Ryder shrugged innocently. “You and Becca had broken upweeksprior.”
What? “Uh, no. We hadn’t.”
“Wait. She said... That... Fuck.” Shaking his head, Ryder grimaced. “I should have figured. We both should have figured. What were you doing with a manipulative bitch like that anyway? For the record, she told me you dumped her when you left for law school.”
He considered for a moment. “Yeah, I guess I should realized. She’d been convinced the long-distance thing would lead to me cheating on her. Wow. Yeah. My first trip home, and she found her revenge. I’m sorry she used you to get back at me. More, I’m sorry I was pissed at you all these years because of a lying bitch.”
Chuckling mirthlessly, Ryder kicked him gently with his foot. “I guess we’re both a couple of jerks.” Sullen, both sipped their coffee in unison. “With Sasha, that was... I don’t know, we got to talking, and she’s just out of a relationship and, well, next thing I knew we were consoling each other. Whatever you think of me, I wouldn’t take advantage, nor was I planning on taking it further.”
“If you really like her, ask her out. She seems pretty decent.”
“Nah. It was nice to remember that I’m still human, but, fuck, I don’t have time for—”
“Anything?” Grady laughed under his breath. “When was the last time we sat and... coexisted without firing insults at each other?”
“Not since you broke your hand on my face.” The corner of Ryder’s lips turned up, a lightness seeming to melt over him. “Haley, too. I can’t even remember the last time she or I called each other. And we talked the whole drive home this morning. I’m glad she’s going to move home.”
“When we were kids, we got each other through. Fresh start from here on out.”
“I’m on board with that. Maybe even try to see each other now and again. Somewhere far from Patricia’s beady eyes.” Ryder laughed, sprawling his legs as he sank further into the chair.
“We’d have to be sneaky.”
“I think you’ve got the sneaky thing down pat. Seriously. You and Claire, without me noticing? When and how and...?”
The corner of Grady’s mouth quirked up as he imagined all the whens and hows. If he’d known she was single that night at the billiard table, hiked up that dress a little further... maybe he could have taken her from behind like he’d imagined, and she would have made that breathy moan—
Ryder scowled and kicked him a little harder, pulling him out of his daydream. “I am a little weirded out, but I should have seen it coming. She’d never even met you before dinner the other night, and she watched you all night, blushing and gnawing on that lip like it was going out of style. I’d figured she was weirded out by how much we look alike.”
“I’m surprised you noticed.” He grinned and leaned back further into the chair. “We’d met that afternoon on the ice. You must have been working?”
“Fuck. Yeah. Guess this is a pretty obvious wake-up call that I work too damn much. My pansy-ass brother steals my fiancée out from under me, in broad daylight.”
Raising an eyebrow at his brother, Grady downed the last of his coffee.
Ryder grinned smugly at his sneaky jab. “We’d been over for months, but, hell, we hadn’t spent enough time together to notice we weren’t where we assumed we’d be by now.”
“I thought I’d died and gone to heaven when she stepped out onto the ice. Imagine my surprise, when I came downstairs for dinner and discovered that you were the ‘complication’ she mentioned when I tried to ask her out at the rink. Your loss, my gain. Then, you were too busy to go horseback riding with her. See a pattern?”
Ryder ran a hand through his hair and mussed the meticulous style. Grady couldn’t help but enjoy seeing him having a very human moment, feeling the full extent of his self-absorption. “I really am an asshole. I’ve been ignoring her for months. Hell, we were both too busy for each other. Kept saying we’d make time for each other once she graduated from vet school and I had a handle on my career. Shit, why didn’t we dump any whiskey in this coffee? I can’t handle this gala.”
Cloudy vision and aneven hazier brain enveloped Claire as she struggled to wake from the thick nap. The sun was just beginning its descent on the jagged, tree-filled horizon. Things sure had a way of abruptly shifting gears around here. Blizzard conditions yesterday and bright blue skies today. The combination would be gorgeous for the gala, moonlight twinkling over the untouched blanket of snow.
She grumbled as she dragged her lead-laden limbs from the bed, pulling on cozy jeans and a cotton sweater. Feet padding over the dense carpet, she made her way to the sitting room, where she found Ryder responding to emails on his phone. At her entrance, his eyebrow raised in question. “Feeling better?”
The last remnants of fog faded as she blinked away the nap. She took advantage of the steaming carafe of fresh coffee and poured herself a cup before dropping into the chair opposite.
Ryder’s expression wasn’t helpful. Those damn dimples were deep in his cheeks, and his eyes gleamed with amusement.
“Yeah. What’s going on with you?”
Leaned forward in the chair, he rested his elbows on his knees and stared at his fingernails. “It appears I have been moved to the green room.”
Unsure how to proceed, she didn’t try to stop gnawing on her lower lip. She took a soothing sip of the liquid fortification and nodded. “You ok with that?”
Eyebrow raised again, he shook his head. “Guess I’ll have to be. I am a little weirded out though. I... there’s no good way to ask. He and I look a hell of a lot alike. Ignore the hair color and dimples, and we could be twins. We sound the same, similar mannerisms. Obviously, we have different interests and goals. But, what is it that drew you to him so quickly that wasn’t working with me?”
She started to respond, but he clearly wasn’t finished yet.
