeeze.
“What I know is that I watched Ryleigh spend far too much time crying and doubting herself. I’ve held her while she wondered what was wrong with her and why you treated her the way you did.” He leaned forward slightly. “I sat and held her while we talked things through. And I did it to help her see just how amazing she is. I didn’t mind doing it because she deserved to have someone on her side. But I didn’t do the one thing that I should have.”
“Oh?” Kate asked. “And what was that?”
“I should have come here weeks ago and put a stop to it. Just like I should have gone to the pub and kicked Jamie’s ass the day he came over and made her cry.”
“Hey!” Jamie hissed. “Dude, what the hell?”
Ryker spared him a look. “You and I both know what you did and why, and maybe Ryleigh’s forgiven you—because she’s got a bigger heart than anyone I’ve ever known—but I don’t. You hurt your sister and it’s going to take me a while before I can trust you.”
“Now just a minute,” Jamie argued.
“Stop!” Shane snapped, his word directed at his youngest son. “Let him finish.” Then he nodded at Ryker.
With his attention back on Kate, he went on. “I should have put a stop to this a long time ago. I should have gone to the pub and sat you down and made you listen. I love your daughter more than any of these guys you keep digging up for her. None of them are good enough for her. Hell, I don’t think I’m good enough for her. But I can promise you this—no one is going to encourage her and support her and lift her up the way that I will. And as her mother, that should be your biggest priority—finding a man who sees your daughter’s worth and will cherish it.” He leaned back in his chair. “I foolishly thought if I didn’t look quite so rough around the edges that you’d like me, but now I realize I don’t need that. The only opinion that matters to me is Ryleigh’s.”
He looked over at her, expecting to see gratitude or a smile or maybe even love, but what he saw was absolute horror.
“Ryleigh, I…”
Pulling her hand from his, she stood and stormed out of the room.
Shit.
He got up to go after her when Kate called his name.
“I have to go after her,” he said as he began to walk away.
“She’ll be fine. She’s out on the back deck,” Kate said. “Arianna, go check on your sister.”
Ryker froze, but wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do.
Then Kate gave him a serene smile. “You want to know something funny, Ryker?”
“Right now? Not particularly.”
There were a few snickers at that and he heard someone whisper, “It’s like a train wreck, but I can’t look away!” but kept his attention on the family matriarch.
“Let me tell you something, Mr. Big Shot, I have liked you all along. I watched the way you gently pursued Ryleigh and how you respected her by not pushing too hard. But you know what else I noticed?”
He shook his head.
“That she actually enjoyed the game of cat and mouse. When she thought no one was watching, I was. I saw the way she watched you. You intrigued her and she didn’t know what to do about it.”
“But…”
“If I had encouraged her to talk to you, do you know what would have happened?” she asked. “She never would have gone out with you. Ever.” She shrugged. “So I kept quiet and kept finding men I knew she’d hate.”
“Why?!”
“Ryker, think. I didn’t want to endorse you because I knew Ryleigh would reject you just on principle. So by not giving my blessing or encouraging her to go out with you, I knew she’d eventually give you a chance.”
Dumbfounded, he could only stare at her. Then he looked over at Shane, who nodded with a serene smile of his own. “She speaks the truth,” he said. “Although…to be fair, Ronan was the one you can thank for it. He watches everyone too and genuinely thinks the world of you. When he noticed my Kate getting ready to intervene, he stopped her and made her see reason.” Pausing, he took his wife’s hand in his and kissed it. “That’s not always an easy task. Her heart is always in the right place; it’s her mouth that gets her into trouble.”
“Shane!” she cried in mock offense, but then leaned in and kissed him.
“Um…should I go after her now?” he asked, feeling a little dizzy from all the ways this day had thrown him for a loop.
“One more thing,” Shane said before Ryker could turn away. “Ryleigh’s stubborn, but you probably know that. And…she holds a grudge. So if she’s mad at you, just give her time. She’ll come around.”
He nodded. “I will.”
“You love her? Truly?” he asked, and again, you could have heard a pin drop.
“I do. Truly.” It occurred to him he hadn’t said those words to Ryleigh yet, and he’d already said it multiple times in front of her family. It wasn’t his smartest move, but hopefully a forgivable one.
“Then go talk to her,” her father said. “Just know that we’re all going to eat because all this food is getting cold.”
With a curt nod, he stormed from the room and went to hopefully smooth things over with Ryleigh and not make things worse than he already had.
Chapter Fourteen
Ryleigh turned at the sound of the sliding glass doors opening and was surprised to see her sister walking out.
“I can tell by the scrunchy look on your face that you were expecting Ryker.”
“Of course I was expecting Ryker!” she cried.
“Yeah, well…Mom’s dropping some truth bombs in there and I’m kind of bummed that I’m missing that.”
“Then why are you out here?”
“Because I’m worried about you!”
Ryleigh simply stared at her.
“Fine. Mom said to come out here, but I would have done it on my own if the discussion wasn’t so damn juicy!” She laughed. “I have to admit, the highlights of most family disagreements are when you get tipsy and put us all in our places, but I think Ryker’s cool and calm in-your-face approach is my new favorite thing.”
“Would you shut up? Ari, in case you haven’t noticed, I ran out of there because of your new favorite thing!”
“Yeah, okay, I noticed that. But…um…why?”
“Because it was all just…it was like the damn haircut! He just does these things without thinking of me or how I’ll react!”
“Or…maybe all he’s done is think of you and he was trying to defuse a situation,” she countered. “Maybe seeing you get upset all the damn time is hard on him and he hates seeing that? Maybe in his own misguided way, he was making sure that nothing like what’s been going on in this last month happens again.” Stepping in close, she gave Ryleigh a small poke in the shoulder. “And maybe you should be grateful to have a man who cares about you enough to go to such extremes.”
“It wasn’t an extreme. I’m sure Will…”
“Will never confronted anyone,” Ari reminded her. “We lost an entire year together because he refused to confront Liam and then when he showed up here, he didn’t want to rock the boat to such an extreme that he let Mom fix him up with you! Or did you forget about that? I mean…I wish Will had been as bold as Ryker just was! Do you have any idea how lucky you are?”
