Chapter 10 #2
I shrugged as we continued to walk. In the distance, a ferry horn blew long and low. “High school. He saw me sitting alone at the Sadie Hawkins dance, waiting for Megan and Kevin to stop making out so we could go home.”
“Sadie Hawkins? Isn’t that where the girls ask the guys?”
I nodded. “My date ended up sneaking off with Ellory Pitzer.”
Ronan shook his head. “What a dumbass. Anyone ever suggested you need to recalibrate your picker, Laney?”
I shrugged. “It’s possibly occurred to me. Still, Derek swooped in and saved the day. That time, anyway.”
“So, how long did you and The Great Disappointment date?”
I swung my sandals lightly to and fro. “Eight years, on and off.”
“Eight fucking years, and he couldn’t close the deal? What happened?”
I pressed my lips together. “Do you really want to know?”
At that, Ronan stopped and waited until I turned back to face him.
I sighed. “Well, the easy explanation is that he cheated on me after my mom got sick.”
Ronan tipped his head. “Fucker. And the hard one?”
I went back to walking. His legs were long enough that he caught up to me in a few quick strides.
“The hard one is that it started to fall apart a long time before that. I don’t know if you noticed, but Derek likes his backhanded compliments.”
“You mean like when he said, ‘Laney’s really smart for someone with no business sense?’”
“Yeah, that one’s a classic.”
Ronan chuckled with me, though I noticed that his left hand opened and closed several times as we walked, like he was trying to relieve some tension with an invisible stress ball. “I’m no saint, but at least I’ve never felt the need to put down a girl I was seeing just to feel like a man.”
“It’s not a contest between you two, but that’s good to hear.”
“People like that are too ashamed of their own shortcomings to face them, so they have to point out everyone else’s. He’s no better than a schoolyard bully, Laney. You’re better off without him.”
I nodded. “I know. And I think I was starting to figure that out long before he cheated with my mom’s medical assistant.”
He mumbled something like, “And I thought I was missing a moral compass.”
“What?”
“Nothing. What do you mean, you figured it out?”
I kicked up a bit of sand. “There were signs. Like when I moved to Chicago for grad school, and he started making jokes about how I was more interested in dead people that live ones. Or when I started teaching yoga, he’d say I was in pretty good shape for someone who wasn’t athletic. Things like that.”
“Northwestern?”
“University of Chicago. Go gargoyles.”
“And school was for, let’s see, archaeology and Greek mythology, you said? Let me guess: you specialized in the cult of Dionysus.” He offered a cheeky grin that was obviously related to the fact that he had named me after Dionysus’s wife.
I rolled my eyes. “Close, but no cigar. Actually, my dissertation was on the origins of the Oracle of Delphi and the transition from a cult of a goddess to Apollo.” I darted him a quick look. “Did any of that make sense?”
Ronan shoved his hands into his pockets and kicked the sand bashfully. “I actually minored in Classics, if you can believe it. In another life, I might have gone the PhD route too.”
I grinned. That explained the penchant for Greek literary references.
Ronan didn’t notice my pleasure as he shook his head in disbelief. “So, you turned into a brilliant, gorgeous scholar who can put her legs behind her head, and he was too mediocre to appreciate hitting the jackpot. Let me guess: Derek’s a car salesman with a passion for kettlebell workouts.”
I snorted. “It’s actually insurance and CrossFit.”
“Jesus. I bet he eats a carnivore diet too.”
I was giggling now. “He says Keto, but he likes potato chips too much to adhere to anything.”
“So, on top of being a terrible person, he never shits. No wonder he’s in such a bad mood.”
By the time he was finished, I was bent over laughing. “Oh my God, stop.”
“Never. I like that sound too much.”
I knew it was all bravado, but it had been such a long time since someone other than Megan had made me laugh like this.
Derek certainly never had.
Ronan slung a congenial arm over my shoulder as we plodded on.
There was nothing sexual about it, but the warm, heavy weight was comforting.
It hadn’t escaped me earlier how well we fit together when he’d first arrived at the party and tucked me into his side.
Now, though, I didn’t feel the need to pull away. In fact, I quite liked it here.
“So, you trucked on with the Constipated Wonder, hoping he’d grow the fuck up. Then what? Your mom got sick, he cheated, and you dumped him?”
I nodded, sober again. “That’s about it.” He made it sound so simple, but it hurt. All of it still hurt so much.
Ronan’s hand curved over my shoulder and squeezed. “Figures. Narcissists can’t hear the word ‘no.’ Trust me, I’m an expert. I was raised by one.”
I looked up. “Your father? Niall Black, right?”
“That’s right, she Googles. Yeah, that would be him. I keep thinking he’ll drown one day in his own image, but he just keeps swimming in it. Even a quadruple bypass couldn’t take him out.”
He was joking again. Sort of. Even Ronan’s mask of humor couldn’t quite hide the bitterness in his speech. I had to wonder if the vitriol he bore against his father was quite so simple. Family dynamics rarely were. I could testify to that.
“And now you have to take his place?” I wondered.
He didn’t even bother to hide his surprise. “How do you know that?”
I shrugged. “I overheard you talking in Vegas when I woke up. You said something about your brother leaving the company and that you never wanted to be CEO. Then, like you said, I Google. I also can put two and two together.”
For the first time since I met him, Ronan looked genuinely uncomfortable. “Ah. Well. I would appreciate if you would keep that information to yourself, please. It’s not exactly public knowledge. Won’t be for a while. Have you told—”
“No one,” I finished for him. “I’ve told no one.”
He blew out a long breath. “Well. Okay then. I suppose I’ll just have to trust you.”
I had a feeling that wasn’t something he did often
The thought saddened me. “Can I ask you something else?”
We stopped again and separated. Somewhere above us, a seagull gave a mournful call, and the sound of waves lapping at the rocky shore filled the space between us.
He looked handsome in the moonlight. Well, he looked handsome all the time, but right now, with his suit jacket and tie undone, mussed curls waving slightly in the breeze, there was something otherworldly about the way the light cast his eyes in shadow, dipping the rest of him in silver.
“What’s that, my Ariadne?” Ronan asked softly.
I didn’t know what to think about the name now that he obviously knew I understood its meaning—and now that I knew he understood it too.
It was one thing to allude to a Greek myth about a Greek god falling in love at first sight with his future wife when he was drunkenly cavorting around Vegas with a strange girl.
It was another completely to use it with someone he knew to be a Classics scholar.
“Does your magically appearing in Seattle have anything to do with the fact that you’re expected to be married?”
Now that he knew I had overheard him on the phone, I wasn’t going to pretend I hadn’t heard that other throwaway comment. Especially since once the thought occurred to me, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to ignore it.
So, what, am I supposed to get married now?
I didn’t know who he had been talking to that morning, but it was obviously someone in his life who held sway. Someone whose opinion mattered.
Ronan’s eyes met mine through the night and held them for several long seconds. The casual irreverence that pervaded most of his interactions had disappeared completely.
“I’m here because of me,” he said at last. “I’m here because of us.”
Relief swept through me like one of the waves on the beach. Thank God.
For what, I wasn’t sure. But the gratitude was still there.
“Now, I have a question for you.”
I blinked as we continued walking. “What’s that?”
“Is Derek your date for the wedding tomorrow?”
I physically recoiled. “What? Oh, God, no.”
“Well, he is the best man. You could enjoy the steak together.”
We were back to jokes now. “That just means I have to walk down the aisle with him. I don’t have a date.” Not that I could at this point. Everyone in Megan’s family thought I was married.
“Good. Then I can be yours.”
I frowned. Crashing the rehearsal dinner was one thing.
But far more than twenty-some family members were going to be at this wedding tomorrow.
I had helped Megan arrange the seating chart for a reception that was hosting close to two hundred people, many of them people I’d known since grade school.
Yes, Megan had said she wanted Ronan to come. But there were still a million reasons to say no. Reasons that had more to do with the dangerous effect those bedroom eyes had every time he looked at me like this.
But then, I imagined the way tomorrow would go with him and without him.
I remembered my best friend’s observation about my smile when he was around.
And I considered the fact that while Ronan Black certainly had an edge to him, that acerbic wit only seemed to be used to protect me, never to tear me apart.
The man had never said a negative thing to me or about me. Not once, despite the obvious inconvenience I presented to his life, had even come close to disparaging.
In fact, being around him only ever seemed to feel good.
Megan was right. I’d forgotten what that was like.
“You win,” I told him as a strange yet familiar warmth filled my chest. “I’ll meet you at the church.”