Ryder and I had been talking for hours, and it was getting late. I should also check my phone. I’d put it on silent for the time being, but I wanted to check with Rory and Lucah.
“Be right back,” I said, getting up. “Don’t eat the rest while I’m gone.”
“No promises,” he said as I headed to the bathroom.
I wanted to have some privacy so he wouldn’t ask me what I was doing and who I was texting.
There were only a few messages from Rory and Lucah. No change. It was a sort of wait and see situation. Rory said she was currently covered in glitter and wearing a tiara. Hey, at least those girls had taste. I messaged them back that Ryder was fine and to give our best to April and Tate.
I went back out to the living room to find Ryder shoving the empty ice cream container under the couch.
“Busted,” I said. “You’re trying to earn my trust and this is not the way to do it, R. Blythe.” I narrowed my eyes and glared.
“You have no idea what I’ve been through, S. Harris,” he said, pointing to the container. “These guys came in and held a gun to my head and told me if I yelled, they’d kill me. And then they ate the ice cream and jumped out the window. I’m lucky to be alive.” I had to give him points for style.
“How many of them were there?” I asked.
“Five. No, ten!”
“Was it five or ten? This is important information, Ryder. We should probably call the police.” This. I missed this. Being stupid with him.
“We should. Hold on.” He went and got a pad of paper and a pencil. “I think I can make sketches of them.” He started to draw, but the only problem was that Ryder wasn’t a very good artist. Well, he could do funny doodles, but that was about it.
“That is a bunch of stick figures with guns,” I said when he revealed it to me.
“Exactly. It was a stick man stick-up.” Oh, that was just ridiculous, and I told him so.
“You weren’t there. You don’t even know.” He shook his head and finally broke character and grinned. “I missed you,” he said.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
~*~*~
“It’s getting really late,” I said. It was more than late. It was officially the middle of the night. I was exhausted and definitely wanted to get into bed.
“You can go back to your place. I’m not going to do anything while you’re gone,” he said, putting the last of the dishes in the dishwasher.
“Are you sure about that?” I said, half-serious.
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure my brother would kill you then kill me. I don’t want to fuck things up again, Sloane. I know I said that before, but I mean it now. I really do.”
“I want to believe you.”
“I know. I want to make you believe.” I got up off the couch and went to the door. He followed me.
“Thanks for doing this for Lucah and Rory. It was really good of you.”
“Yeah, well.”
“No, don’t brush it off. I can’t imagine how hard this must be for you. It really means a lot. See you tomorrow?” He leaned in the doorway, and I backed out.
“Thanks for saying that. And I’ll see you tomorrow.” He slowly closed the door and I headed back down the hallway.
~*~*~
The crazy thing about being with Ryder again wasn’t how hard it was. The crazy thing was how easy it was to fall back into our old routine. Our old banter and jokes. So damn easy.