“No, Baby girl,” he says, stepping closer to me without touching. “I need you to push.”
I knit my brows in confusion. “What?”
“Push me,” he swallows. “Please.”
I search his eyes before I answer. “I’ll try, but Dex, I don’t like the place your eyes go.” It’s like he’s sucked back in time and not seeing what is right in front of him.
He looks away before looking back at me. “I need you to push,” he repeats, and I nod. He runs his hand over my arm when he walks away, barely a touch, but it’s something.
That’s one less thing off my plate from yesterday, and meeting Helena this morning helped get a lot of stuff off my mind. I climb into my Ferrari, ready to fix the next thing.
“Bellissima!”Ryder’s dad, Rocco, greets me when he sees me standing in the foyer and jerks me into a bear hug. “It’s so good to see you.”
I hug him back tightly. “It’s been too long.” He was like my second dad growing up.
“Don’t stay away like that,” he says, pulling me back to look at him.
Ryder is his spitting image, except Rocco has streaks of grey in his hair. Even in his mid-fifties, the man is still handsome and well-built. I know what I would look at in thirty years with Ryder, and I’m not complaining.
“Dad, who’s here?” Ryder asks, rounding the corner. His eyes land on me, and that muscle in his jaw starts ticking. “Why are you here?”
Rocco levels his son with a glare that could kill. “Don’t you talk to her like that, boy.”
Ryder nods politely. “Yes, sir.”
Rocco is easygoing, but Ryder still respects him. Rocco demands respect with how he holds himself. Ryder also has that in spades. It broke my heart when he retired, but he couldn’t stay in second without my dad, and I understood.
“Can we talk?” I ask Ryder.
“I’m a little busy,” he says, jerking his head into the other room.
“Nonsense.” Rocco waves that away. “Quit being a pussy,” he says and walks out of the room.
A shocked laugh leaves me before I can stop it. Ryder turns his glare back on me, and I return it. “Is this how you want to do this?” I ask.
“Do what?” he asks, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Cut the shit. Can we talk, or do you want me to leave?”
“I don’t feel like talking.”
I swallow the hurt and nod. “Fine.” I jerk the door open, and he grabs my arm.
“Stop. Shit,” he mutters, dropping my arm. I turn toward him as he runs his fingers through his hair. “Come on,” he nods, and I follow him to the back of his dad’s house. He leads me up the steps to his old bedroom. The motorcycle and car posters still hang everywhere, along with pictures of me, him, Micah, and Gage. I can’t tell you how much time we spent in this room watching tv, playing video games, or just hanging out. When we weren’t at my house, we were here. I run my fingers over the picture of Rocco and Elaina on their wedding day. Ryder was born a year later. She died of complications when Ryder was six giving birth to his brother. They lost him too. Rocco grieved his beloved wife while trying to raise a confused six-year-old. I was six then too, but I know my mom stepped up a lot to help.
Ryder shuts the door, sits on the bed, and scoots up, so his back is propped against the wall. “Nothing has changed,” I say in amazement. The only reason anything changed at my house, which used to be dad’s, was that I needed to do it. I needed to make it my own.
Ryder snorts. “Nah. The old man is too sentimental.”
I run my fingers over a picture of Ryder and me, arms slung over each other’s shoulders, laughing at something. Probably Gage, if I had to guess. We were about twelve or thirteen, and from the light in my eyes, I would think it was before Frankie’s men took me. Our dads finally brought us to The Games for the first time, and we had a blast.
“What happened to us, Ryder?” I ask, emotion clogging my voice, getting sucked into the past from looking at us through the years.
“We grew up.”
“Grew up or grew apart?” I can’t hide the hurt in my voice. Why is he so flippant? Did Ido this to him?
“You know I don’t want us to grow apart,” he says harshly, sitting up on the bed, his feet hitting the floor with a thud. “You decided that when you brought Leo into your life.”
