As long as it wasn’t Friday. Friday nights in with Ryder were my favorite nights of the week. I couldn’t remember how it started but it had become a ritual that we’d start the evening with a bath and a classic movie in bed with popcorn, which inevitably led to sex. Then we often ate grilled cheese in our robes and flipped through the channels while talking about work, family and books and then, eventually, we had more sex. “I think I might be busy on Friday but otherwise . . .”
“Okay, any day other than Friday. I’ll arrange. Gotta go.”
As soon as Violet hung up, my desk phone buzzed again.
“Your gorgeous husband just arrived. Again,” my receptionist said over the speakerphone. I grinned. Ryder made it to lunch at my place a couple of times a week. I wasn’t quite sure how he managed it, but there was always a “reason” for his visit. A meeting in the area, or his banker had just canceled on him. I liked that he felt he needed to explain his appearance to me. It was as if he wasn’t sure I’d want to see him if he didn’t have an excuse.
“Thanks. Send him back.” Usually he just wandered through, so I wasn’t sure why he’d stopped at reception.
“He’s on his way. I just had to call you to tell you how lucky you are.” No one but Cecily knew about my arrangement with Ryder, and Gail in particular was taken in by our story of a whirlwind romance. I could see how it would be easy to fall for. I couldn’t imagine most husbands were attentive enough to have lunch with their wives a couple of days each week.
He appeared at the door to my office, grinning and holding up a white paper bag, which presumably contained our lunch. “That meeting with Bob got canceled, so I thought I’d grab a bite with you if you’re not busy.”
I beckoned him forward with the tilt of my head and the curl of my hand. I was never too busy to see him.
“We never lunch in your office,” I said, unpacking the containers from the paper bag.
“That’s because you never stop by.”
True. Since the night of Frederick’s visit, things had evened out between us. I’d relaxed. Stopped asking if I’d given too much of myself away. I’d tried to live in the moment and enjoy our time together, however short. Because it was more of a marriage in many ways than I’d ever had the first time around. “You’re always welcome.”
He grinned and I smiled back. I avoided his office. I was pretty sure there were plenty of women who had seen him naked there. From what he’d told me in the three months since we’d come back from England, he’d been quite the player. I never asked him if he’d been faithful to me since our wedding. If he hadn’t, I didn’t want to know. But I was pretty sure he’d only been with me. But he didn’t get much opportunity to sleep with other women. We spent most of our time outside working hours together.
“John wants me to go to some shitty gala dinner next week,” Ryder said as he took a seat on the other side of my desk.
Despite having seen each other this morning. Fucked. Shared our mood. Talked, drunk coffee together. Even though, tonight, we’d fuck, talk, eat dinner together. There was always more to talk about. More to say.
“Like a benefit or something?” I asked. Ryder didn’t trust a lot of people but John was an exception.
“An awards ceremony. Waste of bloody time if you ask me, but he’s convinced I need to be seen at these things.”
I opened up the boxes of food. Thai. Nice. “Well, it’s just an evening. What can it hurt? You can always sneak out after the main course.”
“You’ll come though, right?” He handed me a paper napkin wrapped around a plastic knife and fork. “You’ll make it bearable.”
My heart squeezed and I glanced at him. He must have felt my eyes on him because he looked up and smiled. What he’d said was not meant to have any particular meaning attached to it, but to me it showed me how much we were a team, a unit—a couple. Did he see it, too? Wasn’t this more than just an arrangement? Surely if this was just business, he wouldn’t be sitting across from me. But we never talked about us. Never discussed our three-year deal. We were only a few months in but I was at the point where I didn’t want to put a time limit on us.
I wanted to know if he felt the same.
“Sure,” I said, poking my fork into the box of Thai food I’d opened. I liked the idea that a work event would only be manageable if I was with him. “There’s no place I’d rather be.”
“There’s no place I’d rather have you.” His eyebrows darted up. Ryder was able to make anything sound dirty.
“I’m serious,” I said. “I like spending time with you.”
He paused, his fork hovering over the paper container. “I like spending time with you, too.”
“I mean, even without . . .” I circled my hand in the air, not wanting to be too serious but at the same time wanting him to understand what I was trying to say without having to actually say the words. “You know. The deal. I still like it.” Christ, I sounded like a thirteen-year-old girl with a crush on her brother’s best friend. I rolled my eyes at my pathetic attempt at sharing my feelings and the corner of Ryder’s mouth began to twitch. This was his chance to say something.
The beginning of Ryder’s smile was interrupted by his phone vibrating on the desk between us. Darcy’s name flashed up on the screen. I took a forkful of food.
“Do you mind?” he asked.
I shook my head, my mouth full of Thai noodles.
“Hey, Darce, what’s up?”
I couldn’t hear her, but I could tell Darcy was speaking really fast. Ryder’s face fell and he stood. Under his suit I could see every muscle tense as he closed his eyes.
“Yeah, we’ll get there as soon as we can.”
I dropped my fork. Something had happened. Something bad.
Ryder took a breath and hung up the phone. “We have to go,” he said, glancing around as if looking for something.
“What’s the matter?” I asked, my heart pounding.
“Can you come?”
“Yes, anywhere.” I didn’t need to know what had happened—I would go wherever Ryder asked me.
I gathered up my phone, tablet and bag as Ryder punched numbers into his cell. “I need the plane to go to England as fast as possible.” England? Something had happened to Darcy or to the duke.
He hung up and we headed out. I’d message Cecily when we were in the car. I didn’t want to waste time. Ryder needed me.
As we stood in the elevator to take us down to Ryder’s car, I slid my hand into his and squeezed. “Grandfather’s had a stroke,” he whispered, his voice so low I almost couldn’t hear. “He’s at the hospital.”
I squeezed his hand again and leaned across and lay a kiss on his shoulder.
Twenty-Five
Ryder
The practicalities of death somehow seemed to help me cope with losing my grandfather. That and having Scarlett by my side. We’d barely spent a moment apart since landing to the news that my grandfather had passed away.