“Yeah. Thanks.”
“Saturday. After work.” She pushes the door open, slides out, sets her bag on her shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Ryan.”
“You too.”
I watch her walk away.
I think about her every second of my drive home.
A ten-mile run does jack shit to clear my head.
Leighton isn’t gonna be mine.
Hell, as soon as this is over, she’s gonna be someone else’s.
I need to deal with that.
Whatever it takes.
Chapter 21
Leighton
I hold up a powder blue suit. “Color isn’t going to kill you.”
Ryan’s hair falls in front of his eyes as he shakes his head.
“Really?” I wave the menswear back and forth. “This is fatal?”
“I’m not going to an eighties prom.”
I point to the black slacks folded over his arm. “It’s a beach wedding.”
“You ever see me wear anything but black?”
“Once you wore grey.”
“Black shirt that got faded.”
“I’ve seen your closet.”
“No shit. I gave you a drawer.”
“In your black dresser, yes. Next to your black desk. And your black sheets. And your black blackout curtains. And if there were black lights that weren’t actually purple stoner lights, I’m sure you’d have those.”
“Black absorbs light,” he deadpans.
The joke knocks me off course. It warms my chest. Sends butterflies to my stomach. “So not my point.”
“Yeah.” He chuckles. “But the truth.”
“You have non-black clothes in there.”
“Prove it.”
“You sound like Dean.”
“Where do you think he learned that shit?”