“I’d still be coming up here on the weekends for a while, until we get the lodge sorted out. And maybe we’d have to go to every other weekend, but we’d meet you halfway. And you’d get more school holidays with him.”
He probably shouldn’t be speaking for Lauren, but he needed to know where Dean stood. The last thing he wanted to do was put Lauren in a position where she felt she had to choose between Nick and Ryan. Nick would win, obviously, but it would hurt Lauren to have to make the decision.
“That sounds fair enough.” Dean nodded. “I won’t stand in the way, if you can talk her into going with you this time.”
“Thank you.” He looked at his watch. “She should be getting home soon. She gets home before Nick on Fridays and I want to be there.”
Dean snorted. “No fancy dinner and ring in the champagne glass?”
“No. If she says yes, I’d want Nick to know before he comes here for the weekend. Word gets around fast and he doesn’t need to hear the news at the market or on the street.”
Dean stood when Ryan did and shook his hand. “Good luck.”
By the time he pulled his truck in behind Lauren’s car, Ryan was what Steph would call a hot mess, but he did his best to hide it as he got out and walked to her door.
“Hey,” she said as she opened the door with a smile. “I wasn’t expecting to see you until later.”
He was supposed to spend the weekend with her. “Are you busy?”
“Just mopping the floor. Are you okay? You look a little flushed.”
“I’m okay.” He followed her inside and closed the door. “So I have to leave on Sunday.”
Some of the light dimmed in her eyes. “Yes, I know.”
“I want you and Nick to come to Brookline with me.”
She frowned, tilting her head a little. “I don’t understand. You know Nick has school Monday. I have to go to work.”
“No.” Dammit, he was blowing it already, and every line he’d rehearsed in the car had been totally erased from his mind. “Not this Sunday. I mean...I want you to move there. To live with me.”
She sat down hard on the couch, looking up at him as if she didn’t quite understand what he was saying. “Ryan, I...”
“You what?” he prompted when she drifted into silence. “Let’s talk about it.”
“I have a job. A home. Nick has school and his friends. And I can’t move out of Maine without Dean’s permission.”
“He gave it.”
“What?”
“I just talked to him. He said he wouldn’t stand in our way if you and Nick want to move to Brookline.”
She didn’t look very happy about it. As a matter of fact, red splotches bloomed on her neck and cheeks as he watched, and her jaw tightened. Belatedly, he remembered planning in the car to open with the fact he loved her and wanted to marry her.
“You talked to Dean?”
“Yes. You’ve thrown so many stumbling blocks into this relationship and that was one of the biggest. I wanted to lay it to rest before I came here so we can focus on us and not Nick.”
“Why would you do that? You’ve done nothing but feed me the ‘just roll with it’ line, but you go and have a serious sit-down with my ex-husband?”
He really wanted her to understand he hadn’t done it to be pushy. “I went behind his back once and it wasn’t right. I mean, I had to do it because I couldn’t leave you and Nick without trying, but it was still wrong. I couldn’t do it again.”
“I’m not his wife anymore.”
He tried to stay calm, but this wasn’t going at all the way he’d thought it would. Or hoped it would. “No, but Nick’s his son.”
“I can’t believe you did that, Ryan. My relationships are none of Dean’s business.”
“Of course they are, because of Nick.” He was trying to make her see reason, but as soon as he said the words and saw the flare of temper in her eyes, he knew he made a mistake.
“You thought it was so damn funny being my you know, whatever, but Nick called you that because he wasn’t comfortable calling you my boyfriend. Now you’ve told Dean you want us to live with you and, when he says something to Nick, I’m going to feel pressured because you interfered with my family.”
The tight leash on his temper slipped. “Dammit, I’m trying to be part of your family, Lauren.”
“But you’re not. You told me we were going to roll with it and then you went behind my back to my ex-husband and had a conversation about my son. Not just about my son, but huge, life-changing events, without even telling me you were considering us moving to Massachusetts. How dare you?”
“I dare because I—”
“It doesn’t matter. I don’t...I can’t believe you did that.” She pointed at the door. “You need to go now.”
“Lauren, we need to talk this out.”
“Go talk to Dean about it. I want you to leave.”
His entire body felt hot and shaky. He couldn’t believe this was happening. “Lady, I ain’t a boomerang. You throw me away again, I’m not coming back.”