“Until you make it public,” he retorts. “Sometimes I wonder if you say things to wind me up, or if you’re genuinely that dense.”
“It won’t happen again,” I mutter. I’m so not in the mood for a lecture.
“It always happens again. What happened to the girl you flew over here? The one with the kid? She seemed nice.”
“It didn’t work out,” I reply, my voice tight.
Why does everything come back to Her?
***
I throw my keys onto the small space above the minibar and take off my jacket. My phone vibrates in my pocket, and for the briefest moment I find myself wishing it were her. I pull it out and see that it’s Mum.
I groan, because I’ve just realized she has no idea where I am.
Fucking great.
In the haste of wanting to surprise Scarlett, it had completely slipped my mind to let Mum and Dad know where I was going. I could almost hear Scarlett’s voice in my ear, chastising me for not telling them, as I dialed Mum’s mobile.
“Where are you?” she says, annoyed. “I sent Hailey around with some groceries and she said you weren’t there.”
“Right,” I begin. “Matt set me up with some sponsorship crap over in the states. I’ll be here for three weeks.”
“Oh. Well, that’s good,” she says.
I laugh, because I know she’s only happy I’m off my arse and actually doing something productive. “Thanks, Mum. I’ll call you in a few days, okay?”
I hang up and order some room service. I’m not hungry, but I have to eat something. I give the girl my order and I’m told it will be up in twenty minutes.
I’m fucking wrecked. Two huge nights on the piss and my body is making me pay for it. I curl up on the couch and wait for my dinner so I can go to bed.
Chapter Three
Ryder
The knock on the door startles me. I laugh, because it’s been over an hour since I’d ordered, and although I’d forgotten about it, I’m angry because I don’t like being made to wait.
How long does it take to fry some fucking fish?
I open the door and wander back inside without looking up.
“Just leave it on the table,” I mutter.
“Ryder.”
I freeze. I had to be hearing things, because that sounded a fucking awful lot like her. I turn around slowly. She’s standing in front of me. The first thing that enters my head is where’s my fucking fish, which is crazy, because I’m still not hungry.
“What the fuck do you want?” I ask. My voice is cold and I don’t make eye contact with her.
“I-I want to explain,” she pleads. Her fingers are trembling. I look away. No. I refuse to let her drag me back in.
“You don’t contact me at all in the past forty-six hours and I’m suddenly supposed to drop everything because you want to explain?” I laugh. I take a step towards her, because I can’t deny the part of me that needs to hear what she has to say. “How did you find out where I was?” I ask.
She blushes. “I called Professor Howes. He gave me your dad’s number, so I called him.”
“You spoke to my dad?” I say, surprised. How the hell did he know where I was?
“Yes. He didn’t even realize you weren’t in the country, so he gave me your manager’s number.”