Ryland #3
She read the confusion in my expression because she grinned and picked up the pencil she used to sketch the design and began making an adjustment. After she was done, she pushed it across the table into my view and leaned forward, tapping the center of the heart.
“You wanted a floating diamond, I was thinking several. We’ll start with one for your sister, and if and when you have kids, you can add a stone for each one.
This piece is going to be sentimental. I’m sure she’s not going to want to start all over with something else if you guys have kids. So this way, you can add to it.”
My eyes lowered to the center of the heart where she’d sketched what one stone would look like and an alternate version with multiple. I nodded, seeing the vision.
“That’s what’s up. I fuck with it. Yeah, we can do that.”
“Perfect, I’ll make a mold and send pictures of the mock up before I make it.”
“’Preciate that. Put it on my account.”
She grinned. “Don’t you want to know how much?”
“Nah, because I know you’re about to tax me like crazy, but it’s cool. She’s worth it.”
“Oh I definitely like this version of you much better and I’m absolutely about to tax you.”
We wrapped up with Lacie then were on our way to Leonardo’s so Rylee could have her pepperoni and pineapple pizza. After we ordered and got a booth in the back, we finalized the flower order for Somee right before our food arrived.
Moments like these made me think about all the ones we’d missed because I didn’t know about Rylee. It was hard not to be pissed with Felicia for the bad decisions she made, which was why I didn’t think I would ever be able to find the grace to forgive her.
“You gonna eat that whole thing?” I teased, watching Rylee lift another slice.
She took a bite, licked her fingers, then signed. “Yours is twice as big as mine and you’re almost done.”
I chuckled and nodded. “You trying to call me greedy?”
She smiled wide. “You play football, so you have to eat a lot to stay big.”
“So that means yes.”
She laughed and shrugged before she lifted the slice and took another bite.
“Aww, the two of you are so sweet. I think you just made my ovaries throb.” The feminine voice had me swinging my head to the left. My eyes moved from the pretty face down the curvy body of the woman who decided it was a good idea to interrupt our meal.
“’Preciate that.” I tossed my chin and turned back to find Rylee grilling the hell out of ol’ girl.
“So you probably don’t remember me. We met at…”
I remembered her but only because of the lotus flower tattoo on her hand. It looked really fucking good while it was wrapped around my dick in a booth at Black Diamonds while she gave me head in a club full of people.
“I don’t give a fuck where we met. You see what type of time I’m on right now, don’t you?”
Her eyes shifted to Rylee who pushed her pizza across the table. I frowned, watching her, trying to figure out what she was doing while ol’ girl kept talking because apparently she wasn’t smart enough to read the room.
“Right, maybe I can just give you my number,” she said and had the audacity to lean forward and place her hand on my leg with the intent of moving it somewhere else before she was interrupted by a body wedging between us.
Seconds later Rylee pushed her back and climbed in next to me on my side of the booth.
I burst out laughing because what the fuck? Rylee wasn’t playing games, which was obvious by the cockblock move she’d just pulled. But what she signed after she was settled next to me damn sure didn’t leave any confusion about how she felt about ol’ girl.
“I don’t like her. Tell her to leave. This is our dinner and she’s not invited.”
Ol’ girl frowned briefly before she plastered on a smile. “She’s deaf, right? That’s so sad but she’s still beautiful. I saw something posted about her online. What did she say?”
Somee was in my head telling me not to curse this dumb ass woman out but there was no point in wasting my breath.
“What’s sad is that you let me put my dick down your throat without even knowing your name and now you’re standing here looking crazy like I should remember you. How about you move around instead of embarrassing yourself any more than you already have.”
Her eyes darted back and forth between me and Rylee, who was grilling her once again, before she accepted the L and decided to walk away.
I chuckled and lifted my drink, almost choking when Rylee’s hands started moving again.
“You should marry Somee.”
“Why?”
“Because then you’ll have to wear a ring too and people like that won’t bother us.”
I laughed because that wouldn’t solve the problem. Women were disrespectful on levels that Rylee wouldn’t understand until she was a lot older.
“I’ll see what I can do about that.”
“Good,” she signed, then got back to finishing her food. In her mind, things were really that simple. Truthfully, I couldn’t be mad at her logic. At some point I was going to have to get Somee to trust the process as well because I was officially locked in and that wasn’t changing.