25. Ryder
RYDER
We’ve established a pattern. With a grunt I step around the asshole as he leaves Emily’s bedroom. Dark blue suit coat in hand, Dr. Evil is ready for another day of eviling in London. Door closed, I take a flying jump onto the bed and bounce over to Emily. “Morning, Em. Today’s the day.”
“Today’s the day for what?” Emily rolls over and the duvet slides down, exposing her shoulders.
Flashes of pink and red cotton catch my eye. She’s wrapped up tighter than my little cousins for sledding. “What are you wearing?”
“Nothing. No, not nothing, pajamas.”
“All of them?” I lift the covers, revealing two pairs of pajamas, a pink pair on top of a red pair. Both are something my grandmother would wear—out to the grocery store. Or rather, the top layer is. And she’s wearing leggings underneath them.
“What? I got cold. England isn’t Miami, you know.”
My eyebrows rise. “You were born in Maine.”
“A girl can change.” She pushes the duvet off and turns to make the bed.
I yank on the other side of the duvet and pull it up, helping.
Punching Thayer’s pillow to fluff it gives me more joy than it should.
The asshole’s side finished, I round the end of the bed to Emily.
“I don’t think you’ve changed that much.
” My finger slides under the lace neckline of the pink one. “You’re burning up.”
“I’m fine.”
“Okay,” I say and give her a fist bump. “What do you want to do today? I hear there’s a shop in town that sells curiosities from the 1800s.
Maybe we can find a chastity belt to keep you from dying of heat exhaustion?
” Do I hate that she’s sleeping next to Thayer?
Abso-fucking-lutely. But wearing a cocoon isn’t the answer.
She rolls her eyes at me and closes the bathroom door with more gusto than necessary.
“Fine, that wasn’t called for. Can you ever forgive me?” I say, leaning against the door.
She opens the door, and I stumble backward into the bathroom, catching myself before I tumble into her.
“Nothing to forgive. You’re right. I’m being childish. Thayer hasn’t crossed the line at all. I’m being silly.”
There’s a vibration in my gut. I’m not trying to push her toward her fiancé. Fuck no. I’ve got no doubt if she gave him the green light, he’d be all over her. So no. I step into the doorway, hands on either side of the jamb. “You know, it is a little cool in here.”
Em laughs and playfully slaps my abs. Damn, I’m needy for her touch. Like a shelter dog, I’ll take anything she wants to give me and happily come back for more. My hand catches her wrist when she does it a second time.
“Ryder?” Her eyes blink up at me.
“Yes?” I growl.
“I need my hand to brush my teeth.”
“Right.” I bring her knuckles up to my lips and kiss them.
She bites her lip and turns to the sink, her eyes periodically on me in the mirror as she goes through her morning routine. She pivots, toothbrush in hand. “What do you want to do today?”
“Chastity belt shopping is out?”
“Let’s put it on a list for later.”
“Good, then you could call your brother and your dad. That’s what I came in here to say. They need to hear it from you.”
“Or we could go chastity belt shopping?”
“Nice try, Em. It’s only a matter of time before it gets out, and you don’t want the two most important men in your life to find out from a gossip site.”
“I thought you and Anders were the two most important men in my life. And Oliver.” She’s a whirl of motion, cleaning up the bathroom as she talks.
She inches by me and from the nightstand puts on her watch and the diamond ring.
It would be hard to miss how she holds her hand out in front of her.
There’s no audible sigh, though. And it’s nice hardware.
I bought a ring once. After we were over, I sold it and gave the money to a rescue shelter. My ex hated dogs. That should have been enough of a red flag. “Nice recovery. But you need to do it.”
“Yup. I just don’t like . . .” She turns to the window, her shoulders slumped.
“I know. And they’re not going to like it either. Not now.” I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her to me.
Her body melts against mine. After a few minutes, she whispers, “They’re not going to like it ever.”
“You’re not wrong. This plan was never a perfect one.” I drop my arms and spin her around to gaze into her eyes.
“True.” She gives me a kiss and pulls off the first layer of pajamas. “I’ll get dressed first.”
“Good plan; you wouldn’t want them to know you’re wearing ten layers of clothes.”
She rolls her eyes and disappears behind the silk screen that appeared in the corner of the room yesterday.
I sink into the leather chair. Emily emerges wearing a romper and tights.
It looks like something a woman who’s pregnant and not yet wearing maternity clothes might wear.
My sister wore things like this for months, thinking no one knew she was pregnant with her fourth kid.
We all knew, Chloe. I love my sister, but not her taste in men.
“How do I look?” Emily does a spin.
“Cute as a button.” I stand and cross the room to her.
Her eyebrow cocks at me.
“My grandmother used to say that to me.”
“Well, you’re cute as a button too.” Her fingers lock behind my neck. She stands on her tiptoes and presses a kiss to my jawline.
“I’ll take it.” I’m man enough to be called cute by the woman who’s my whole world. My thumb lifts her chin up, and I capture her lips. She deepens this kiss until we’re both swallowing down each other’s moans.
When she pulls away, my body groans with remorse. But we have appearances to keep up.
“Maybe we’ll get out of this gilded cage?” Her fingers intertwine with mine.
“What were you thinking?”
“A museum trip?”
“In London?”
“Yes.” She bounces on her heels.
“After you’ve called your dad and your brother.”
Her lower jaw juts out. “I’m being a spoiled brat. But you’re putting restrictions on what I can do and can’t do until I finish my homework.”
“You said brat. I would never call you names, but if it fits?”
“Right, okay.” She puts her hands up in the air and crosses the room to the nightstand. There’s a knock on the door. “Come in.”
“Good morning.” Oliver’s dressed in another one of his suits. “What are we up to today?”
“We’re going to a museum.” Her blue eyes turn to mine. “After I make a few phone calls.”
“The phone calls?” Oliver turns from Emily to me after she doesn’t confirm.
“That’s the plan, right, Em?”
“Yup.” She jumps up on the bed, sitting cross-legged, and glares at her phone between her legs.
Oliver shrugs and brushes Emily’s hair away from her neck. “Is that the new Telepathy i22?”
Emily sticks her tongue out at him.
“Don’t promise me a good time.” He jumps next to her, sending her bouncing, and her phone flies off the bed. I swipe it from the floor and sit on the opposite side of her.
“Is it broken?” There’s hope in her tone.
“Unfortunately, no.” I hand her back the intact phone.
“Right, I can do this.”
“You’ve got this, Em.”
With unpredictable swiftness, she hits dial.
With our shoulders touching, I hear it ringing. And her brother’s voicemail message playing.
“Hey, it’s me. So, you’re not going to like this.” Emily turns to me, her eyes as wide as saucers. “But I wanted you to hear it from me. And since you never answer your phone . . .”
“Emily?” Easton says.
She purses her lips.
“Hey, I’m on the island, and the signal is not the best.”
“Right, well, I don’t want to bother you.”
I lay my hand on her right knee at the same time that Oliver places his on her left knee.
“You’re not bothering me. I just want to let you know that the signal isn’t great. If we get disconnected, I’ll call right back.”
“Right, okay, okay.”
“If you were leaving a message, I didn’t hear it. What were you saying?”
“Before you get excited, let me finish saying everything I have to say.”
“I don’t like the sound of that, Em. Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m great.”
I squeeze her toe.
“I’m fantastic,” she counters with more of a positive tone in her voice. “I’m pregnant and getting married.” It rushes out of her.
“It’s Anders.” Easton comes rapid-fire. “That’s fantastic.”
“No, it’s not Anders.”
“Oh, Ryder? Maya says he’s around a lot too.”
There’s a jump in my gut. I would rather have been the first guy her brother guessed, but he did guess me, and that’s something.
“Easton, I told you to let me finish.”
“Right, sorry, sis. Go for it.” There’s more noise on the line. “Haley says congrats.”
Emily blinks. “Tell her thanks. But can you let me finish?”
“Go ahead.”
“It’s not Ryder.”
“But it’s someone I know?”
“Easton, for the love of—”
“I’ll shut up.”
“At Whitney’s wedding, I met back up with—”
“Shut up. There is no way my niece or nephew is fathered by the son of Satan.”
“Easton!” There’s fire in her voice, all hesitation gone.
“Emily? You can’t be serious.”
“I haven’t even told you everything yet.”
“But it’s Thayer?”
“Yes, it’s Thayer.”
“He tried to kill you.”
“Actually, his father tried to kill you. He found out that his father knew where you were and came to rescue you.”
“Rescue? Right, because people who are trying to rescue you put a gun to your head? He pointed a gun at Haley. Do you hear me? The father of your baby pointed a gun at Haley.”
Emily wiggles on the bed. Her eyes close and open again. “He did. And it wasn’t good. If I could take back what happened after Whitney’s wedding . . . I don’t know if I could. I’m sorry, Easton. I love you. I don’t expect you ever to like Thayer.”
“Damn straight.”
“Or even understand my actions. But I want you to know I love you.”
“What about Dad, Emily? Do you love Dad? Because this is going to kill him. The Zambrano family are leeches that are sucking our family dry.”
“Thayer isn’t his father. And Dad’s ex was the original leech in our family. She’s the one who started the whole thing.”
“Do you hear yourself? She couldn’t have started it if Zambrano Senior hadn’t been looking for an opportunity. Does it matter who came to whom? They are both bottom feeders.”
“I hear you. But Thayer isn’t his father.” There’s a change in her tone.
“What do you mean?”
“Just what I said.”
“Please tell me you’re not planning something?”
Emily’s chest inflates. “Just a wedding and a baby shower.”
“Right,” Easton says slowly. “You’re standing in the fire now, Emily. Don’t turn it into a bonfire.”
“I don’t know what you mean, Easton.”
“Right. Don’t marry him.”
“I am.”
“When’s the wedding?”
“I . . . We haven’t set the date, why?”
“You think I’m not going to come to my only sister’s wedding?”
“Oh, right? But you’re on the island now.”
“And I can not be on the island in two days. So unless the wedding is tomorrow, I’m there . . .” There’s some noise on the line, but I can’t hear what it is. “Let me rephrase that. We’re there.”
“I’ll let you know.”
“You damn well better.”
“I will.”
“When are you telling Dad?” Easton asks.
“I’m calling him next.”
“Okay, text me when you’re done. I’ll call him afterwards. Have you told Rachel?”
“Not yet. Actually, I’ll call her first so she can be with him.”
“Good,” Easton says. “And Em?”
“Yeah.”
“If he so much as puts a scratch on you or your child, I will end him.”
Emily glances at me. “I hear you.”
“Good. Congrats. But damn, Em, you had lots of better choices.”
“I know.”
“Take care of the peanut for me . . . for us.”
“I will.” Emily hangs up, her eyes clenched shut.