Yep, he’d fucked up. He’d single-handedly undermined his own rules, and though something deep down inside him yearned for another round with Z, another chance to get close, to experience that connection he’d felt, Ryan knew it could never happen again.
And now he had no idea how to reverse the damage he’d done. The only positive was that Z seemed to be pretending it’d never happened. Whether or not that was for Ryan’s benefit, he didn’t know.
“Hey, man,” Braydon greeted, dropping into the empty seat beside Ryan. “I wanted to thank you for comin’.”
Ryan ignored the fleeting mental image of Z that rattled him when he processed the word coming.
“Sure. No problem. Beautiful wedding.”
“I also wanted to thank you for what you did for my brother.”
Ryan nodded. He didn’t need thanks. The job had been pro bono, something Z had offered, and Ryan had merely tagged along. That was the kind of guy Z was, always willing to lend a helping hand to those he cared about. It was only one of Z’s many altruistic qualities.
“Y’all stayin’ till tomorrow?” Braydon inquired, his attention shifting to the center of the room, where Z was currently dancing with Cheyenne Montgomery.
Ryan watched the pair, smiling to himself. The woman looked so freaking tiny next to Z.
“Naw,” Ryan answered. “We’ll be headin’ back later tonight.” Ryan held up his glass of water. “No overindulging for me tonight.”
No need to, he told himself. He’d learned the effects even a few beers could have after last night.
“Well, we’re headin’ out, too. Eight-day Caribbean cruise, though I have no intention of even seein’ the water if I can help it.”
Ryan smiled because he was supposed to. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Braydon. Quite the opposite, actually, but he felt like a fraud being there. He’d originally come to Coyote Ridge because Z had asked him to accompany him on a job. Then the wedding invitation had been extended, and Ryan felt it would’ve been rude to decline. Yet this trip had altered the course of his life, and he still wasn’t sure what the fallout would be. Not until he and Z addressed the gigantic elephant in the room would he even know what to expect.
“Well, I’ll get outta your hair. Thanks again for comin’. Y’all be careful on the drive back.”
“Congratulations, man,” Ryan offered along with a handshake.
Braydon shook Ryan’s hand, then disappeared across the room once again, leaving Ryan alone once more. Feeling a set of eyes on him, Ryan scanned the area around him only to find Z staring back at him. He was no longer dancing, instead talking to Beau Bennett while casting repeated glances in Ryan’s direction.
Why the fuck did Z have to be so handsome? So funny? Witty? Hot? Sexy? God, the adjectives kept coming, and Ryan knew it was stupid to continue to think about Z. Nothing could come of this. It’d been a horrible—although incredible at the same time—mistake, and the best thing for both of them would be if Ryan pretended it had never happened.
Yep, that was exactly what he was going to do. Forget that last night’s tryst had been the best sex of his entire life. Forget that being with Z had made him feel whole for the first time since…
Nope, not going there. No need to dredge up the past. It was behind him.
And now, if he was lucky, in a few hours when they were back in Dallas, this would be behind him as well.
Z HAD KNOWN SINCE THE moment he’d gone to sleep with Ryan in his arms that the euphoric feeling he’d been overwhelmed with wasn’t going to last.
But Z was all right with that.
Sort of.
No, he wasn’t looking for happily ever after. Not at this point in his life. He had too much shit on his plate, too many responsibilities. Too much he wanted to do. And according to his friends, he wasn’t supposed to be that guy, the one who wanted something more than one night. After all, it had been Trace—Z’s closest friend—who had started those rumors in the first place.
Not that Z cared. He was here to have a good time, to celebrate his friend’s wedding, to enjoy a little time away from work. Although he considered himself the luckiest man on earth when it came to what he got to do for a living, he appreciated a break. It made working that much sweeter, and he’d been going nonstop for so long he was having a hard time even remembering the definition of fun.
Which would likely explain what had happened between him and RT last night. Z didn’t have an ounce of regret. Far from it, actually.
Did he want more? Abso-fucking-lutely.
Would he push it? No.
That wasn’t Z’s style. It was clear by the way RT had been avoiding him all day that he wished last night had never happened. And for that reason alone, Z had been giving RT the space he so obviously needed, pretending that his world wasn’t turned upside down and backward.
“You cool, man? You look a little…preoccupied,” Brendon asked when he joined Z on the edge of the dance floor.
“Fantastic,” Z said, ensuring his tone matched the word.
“They look happy, don’t they?”
Z watched Braydon and Jessie dancing, the two of them smiling at one another as though they were the only two people in the room.
“They definitely do.”
Brendon turned to face him. “Jared told me he talked to Reese earlier in the week. Wants to hire him on.”
Z nodded. “Reese told me.”
“I told Jared if it were up to me, I’d hire him on in a heartbeat. Told him if he waited too long, CJ was gonna snatch him up, so Jared called him this mornin’ and offered the job.”
“Yeah?” Z was torn between being happy for his brother and saddened by the fact that, by his brother landing a job, that last little bit of hope Z had that Reese would end up in Dallas fizzled out.
“He accepted. Starts Monday. He’ll fill in while Bray’s on his honeymoon.”
“Good deal.”
“Bray said you’re headin’ back after this. You gonna see Reese before you go?”
“Probably not,” Z replied. “We’ve gotta get back.”
Not that there was anything pressing to go back to, but Z knew RT would be anxious to put more space between them. And the only way to do that was to get back to life as normal.
Cheyenne approached them, gifting Z with a smile before turning her attention to Brendon. “You said you’d dance with me.”
“I did,” Brendon confirmed before looking at Z once more. “It was good to see you, man. Don’t be a stranger, hear?”
“I’ll do my best. Take care of my brother, would ya?”
Brendon grinned, allowing Cheyenne to lead him onto the dance floor. “You got it. Be safe on the trip back.”
Z watched as Brendon scooped Cheyenne up into his arms, making her squeal, then scanned the room looking for RT. Once again, RT’s gaze darted away quickly. Looking at him brought back all the memories from the night before, made him wonder whether or not he should’ve handled things differently.
Sure, it would’ve been nice to wake up with RT, to roll him over, slide deep inside him, and make love to him until they had no choice but to get ready for the wedding, but that hadn’t happened. And Z couldn’t change the past.
Not that he would.
Z wasn’t one to live with regrets. He lived his life one day at a time. It was the only thing he could do. As he’d learned, things could change in the blink of an eye, and he wasn’t willing to waste a second of it worrying about shit he couldn’t change.
So, for now, he would bide his time, wait for the right moment, because, like last night, Z was fairly certain it would come along. What had happened between him and RT wasn’t supposed to be limited to only one night. Maybe RT hadn’t felt it, but Z had. It had been so much more than sex.
But Z knew when to back off and based on the unhappy gleam in RT’s glittering blue eyes, now was one of those times.
SEVEN