Chapter 41
“This place is beautiful,” Liz says, still looking around. “I can’t believe you kept this from me. I thought we were becoming best friends,” she says playfully, hating how easy she slips back into being happy around him.
“I didn’t know if you would like a place like this, but since you keep calling our time together dates… I thought I would take you on a real one,” he says, voice slightly shaky.
“So, this is a real date?” she says smiling, blush rising to her cheeks.
“If that’s okay with you?” he asks timidly, knowing she’s still upset with him.
Liz smiles, nodding at him. As soon as Riley sees that he lets out a sigh of relief as he reaches up and pulls his mask off, setting it down on the table.
He returns her smile and Liz watches him, Mikey’s words flashing across her mind before her eyes go wide and she starts looking around the small room.
“Relax, love. The only person allowed in is Mitch and he knows me,” Riley says with a light chuckle. “Are you ready for the next few days? Things are going to get intense,” Riley asks, unsure of how to bring up what he really wants to say.
“Not at all. I’ve never done anything like this. What if I mess up and someone gets hurt?”
“I think about that any time I’m leading a mission. I worry about my men every time we head out, and I worry about you every damn day.”
“Careful, Ry, it sounds like you may actually like me,” Liz says, teasing him.
“I do like you,” Riley says, reaching over and trying to take her hand.
“You pity me. You blame yourself for everything that has happened and now you're trying to make up for it. That’s not the same.” Liz crosses her arms and leans back in her chair.
“Is that why you’re mad at me? Because you think I feel guilty?”
“I told you, I’m not mad. I just don’t appreciate being treated a certain way simply because you blame yourself for everything that has happened to me.
My piece of shit brother orchestrated the whole thing.
You had no idea he was in that jail, or that he would join Dmitri and seeing me that day wouldn’t have changed the outcome, only delayed it,” Liz says with a small shrug of her shoulders.
Before Riley can process what she said, Mitch walks out with two steaming plates of food, setting them in front of them.
Liz thanks him and he disappears back out the door he came in from.
Too hungry for manners, Liz digs into the bowl of chicken Alfredo in front of her, eyes fluttering closed at the first bite.
They continue to eat in silence until Riley can’t take it anymore.
“You honestly think I treat you this way out of guilt?” he snaps, dropping his fork onto his plate with a loud clunk.
“Yes. You told me you blame yourself and you clearly want to make up for it. I genuinely believe you are trying to give me as close to the life you think I could have had as you can, and that's not fair to either of us,” Liz says, twirling the pasta around her fork.
Riley doesn’t respond, he can’t even begin to tell her how wrong she is about everything.
They finish their meal in silence, and when they are done, Riley pulls out his wallet and drops a small stack of money on the table. They get up and walk back to the car, climbing in and driving to the lake without muttering a word to each other.