27. Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter twenty-seven
B rennan
I spent the rest of the cookout handling the food and making sure everyone had what they needed.
Ryder kept telling me to relax and enjoy myself, but what he didn’t understand yet was this was me enjoying myself.
This was exactly what I’d always wanted to do.
For me, today was like a dream come true, as silly as that may have been.
When I was with Patrick, this was what I thought our lives were going to be like. Having cookouts with friends. People hanging out and enjoying themselves. This was everything I’d imagined. All thanks to Ryder.
I thought about what Travis said and wondered if I could imagine calling Ryder Daddy.
I looked around at all these people, and I couldn’t imagine saying it in front of everyone.
But Travis said there were no rules and that not all boys called their Daddy that in public.
Not all boys. I thought about that one for a minute.
I’d done enough research to know that that was my real hang-up.
Not calling Ryder Daddy, because if I’d ever seen a man who fit the description, it was him. Well, him and his friend, Owen, both.
No, my issue was with the idea of me being someone’s boy because as nice as it sounded to have someone taking care of you, being dependent on someone hadn’t worked out so good for me with Patrick.
Not to mention what my father would say.
Not that I would ever tell him anyway, but that didn’t mean his voice didn’t live in my head like an unwelcome house guest I couldn’t get to leave.
A pair of strong arms wrapped around me, and Ryder’s familiar scent flooded my senses. “What’s wrong, Angel? You were looking just as happy as a pig in mud, and then all of a sudden, you looked like you remembered something unpleasant.”
I relaxed back into him and let go of all my worries. There was nothing to be done about them right now anyway, and it turned out to be a great day. “I’m fine, really. I think the cookout went really well, don’t you?”
“It did. But it wouldn’t have been half as good without your planning, and especially not without your food.”
“Angela is nice. She and Desi are a cute couple.”
“She’s really nice, and they’re so excited about this baby.”
“I can tell, and Desi is, too.”
“He is. He loves that woman to distraction, and he’s always wanted kids.”
By the time everyone was gone and we’d cleaned up, I was exhausted. “This was fun, Ryder. Your friends were really nice.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, Angel.” He leaned over and kissed me, and I relaxed into him for just a minute.
“I need to get going. If I don’t go soon, I may fall asleep on the way home.”
“Home? Did you need to go home for something?”
“Well, no, but I’m pretty beat. I’ll probably fall asleep before my head hits the pillow. I don’t have the energy for—” I paused, trying to figure out how to say what I was thinking, but he interrupted me, saving me the trouble.
“I don’t see any reason why you can’t sleep here. Why don’t you take a quick shower while I finish up a few things down here? You can sleep here, and I’ll take you out to breakfast in the morning.”
“You don’t mind?” Up to this point, I’d only spent the night here when I knew the plan was for us to have sex, but sleeping over just to sleep was a totally different thing. Not that I minded at all. I slept much better next to him than I did at Keegan’s house all alone in my bed.
“Not only do I not mind, I’d like it if you would stay. I like sleeping with you.”
Thank you, Daddy . I tested out the name in my mind.
I imagined him looking at me in the same adoring way Max had looked at Travis when he called him Daddy, and just thinking about it made my cock start to stiffen, not to mention it gave me a warm feeling in the middle of my chest. I had a lot to think about.
But for tonight, I just gave him a kiss and went to take a shower.
On Monday, I decided to surprise him and have dinner ready for him when he got home. I knew he ate out a lot, and that was just a waste of money, not to mention it wasn’t healthy for him.
I needed to tell him it was here so he wouldn’t stop and pick something up, so midafternoon, I sent him a text.
Me: I put dinner in the crockpot for you this morning. It ’ ll be ready at 5:30 , but it will be fine sitting on warm until you get home.
Ryder: That sounds great. We should be able to leave here right at five, so I ’ ll see you then.
First of all, Ryder never knocked off right at five, and second of all, I hadn’t planned on staying to eat.
It was just something I did for him so he’d have good food to eat, but after that message, I didn’t feel like I could leave.
Not that I minded eating with him. I didn’t at all, but that wasn’t why I did it.
I was putting together a salad for us to go with the chicken when he arrived. “Mmm, that smells great,” he said, walking straight to me and wrapping me in his arms.
“I hope you’ll like it.”
“I’m sure I will, but I don’t want you spending your money on food for me. Why don’t you go to the store and get whatever you need, and I’ll give you my card?”
I pictured what it would be like to fix dinner for him every night, and I had to admit, I loved the idea. “I can do that.” Daddy , I added mentally. The more times I thought it, the more it seemed to fit.
I spent most of the week just enjoying the idea of what was developing between Ryder and me.
So far, I’d spent the night over there every night since Friday.
That hadn’t been my plan. But ever since I fixed dinner for him on Monday, he’d been coming home early to eat with me and then one thing led to another, which meant I stayed, only going home to get clothes.
I’d found that it was really easy to think of him as Daddy when we were in bed, and I wondered what he would think about that.
I’d been texting off and on with Travis since Saturday, and he’d been happy to answer any questions I had. I’d read some things online about the way Daddy/boy relationships worked, but I kept checking in with Travis to see if what I was reading was credible.
Thursday was the day Ryder met with all the other Daddies at the bar, so I called Keegan and let him know I’d be home to see if he wanted to hang out.
We had a great evening catching up. We played video games and drank way too much beer.
“I’m a little bit jealous of you, I think,” he said.
“Jealous of me? Why?”
“I don’t know. You love your job. You have this great guy that you can’t stop talking about, who’s obviously crazy about you too. It must be nice to have someone to take care of you like that.”
“What do you mean take care of me like that?” He made me feel taken care of.
That was the truth. In so many little ways, like the way foods I enjoyed mysteriously appeared in his house, buying me the bubbles for my bath that night, and the way he would send me texts throughout the day to check on me, but I hadn’t mentioned those to Keegan, so I wondered what he meant.
“You know, like how he took care of your car when it had a flat, and stuff like that.”
“He’d do more for me if I let him, but I don’t want to take advantage.
” I had no doubt this was true not only from things Ryder had said, but also from what I’d learned both online and from Travis.
Ryder was the kind of Daddy who liked to spoil his boy, and as much as I hated to admit it, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wanted to be spoiled.
That would be a hard thing to explain to someone, though, without going into the whole Daddy-thing, and I wasn’t ready to talk about it with anyone outside of Travis or Ryder. Daddy . Travis or Daddy.
“More how?" he asked.
“Like he always wants to pay for stuff, and he wants to teach me to ride a motorcycle. He also has an unnatural obsession with how much water I drink, which is really cute but kind of annoying. I think it comes from him working outside in the heat, but I’m sitting in his cushy air-conditioned house. ”
“Well, you drink a lot of coffee.” Keegan pointed out.
“I do, but coffee is made with water,” I insisted, and he just raised one eyebrow and glared at me.
“Yeah, fine, Ryder isn’t buying that either.
The other day I was working along, getting all his estimates entered in the computer, when a guy showed up at the house with a water dispenser.
He said Ryder ordered it. We have one in the kitchen, but he thought it would be handy for me to have one in my office. ”
“See, I think that’s sweet. Like I said, I am a little jealous. I don’t ever meet any girls like that. They all want me to take care of them instead of the other way around.”
“I’m not gonna lie. It is nice to have someone who worries about me. I don’t think I’ve ever really had that before. Patrick sure wasn’t ever worried about me.”
“Well, Patrick is a jackass, and you’re much better off here.”
“No arguments here.” I liked having a Daddy to look out for me and to take care of any problems I might have, and whether Ryder was officially my Daddy or not, that was the way I’d started to think of him.