“Hey, wait,” she said, her voice filled with the beginnings of a question. “Ryan told me about a Quinn he used to know back in high school. Is that you?”
“He did?” There was absolutely no way to hide my shock at all. “Um, yeah. That’s me,” I admitted.
Aurora’s face lit up with a huge smile and she clapped her hands together with excitement. “Oh, my goodness. That’s amazing. After allthis time—”
“Rory!” Beatrice called from the end of the aisle. “Let’s get a move on. Everyone’s waiting on you.”
I was glad her mom cut her off. Without knowing exactly what Ryan had told her, I didn’t want to overstep whatever line there was. Yet, I couldn’t help but feel like these two sweet women knew a lot more about Ryan than they could say right now.
With my basket in tow, I followedAurora to the back of the store, through the stock room, and out into the parking lot behind the building. There were five workstations set up in a line, each one occupied by a woman. Ryan took the supplies from me and gave one of each item to the women. “Good evening, ladies,” he greeted and they all smiled in return, some waving a small hello from their station. The woman on the end was too busytrying to sooth a crying baby to do more than be frazzled. “Last month, Lauren asked about how to fix leaking pipes. So today I’m going to show you some plumbing basics you can use in your own home to help fix some minor issues.”
They all looked on in awe as he explained what each item was, some were even writing notes in a notebook as he spoke. Aurora and Ryan moved from table to table, showingeach woman how to do some basic plumbing. “So what is this exactly?” Leaning over, I spoke to Beatrice, who was busy setting up some food and drinks for everyone. I had a feeling feeding people was what gave her life.
“Sandwiches and iced tea,” she answered, looking at me like I had eight heads.
“No.” I laughed. “Not the food. This,” I clarified, pointing to what was going on at the workstations.
“Oh, oh, that.” She waved her hands in front of her face as if she were swatting away flies. “That’s just our monthly class.” And then she was back to her food preparation. Though she’d given me no information, I couldn’t help but smile at her. She was so focused on getting the food in order, she couldn’t attend to my question until everything was in its place. “Okay,” she said, as she sat inher chair, breathless but exuberant. “My Rory works at a women’s shelter,” she explained. “And these women don’t have much. So we set these courses up so they can learn how to fix things up around their apartments, so they don’t have to pay someone. Plus”—her tone had changed making her sound sad—“none of them really trust men. So opening up their home to a stranger, well, that’s just not safe forthem. So once Ryan caught wind of what we were doing, he wanted to help. He even goes in and fixes the stuff they can’t do on their own. Free of charge.” She looked over at him with stars in her eyes and a huge smile on her face. “He’s such a good boy.”
And damn he was. The woman on the end who had a baby with her couldn’t possibly learn anything while trying to juggle a toddler and PVC pipes.But there was nothing to be worried about because Ryan simply taught the rest of the lesson with the baby on his hip and hope in his voice.
After an hour-long lesson, everyone moved over to the snacks and ate together like a family. Then one by one the women left, going back to their lives in the hopes that what they’d learned would someday come in handy.
Lizzette, the woman with the baby, wasthe last to leave. “I just haven’t had a meal without a baby on my lap in so long. This is so nice.” Ryan was still holding her son, bouncing him on his knee and talking silly baby talk to him as he cooed and drooled all over.
“Glad to help. I think he likes me,” Ryan surmised. And then two seconds later, baby Jose was a screaming mess.
“Clearly,” I ribbed sarcastically.
“It’s just his witchinghour,” Lizzette explained. “We should get going. Thank you again,” she said to Aurora and Beatrice. “And Ryan, I don’t think I could ever thank you enough.” Stretching up on her toes, she kissed him on the cheek before turning to walk toward her car. We all watched on as she situated Jose into his car seat. Waving as she pulled away, I couldn’t help but feel proud of how we’d spent the evening.
After insisting that Aurora take Beatrice home for some rest, Ryan and I packed up all the supplies and locked the store up for them. Since we’d been so busy all evening, we hadn’t had the chance to talk about anything. Yet ironically, now that I was sitting next to him, I couldn’t find the words to explain just how impressed I was by him. I knew he saw it as a simple gesture, and that made melove him that much more. “That’s really amazing. You know? What you do for those women?”
As I assumed he would, he waved away my compliments, his hand passing through the air. As he pulled out of the lot, he said, “It’s nothing really. Honestly, it’s the least I can do.” The sun had set just minutes ago, leaving the sky painted in a kaleidoscope of colors from red, to orange, to purple. It wasabsolutely breathtaking.
Just like the man sitting next to me.
“Burger and a beer?” he asked, cutting through the silence.
“Anything but sushi,” I joked as he turned into the lot of a dive bar.
“Oh, shut up. I got you cooked food.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t tell me about it until you made me eat eel.”
He laughed, loud and hard. “Thatwaspretty funny.”
Punching him lightly on the arm, I calledhim a jerk. “It wasn’t funny from my point of view.”
He replied, “Well, you should have been sitting where I was, because it was hysterical.”
He held up his hands in mock defense when I cocked my arm to pretend to hit him again. “Okay, okay. If I buy you dinner, will you forgive me?”
“Maybe.” We got out of the car and when we both reached the entrance of the bar, I whispered in his ear, “I’msure there are lots of things you can do later that will make me forgive you.”
With his mouth hanging wide open, I walked in front of him, feeling rather victorious. As the waitress led us to our table, I fully enjoyed walking behind Ryan. His tight ass was perfectly showcased in his dark wash jeans. The black dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the middle of his forearms made me weak allover. Everything about him screamed tall, dark, and handsome, and everyone around us saw it too. Within minutes of being seated, he’d already drawn the attention of a table full of ladies, and of the waitress, too. It was impossible to miss how she stared at him when she brought us our drinks.
“Quite the showstopper, aren’t you?” I joked, tipping my head to the table next to us. The women giggledand waved as Ryan looked over.
