Chapter 52 #3
“Don’t?” Ryder raised his brows. “Don’t tell that you brought someone home to fuck last night?”
Rosalie stiffened on my lap and snapped her attention to Enzo, who cast her a quick look before his Adam’s apple bobbed.
“What’s he talking about?” E asked.
I looked over to see Ryder smirking. Leave it to him to stir the pot.
“It’s nothing. I had a little too much to drink last night. Jade came back here with me.”
A look of distaste washed over E’s face. “Man…”
“She didn’t stay. Nothing happened.” Enzo glanced at Rosalie quickly before he looked at his hands. “I went to bed, and she went home.”
“After Cole broke her arm,” Ryder said.
“What?” Rosalie demanded.
“Red, he was pretty pissed over the ice cream incident.”
“What ice cream incident?” I asked.
“The one where Enzo’s girlfriend purposely pushed Rosalie’s ice cream onto her chest and made a mess,” Ryder said. “I came out to find her being a complete fucking bitch to Rosalie. You need to vet your women, De Luca.”
“What?” Enzo said, frowning as he stared at Ryder. “What did Jade do?”
Ryder shrugged. “Ask Rosalie.”
Enzo looked over at Rosalie. “What happened?”
“It’s nothing,” she mumbled.
“It’s something. Cole broke her fucking arm over it,” Enzo snapped. “Fucking tell me, Rosalie.”
“Watch your fucking tone with her,” I said, sliding Rosalie off my lap in case I needed to knock the prick down a peg or two.
Enzo breathed out. “I only want to know what happened.”
“She just doesn’t like me. Said she saw our-our… um, tape,” Rosalie mumbled. “She wasn’t very nice, but please, I don’t want to cause problems—”
“Cole broke her arm?” Enzo looked back at Ryder, who nodded.
Enzo got to his feet. “Excuse me. I need to make some calls.” He left the room, presumably to go to his office.
“I’m sorry, Rosalie,” E said, genuinely sounding it. “If it helps, Cole and I don’t really like her either. Which is why I’m not surprised he broke her arm. She’s lucky it wasn’t her neck.”
“Funny you should say that because that’s what he told her,” Ryder said thoughtfully.
E nodded grimly. “Yeah. I’m sorry you had to deal with that, Rosalie. That’s unacceptable. If I were here, I’d have handled it.”
“Why don’t you come back?” Rosalie asked. “It won’t be a bother to me if Enzo’s son is here.” Her voice shook.
A pained expression crossed E’s face, and he looked at me quickly.
Tell her. Fucking tell her, man…
“Uh, no. I’m good hanging out with him at the hotel. He’s with Ann right now, his nanny. I’ll pick him up on my way back to the hotel. He’s having fun in the pool and stuff anyway.”
“This place has a pool,” Ryder said.
“Thank you for pointing that out,” E said tightly.
“Ethan, I’m serious. It’s not a problem—,” Rosalie started.
“Rosalie, no offense, but I don’t think you’re going to want to see a reminder of the hell we put you through. Or the aftermath.”
“Well, no offense, Ethan,” she shot back. “But he’s a little boy and didn’t ask for his parents to cheat and create him. I don’t like keeping him out of his home.”
E gave her a tight smile. “Right. The cheating to make him.” He got to his feet and ran his fingers through his hair. “I-I gotta go. I have to get things sorted over at Mayfair. Paperwork and all that. I-I ordered a new desk, so that will be arriving at my office.” He walked quickly to the door.
“Ethan, wait,” Rosalie called out.
“We’ll talk later,” he said when he reached the door. “Keep Cole in line, OK?”
Rosalie nodded, a sad look on her face. E left, leaving us in silence.
“Gosh, I feel like I’m the queen at clearing out a room,” she muttered.
Ryder chuckled. “I helped. Don’t take all the credit.”
She sighed and shook her head. “I have to call Dante anyway. He’s been blowing up my phone the last few days. I assume he wants to see me.”
“That is a safe assumption. We can go to him if you want,” I said.
She nibbled her bottom lip for a moment before nodding. “Yeah. I don’t want to be here with Enzo anyway, in case that crazy girl he’s seeing comes back. Plus, we can get Cole’s ballet slippers.”
“Ryder, you good with us leaving you and Ellis back at Klaus’s?” I asked, looking over Rosalie’s head to Ryder. I frowned as I noticed his full attention on her. I hadn’t even noticed he was holding her hand, or that she was letting him.
They had always been close, but this just seemed… weird.
“Ryder,” I called out.
He looked at me. “What?”
“Will you watch Ellis at Klaus’s?”
“Oh. Of course, man. Sure.” He said, releasing Rosalie’s hand. Instead of inquiring about what the hell that was, I shook it off.
“I’ll get Ellis,” I said. “Baby, you need your bag and anything else?”
“Mm, just you and Ellis,” she said.
I kissed her quickly and left the room, but the moment I was on the stairs, I looked back to see Ryder had moved closer to Rosalie, and her hand was back in his. He was saying something and looking at her nails.
She replied with a laugh that made him grin.
I swallowed my doubts and went to get Ellis.
There was no way Ryder felt anything but friendship for Rosalie. He was one of my oldest and best friends. He wouldn’t do that.
I refused to believe otherwise.