Chapter 15
Fifteen
Ginny
By the time I get back to my room, my legs are starting to feel pleasantly sore from the bike ride and my heart is still fluttering from Ryker’s kiss.
I’ve barely stepped inside when I smell something savory—like sesame, ginger, and grilled meat—and find Tarryn sitting cross-legged on the bed with three open room-service plates spread out around her.
“I thought we agreed on self-control so we can fit in our dresses,” I say, amused.
She pops a bite of something into her mouth and shrugs. “I’m giving notes to the chef at Paradise Grill. Consider this restaurant espionage.”
We both laugh.
“Where were you?” she asks.
I flop onto the other bed. “Ryker and I biked around Stanley Park. Had dinner after. It was…”
“Cute?” she offers.
I shake my head. “Fun.”
She hums.
There’s a knock at the door.
Tarryn raises a brow. “Expecting someone?”
“No. More room service?” I ask as I get up. I crack the door open, and every good feeling from the past few hours vanishes.
Jeremy.
My mouth goes dry. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Ginny. Can we talk?”
“No.” I step out and pull the door shut behind me. “What is there to say? Except maybe congratulations. Jill told me you’re getting married.” I turn to go back in, but the door has closed and locked, and I don’t have my room key.
“I made a mistake,” he says. “A huge one. I shouldn’t have—Jill—”
My stomach twists. “Shouldn’t have slept with my best friend? No shit.” I knock on the door and silently beg Tarryn to run and let me in.
“I know. And I’ve regretted it every single day.” He pulls me close, and his lips skim my neck. It always drove me crazy.
Does he think nothing has changed between us? I push him away and glance down the hallway, needing an escape. That’s when I see Ryker.
He’s coming off the elevator, laughing at something on his phone, but then his gaze lifts and lands on me and Jeremy in the hallway.
His smile fades. He doesn’t stop, but the shift in his eyes punches me in the gut.
Then he’s gone.
He thinks…what? That I asked Jeremy here?
Guilt swells inside me, though I’ve done nothing wrong.
“I want to fix things,” Jeremy is saying. “We were good together. We can be again.”
“No.” My voice is hard now. “You don’t get to rewrite history.”
“Come on. Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about us. About what we had.”
“I’ve thought about how much of a coward you are. How you gaslit me for months, saying I worked too much while you were sleeping with someone I thought was my friend.”
“Gin—”
“Go,” I snap.
He doesn’t move. “I’m not giving up that easy.”
“You can’t fix this. I’m serious, Jeremy. Leave.”
“I still love you.”
I close my eyes. This is a nightmare. “That would be more believable if you weren’t engaged to the person you cheated with.” I turn and knock again. Sharp. Loud. Willing Tarryn to hurry.
Jeremy moves closer. “Remember Santa Barbara? That wine festival you begged to go to? You said it was the happiest you’d been in years. You don’t just throw that away.”
“Stop. You’re the one who threw everything away.”
Tarryn finally opens the door, and I slip in, closing the door firmly behind me and leaving Jeremy outside. Thankfully, he doesn’t knock again.
“I take it that was your ex?” she asks as I brace against the door a moment.
I nod and move to drop onto the edge of the bed. “Jeremy.”
“And who’s Jill?”
“My ex-best friend,” I say bitterly. “It was his birthday, and I found her giving him a blow job. They were naked in our bed.”
Tarryn grimaces. “That’s horrible.”
My laugh comes out bitter. “Jill works in sales here at the hotel. She saw me when I went down to the bar.” I shake my head.
This is so ridiculous. “She asked why I was in Vancouver. I said wedding dress shopping, and before I could explain anything else, she assumed I was engaged. That’s when Ryker sat down.
He played along as my fiancé to save me.
I guess Jill must have reported the good news to Jeremy. ”
Tarryn looks completely baffled. “That sounds like Ryker,” she says. “But also…not.”
My brows lift. “What do you mean?”
“He’s a doctor, so of course he’s caring—stepping in to help is who he is. But I know he’s also careful…because you’re a Dempsey.”
I nod, and my stomach tightens. “And now he saw me in the hallway with my ex. I’m sure he’ll believe the worst.”
She shifts forward. “You don’t owe Ryker anything. He’s not your boyfriend, and your family would lose their minds if you were to date him.”
I twist the corner of the duvet between my fingers, but it doesn’t help my pounding heart.
He’s not my boyfriend. He was never supposed to be anything to me. But he makes me feel seen, not just useful. He seems like he truly cares. Losing that? It would confirm everything I fear about myself, my judgment.
Ryker Paradise has touched every inch of my body. I’ve had his mouth, his hands, his full attention, and I’ve craved every second of it. We’ve been sneaking around for weeks now, stealing moments that blur the line between casual and something dangerously close to real.
And today? We biked through Stanley Park, talking, laughing, flirting like the rest of the world had faded away. We didn’t sleep together. We just enjoyed each other. It was easy. Natural. Joyful.
Until I opened the damn door and found Jeremy standing there like a ghost from the life I barely escaped.
And Ryker saw it. I told him I had something to do, and he now thinks it was meeting up with Jeremy when it was really just an excuse not to go back to his room.
The look on his face was awful. It wasn’t anger. It was hurt. And I hate that it matters. I hate that my first instinct was guilt, even though I’ve done nothing wrong.
Except maybe feel too much for someone I swore would never mean anything, because he can’t. But he does.
“You don’t owe him anything,” Tarryn says again, still watching me.
No. But I want to explain. I want him to know Jeremy means nothing, that I’m not looking back.
But then Tarryn adds, “It’s not like you two were ever going to work out, right?”
And that gets my attention.
Because no one knows what’s been happening between Ryker and me. Not Tarryn. Not Sadie. No one. And hearing her say that, like it’s just a fact, like it’s inevitable, crushes my heart a little.
We’re not supposed to work.
But that doesn’t stop the way I feel when he looks at me. It doesn’t stop the way my skin still tingles from the way he kissed me outside Mikey’s, or how we can’t seem to keep our hands off each other when we’re alone. It doesn’t stop the way I miss him when he’s not around.
“I don’t want him thinking I’m still involved with Jeremy,” I murmur, staring at the carpet. He’s about the only thing in my life right now that feels real.
Tarryn shrugs. “Then tell him.”
I hesitate.
She doesn’t know what she’s asking me to do. Telling Ryker how I feel means admitting I feel something, that I’ve crossed a line I said I never would. And that terrifies me almost as much as the idea of losing whatever this thing is between us.
But I don’t want to let this go, and I certainly don’t want him thinking I don’t care at all.
I stand for a long second, heart pounding like I’m about to walk into a war zone.
“You going?” Tarryn asks.
I glance toward the door. “I’m…thinking about it.”
She arches a brow. “That usually means no.”
I don’t answer. Because walking down the hall to Ryker’s room is too obvious.
And risky. Especially with Tarryn right here watching me.
But I can’t let that be the last thing he remembers about me tonight.
So I get my phone from the nightstand and sit back on the edge of the bed, typing out a message.
Me: Hey. That wasn’t what it looked like. Jeremy showed up without warning. I didn’t invite him here, and I didn’t want him here. Just…in case you were wondering.
I stare at the message for a solid minute before hitting send.
Tarryn is talking about dessert or something from the menu, but I can barely hear her. My eyes keep flicking back to my phone.
Three minutes pass.
Then five. Nothing.
My pulse picks up, panic creeping in around the edges. What if he thinks I’m back with Jeremy? What if this thing between us was always more to me than it is to him?
I’m about to type another message when my screen lights up.
Ryker: It’s okay. I figured that’s who it was. No big deal.
I exhale sharply. My shoulders drop.
But then another text buzzes through.
Ryker: I only looked away because I didn’t want it to be obvious I wasn’t staying with you. Didn’t want to make it worse for you.
Of course he would think about that. About me.
I bite back a smile, a flutter working its way to my heart.
Me: Thank you.
Me: Seriously. That was really thoughtful. Even if you looked like you wanted to strangle someone.
His reply is quick this time.
Ryker: Never said I didn’t.
I grin, tucking the phone into my lap before Tarryn can catch the look on my face.
“Everything okay?” she asks.
“Yeah,” I say. “Everything’s fine. My sister had a question about the gift shop.” I roll my eyes.
But things are more than fine. I’m filled with relief, gratitude, and the warm ache of something real. Even if no one else can know it.
Tarryn stretches and lets out a groan. “Okay, I need to shower before I eat any more of this,” she says, waving a hand over the half-eaten plates.
I nod, trying to play it cool. “Go. I’ll guard the dumplings.”
She grabs her things and disappears into the bathroom. A moment later, I hear the water running.
As soon as I’m sure she’s not coming out anytime soon, I grab my phone and slip out onto the small balcony. I could wait. Should wait.
But I don’t want to.
I hit Ryker’s name and bring the phone to my ear. This isn’t just about hearing his voice. It’s about letting him hear mine—shaky, unsure, still willing to try.
He answers on the second ring.
“Hey,” he says.
“Hey.” I press a hand to my stomach, trying to calm it. “I just… I wanted to hear your voice.”
There’s a pause. Then, “Yeah?”
“You pretending not to know me in the hallway? That was—” I lower my voice. “Really hot.”
He chuckles, the sound like gravel and heat. “You liked that?”
“Too much.”
Another pause. Longer this time. “You didn’t look like you liked it.”
“I didn’t. Not at first.” I shift in the chair, thighs squeezing together. “But now that I know why you did it? It’s doing all sorts of things to me.”
“Tell me.”
God. His voice is like smoke and sin through the phone.
“I keep thinking about the way our eyes met before you looked away,” I whisper. “Like you were holding something back.”
“I was,” he says. “Every instinct I had told me to walk over and clock that guy.”
My breath hitches.
“But I didn’t,” he continues. “Because I knew you didn’t want a scene. And because if I touched you in front of him, it would’ve been a different kind of fight.”
“Ryker…”
“Tell me what you’re wearing.”
I glance toward the bathroom door to check that the water’s still running.
“T-shirt. No bra. Panties I’d take off if you were here.”
A deep growl vibrates through the phone. “Say that again.”
“I’m wet,” I whisper. “Because of you. Because you looked at me like I was yours and you were swallowing it down.”
“You are mine,” he says, voice hard. “You know that, don’t you?”
My thighs clench tighter. “Prove it.”
A pause. “Come here now.”
My pulse skips. “Are you serious?”
“Dead serious,” he says. “You want me? You’ve got me. Ten minutes.”
I set the phone down, heart pounding. This isn’t just about need. It’s about trust. And about everything I haven’t said out loud yet but might be ready to show.
Maybe, for once, I’ll stop running from what I want.