Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
SAM
Ryker was correct in his statement about his bed being super comfortable. It was so comfortable, in fact, that I’d completely overslept.
I was dead to the world and only woke up when I felt a heavy weight on top of me that was trying to suffocate me.
Ryker hadn’t been lying either when he said Gray was an attention whore. Seeing the cutie’s face right up against mine was an adorable way to wake up, even if I did see my life flash before my eyes for a second there.
Living with Ryker for the past week had been pretty good. There was just one thing…
Ryker had offered to let me sleep in his bed until mine came, and I was very grateful for his kindness. His soft, king mattress was a thousand times better than my lumpy futon. The issue was that despite us both having our own blankets when we settled down for the night, we somehow kept ending up under his together in the morning.
I wasn’t going to lie and say I hated waking up cuddled against a nice, warm, hard body—especially when that body was attached to a man I was gaining a fondness for these past few days—but this arrangement was not doing any favors for my libido, or keeping this no falling for my roommate thing in check.
Especially on some mornings when I woke to Ryker’s very early alarm. I’d find myself using Ryker’s arm as a pillow and with my leg flung over his body. I’d pretend to still be asleep and feel Ryker pull me closer.
He wouldn’t do anything but hold me in his arms for a few minutes before getting up.
I lived for those few precious minutes.
My sister and Gramps gave me hugs all the time, but being in Ryker’s arms was different. Maybe it was because of his giant size that allowed him to envelop me entirely in his warmth, or his strong, steady heartbeat that gave me a sense of comfort.
I felt protected, and I was getting addicted to the feeling.
And that was a problem because, again, I was not supposed to fall in love with my roommate, and my bed was scheduled to be delivered tomorrow.
Curse the mattress company and their on-time deliveries. Why couldn’t they delay my order due to a mattress shortage or something?
Besides my own internal struggles, living with Ryker wasn’t bad. We settled into a nice little schedule.
Ryker left pretty early for work, but that meant he returned home early as well. I tried to finish all my work in the morning so that I could spend the afternoon with Gramps and Junior.
Sometimes I’d stay over for dinner, but on the nights I went home early, Ryker insisted I have some of his food, saying he always cooked extra.
At the first taste of his cooking, boy, did I know I was in trouble.
Not only was he smokin’ hot and always so generous, but he also knew how to cook.
I needed some sense knocked into me, which was why I decided it was a good thing my bed was arriving tomorrow. The space from him would do me some good. The apartment was close to Gramps’ place, and Ryker—besides his general hotness and personality that was making it really hard to not like him a little too much—was a good roommate.
He was quiet on the nights I needed to get some extra work done. He was clean, too. Which, after living with a bunch of men in the dorms in college, I hadn’t had much hope for but was pleasantly surprised by the man’s cleaning habits. There wasn’t a speck of beard shavings in the bathroom or a single dirty dish in the sink by the end of the night.
Plus, I think I was already in love with his adorable cat. Gray was basically the cat of my dreams. He loved cuddling in bed, but was also content to just sit in my lap while I worked. I didn’t know how I was going to function without my little work buddy if we ever stopped living together.
All that to say that I liked our current living arrangement, which meant I couldn’t do anything to fuck it up. Which was why it was probably a good idea to spend less time with the man when it wasn’t necessary.
“Hey, my friends and I are having brunch at Hector’s. Would you want to come? They’d love for you to join…and so would I.”
All thoughts of rejecting the offer—because I was not supposed to be spending more time with Ryker—flew out the window at the hint of pink that graced his cheeks at the last comment. There was no way anyone could say no to him when he looked all sweet like that.
And so, I followed Ryker to The Diner. The Diner—or Hector’s as the locals called it—was owned by a man named, you guessed it, Hector.
The Diner opened when I was just a kid, and being that it was one of the earliest eating establishments in town, it was a local staple.
When Lana and I were kids, Gramps would take us here every Sunday. Gramps would say it was our treat for behaving during the week, but I suspected he wanted a break from cooking.
Kid me never understood the amount of work it took to plan each meal and keep two picky little humans fed. Lana and I enjoyed our Sunday diner days with the innocence of kids that Gramps had given us.
The diner hadn’t changed much since the last time I was here in high school. The red-and-white striped wallpaper was faded but had been kept exceptionally clean. The red pleather booth seats were in a similar state, well-loved, but looked to be taken care of, too.
I shouldn’t have been all that surprised by the state of the place. From my memories, Hector, the owner of this establishment, had always been a considerate man.
He’d had a mean face, and I was ashamed to admit to having burst into tears the first time I’d seen him, but Gramps had always said he was a good man, and I later learned Gramps was right.
The weeks Lana and I were especially good, Gramps would treat us to a banana split here, and every single time, without fail, Hector would give us an extra scoop of ice cream, so we each got an even two scoops.
His wife would scowl and grumble at him for giving away freebies, but Gramps said he’d never charged him extra.
Ryker’s friends were already waiting for us in one of the round booths in the back.
Jones sat in the middle of the booth and waved us over. Dan and his stepbrother were beside each other near one end. In school, Dan and Clay had always stuck close together. It was nice to see that some things never changed.
“Hey, man. It’s good to see you again,” Jones said when I scooted into the seat beside him.
“You too. Thanks for inviting me,” I said. “I haven’t really hung out in town much since coming back.”
“Ah, the life of having a child,” Jones commented with a knowing look.
“And you know all about that kind of life, huh?” Dan said with a snort.
“Hey, I could very well be a dad soon, so you never know! Deke and I were talking about possibly adopting a kid in the future,” Jones said with a huge smile.
The entire table went quiet. I glanced at Ryker, and I could see the strain of his jaws. It seemed like he was trying hard to stop himself from blurting out something.
I put a hand on Ryker’s thigh. He jerked at my touch, and I thought I’d been toopresumptuous in thinking he’d want my comfort, but when he looked at me, his features softened, and his easy smile returned to his handsome face.
“You, a dad? What? Are we going to wake up and see pigs flying next?” Ryker joked. The others laughed and broke the tense atmosphere that seemed to have overtaken the table earlier.
“Hey! I’d be a damn fine dad. The best, in fact,” Jones said with his chest pointed skyward.
The action made him look even bigger than he was, dwarfing me, who was sitting beside him. In fact, compared to everyone else at the table, I was downright tiny.
I thought this, too, when they all came over to help move last week, but Ryker’s friends were all ginormous. So much so, I was wondering if being over six feet was a criterion to join the friend group.
Before I could voice that ridiculous question out loud, an older gentleman walked up to our table.
“What can I get you?”
Hector’s gruff voice was the same as I remembered. He hadn’t changed much since the last time I’d seen him, besides a few more grays mixed in with his cropped black hair.
Hector looked up from his notepad. His gaze landed on me, and he made a face that was more of a grimace than a smile. “It’s good to see you back, boy,” he said, then glanced at Ryker. “I hear congratulations are in order.”
I froze, and I felt Ryker freeze under my hand, too.
“That’s right! Our boy Ryker snatched himself a good one, didn’t he?” Jones snickered beside me. Dan and Clay stayed silent, but they couldn’t hold back their grins.
“In fact, it really makes me wonder how he ever got so luck—ow!” Jones’ teasing was cut short by a yelp. He turned to shoot a glare Ryker’s way, and I had a suspicious feeling that Ryker had kicked him under the table.
Ryker ignored his best friend and somehow thanked Hector with a straight face before ordering his food. I managed to find my voice long enough to place an order, too. Jones shot one last glare Ryker’s way but didn’t comment as Hector took the rest of the orders.
It was only after Hector left that I noticed the diner had gone strangely quiet. I looked around and saw familiar faces looking our way, but they turned their gaze when they saw me looking.
Shit. This was bad.
I’d gotten caught up with Ryker’s invite that us supposedly being engaged had completely slipped my mind. And this was our first public outing together…
Panic rose inside of me, as did the fear that we were going to let the cat out of the bag. The Diner was still slow, but I knew even with the few people here, rumors of Kither Springs’ newest engaged couple would make its round through town.
Feeling the gaze of the entire room and, metaphorically, the entire town, I quickly looped my arm through Ryker’s and snuggled up to his side.
“Uh, what are you doing?” he asked, as stiff as a board.
Raising my voice loud enough for the whole room to hear but not sound like I was screaming, I replied, “I think there’s a vent pointed right at me, honey. I’m cold.”
I was, in fact, not cold in the slightest. My balls were sweating from how nervous I was, but I still forced myself to shiver and go along with the act.
Ryker seemed to have gotten the hint and wrapped his arm around me, pulling me closer. This close, I could smell his shea butter body wash and, below that, a woody scent that was entirely all him. The smell was so addicting, I couldn’t be blamed for taking a sniff.
Apparently, I hadn’t beendiscreet about it, because Ryker suddenly cleared his throat, his arm stiffening around me. Jones was watching while doing a terrible job of holding back his laughter, while Dan and Clay had much better control of their emotions.
Ryker’s arm didn’t move from around my shoulders, but he turned his face away from his friends and was staring intently toward the kitchen. I didn’t even have to see his face to know he was probably blushing like crazy now, and that had something sweet settling in the pit of my stomach.
It didn’t matter how nervous being scrutinized by my townsfolk’s eyes made me; having Ryker’s arm around me was like a shield. With it, I was fearless of the rumors.
I snuggled more confidently into Ryker and proudly claimed his arm for mine in front of the entire town. We stayed like that as the conversation moved on.
Jones talked about the new position he was going to take within his brother’s—and now his as well—construction company.
He and his brother would have an equal share of the company. Jones would focus more on the day-to-day operations and managing the crew on site, while Jordan would focus on getting contracts and potentially expanding the company to more locations.
I was surprised to learn Jordan was dating the famous vlogger who’d put our sleepy town on the map.
I’d watched a couple of Wren’s videos before returning to town, but the ones I’d seen hadn’t had his boyfriend featured in them. From what Jones and the others said, Wren was a cool and charming guy. There was a reason he was so popular online.
“What are you looking at?” Dan asked Clay.
Clay nodded toward a blond man sitting alone at one of the middle tables. His eyes narrowed on him as he said, “He’s been here since before we got here and has been watching Hector the entire time.”
All eyes turned to the man in question, which caused Clay to turn his glare toward us. “Real subtle,” he muttered.
Jones smirked and added, “It’s not like he noticed, anyway. He staring holes into poor Hector. You think he’s a stalker or something?”
Clay became even more diligent as he watched the blond stranger. The man looked about our age, maybe a few years younger. He didn’t look like a stalker to me, but what did I know? Considering Clay worked for the local sheriff’s office, he was a much better judge of the situation than me.
Our town experienced some petty crime—desperate people shoplifting or bored teens vandalizing someone’s car—but nothing serious enough to get an officer’s vigilance up like this.
“Maybe he’s just a tourist who caught a fancy for Hector? I’m sure it’s all very innocent,” Dan added, patting Clay’s shoulder. I didn’t miss the way Clay’s eyes met Dan’s, and something passed in that gaze.
Maybe it was a secret understanding they’d developed after years of being around one another or what, but the gaze was gone as quickly as it appeared.
We all turned our attention back on the stranger, just in time to see him shoot to his feet. Clay had slid out of our booth so quickly I hadn’t even registered his movements. He stayed by our booth, but his eyes were on the blond man like a hawk stalking its prey.
The man walked straight up to Hector and said something to the man. Hector looked hesitant, but wasn’t wary toward the man. In fact, he looked a bit…helpless.
The stranger smiled the entire time, his hands moving wildly as he spoke, and Hector finally nodded and pointed at our table.
We all watched as the blondie picked up the serving tray full of food and strode in our direction. Clay slid back into his seat, but his eyes remained alert as the possible stalker expertly carried the food-laden tray our way.
“Hi! I’m Atlas. I’ll be your server for the rest of your meal,” he said with a huge smile as he distributed our food.
Ryker handed me a napkin with his free arm. His other arm was still wrapped around me. I shamelessly soaked up all the attention and snuggled closer to him, since I didn’t know when I’d have the chance to do this again.
“So, you new to town?” Jones asked when all our food was in front of us.
Atlas nodded enthusiastically. “Yep! I’m staying with Hector right now and just got a job here,” he replied, sounding entirely too chipper.
I knew some people were just happy and all, but I never knew someone could be this happy.
“When you say you just got the job, do you mean like literately a second ago?” I asked, unable to curb my curiosity.
Atlas gave a toothy grin but didn’t deny it. “Hector finally admitted he needs some help, so here I am!”
I could practically see a wagging tail behind him with how happy he was about this, or maybe it was a certain man who was making him so happy and not the job.
Hector passed us to bring an order to another table. Atlas’ eyes were glued to every one of the diner owner’s actions. He raised the tray in front of him to cover everything but his eyes, which were still shooting hearts Hector’s way.
“Isn’t he the most handsome man ever?” he said dreamingly.
Everyone at our table gave each other a look. Hector was bulky in a way that hinted he’d once been jacked as hell, but it had now turned into more of a dad bod. And I wouldn’t describe the man as handsome, either…at least not in the general sense of the word.
His face was all hard lines and a perpetual frown that could only be called a grimace when he smiled. That and the nasty scar that ran through his left brow and into his temple had made most kids in town cry at least once before.
So, no. I would not describe Hector as handsome…but to each their own, I guess.
“Doesn’t Hector have a wife?” I commented absentmindedly.
Speaking of…I looked around the room and didn’t catch sight of the woman in question. When my gaze turned back to Atlas, his expression had crumbled, and he looked absolutely crushed.
I hated to be the one to break it to the man, but it was better he found out his crush was going to lead to nowhere now rather than later.
If Hector’s wife found out someone probably half their age was crushing on him, I could only imagine the ruckus she’d cause. Mrs. Flores was not a forgiving woman.
“I won’t believe it until I see it!” Atlas piped up, his crestfallen expression turning determined.
I shot him a rueful smile. Who was I to judge his hopeless crush when I’d been brewing in one of my very own?
I glanced at Ryker, who was quietly listening to the conversation as he ate with one hand. His other hand was still around my shoulder, and I didn’t know if he realized it or not, but his fingers were currently drawing lazy circles that had my skin lighting up with tingles.
I didn’t know what Atlas was going on about, because even with his cheeks puffed up with food, Ryker was the sexiest, most handsome man in this room. No, in this entire town.
Giving another tiny peek at Ryker, I caught Atlas looking at me. He had a knowing look in his eyes, and it was like there was a sense of camaraderie between us.
I didn’t know if he’d heard the rumors around town about Ryker’s and my supposed engagement, but I had a feeling the diner’s new server was more intuitive than I first believed.
And dear god did I panic.
I leaned my head against Ryker’s shoulder, blatantly ignoring everyone’s gazes, and pretended I was madly in love with my fiancé while trying to stop myself from actually crushing on him.
I couldn’t say I was successful.