The truth was, as soon as we’d left Gran’s with Ryan carrying a couple of bags and saying we didn’t need to go to the store for supplies, I’d been intrigued. And then, when he’d encouraged me to shower while he prepared dinner, I’d left him to it. Curiosity kept me occupied in the shower and when I’d pulled on my sweatpants. Winter had well and truly kicked in. That meant our Queensland days were just on the right side of warm, and the evenings gave me the perfect excuse to cuddle up with Ryan and use him as an extra blanket.
I looked at the feast he’d organized, my pulse galloping at Ryan’s sweetness. When I glanced over at him, I melted even more, taking in his pink cheeks. “I love it. Thank you.”
“Yeah?”
“Absolutely.” I headed over to where Ryan sat on a bunch of pillows on the floor before the coffee table filled with our dinner. I leaned down and captured his mouth. Heat warmed my chest, quickly spreading to my stomach as our kiss deepened. Cupping his cheek, I used the contact as an anchor. While I definitely wanted to get lost in Ryan tonight and drown in his kisses and his body, for now, I needed him to know how much I appreciated him.
After a few more sweeps of our tongues against each other’s, my dick became seriously invested. It was time to pull away. I did so breathing heavily, and touched my forehead against Ryan’s while I caught my breath. Angling back so I didn’t go cross-eyed, I smiled at him. “Thank you.”
Skin flushed, lips puffy, Ryan was temptation personified. And for the whole night he was all mine.
Nodding, Ryan tilted his lips. “You want to watch TV or listen to music while we eat?”
“Music’s good.”
Hitting a button on his phone, Ryan looked thoroughly pleased with himself when David Archuleta’s voice came through my Bluetooth stereo.
I chuckled. “I can’t believe you remembered this track.” Hell, the cheesy goodness of the song had held a much bigger meaning for me when I was sixteen.
“Yeah, right. Like I could forget it. You had it playing on a bloody loop that one summer we went camping with your parents at Carnarvon.”
I nudged him, once again touched by the small details. Eyeing the collection of random picnic food, I decided on a cracker with Vegemite and cheese first. It seemed Ryan’s nostalgia hadn’t stopped with music but included food we devoured when we were kids.
I munched happily on the salty tang of the food. After swallowing, I asked, “So tell me about your day. Did you head to the market?”
While chewing, he bobbed his head. When he’d emptied his mouth and had a drink of water, he said, “Yeah. Ivy loved it. She was knackered by the time we left, taking in everything. Gran was a bit worn out too, but I made sure we took our time and rested loads.”
“She’s so much better than she was.” I offered him a reassuring smile, which he returned. “And I’m glad you had a good time. You get yourself a tie-dyed T-shirt or anything?” I quirked my eyebrow for good measure and bit into a cheerio dripping in tomato sauce. These small sausages were the best of processed goodness.
“Nope, but I’ll go back on Saturday and get you one.”
I snorted. It was the sort of thing Ryan would do. Even as a kid when he was broke, he would have saved money from his mowing jobs to go and blow it on a crappy T-shirt, just so he could laugh his arse off at me. Because of course I would have worn the damn thing. Now that he was not at all strapped for cash, I dreaded the sort of mischief he could get up to. Not that we’d discussed his whole money situation. Honestly, I didn’t want to think too deeply about it. Knowledge of how much he earned and had in the bank made me weirdly uncomfortable.
And that I could probably find out with a quick internet search stirred unease in my gut. It was best not to think about it.
Distracting myself from my warped mind, I scooped up another mini processed sausage and indicated for him to eat it. He did so with a smirk. “We have plans on Saturday that don’t involve tie-dye shirts.”
“We do, huh?” he asked around his mouthful of food.
“We will do when I think of something,” I joked.
We carried on munching, but midbite of a strawberry, I remembered about his call. “Didn’t you have another video call tonight?”
Ryan swallowed his own piece of fruit before answering. “Postponed till tomorrow evening for me. Though I expect the call will be canceled, as from the latest message I received, it’s pretty much a done deal.”
Honestly, that wasn’t a surprise. I told him as much. “You’re a brilliant player, and I imagine it’ll make all sorts of sense to each team for the trade.” I didn’t know anything about the player he was being traded with. Even though I’d been tempted to search, I wasn’t that much a glutton for punishment. “So you’ll need to pack up as soon as you get back to Minnesota?”
Shaking his head, he placed his drink back on the table. “It’s not crazy fast like it would be if the trade took place in the season. But it’s best if I get settled sooner rather than later. It means I can get my fitness up. Burn all the lamingtons off.” He grinned.
“What will you do about a place to live?” While Ryan had done this all before, the whole thing was alien to me.
“Micky will help me get something sorted.”
As he spoke and continued to tell me about some of the players he knew on the new team, he became increasingly animated. The building excitement in his voice and his expression created fresh warmth to flood my system. He should be excited by the move, and I was relieved he was, now the initial shock had bled away.
With the new eagerness in his eyes when he told me about a player called Joyce, certainty swept over me. Ryan playing with a team with strong stats was how his future should look, especially with retirement not being too far away. Maybe a handful of years or so—if he chose to stay the course.
“Hey.” Ryan’s quiet voice and his palm on my arm startled me. “You okay? You haven’t said anything for a while.” Concern dipped his brows.
