Ryder cut in. "No, she didn'tgrabit. And you're lucky she's okay."
"How amIlucky?" Skip protested. "I still lost my umbrella." Once again, he lifted his hand with the lone finger extended. "And it wrenched the hell out of my finger, too."
Judging from Ryder's expression, he wanted to wrench more than Skip's finger, which Skip was now waving like a gun.
Desperate to head off trouble, I grabbed Ryder's hand and gave it a little tug. "Hey, we've got that door thing, remember?"
From the look on Ryder's face, the door was the last thing on his mind. But to his credit, he let me pull him away and made no complaint when I let go of his hand shortly thereafter.
Together, we started walking toward Maisie's house, where we were set to meet a construction crew to repair the door.
Ryder had originally planned it for first thing this morning, but I had balked at the timing – not because I had to be at work, but because Maisie's bike shop was closed on Wednesdays, which meant she would surely be lingering around the house.
Except she wasn't.Around ten this morning, she had texted to say she'd be out of pocket for the whole day and probably late into the night. She didn't say who she'd be spending the day with, or what she'd be doing.
She hadn't needed to.
She was almost certainly spending the time with Griff, which leftmefree to spend some time alone with Ryder.
I had been thrilled to hear it.
But judging from Ryder's profile as we walked, thrills of any kind wouldn't be on the menu.
74
Well, That Was a First
Ryder
Tessa stared in open amazement. "Wow, it reallydoeslook as good as new."
I didn't tell her, but the replacement door was actually better than new – a perfect match for the old one, but twice as strong, given its steel core and reinforced hinges.
The thing had cost a fortune, not that I'd ever say so.
The money was nothing, and I would've paid a million times that amount to keep Tessa safe.
The construction crew had just left, after installing the door in record time, leaving no trace of the damage I'd caused only last night.
Already, two hours had passed since we'd left Skip waving his middle finger. We'd spent the first part of that time walking to the house and the second part watching the carpenters fix the door.
Only one of those activities had been satisfying, and it wasn't the walk.
No.That scenic stroll had been filled with long bouts of silence – on my part more than hers. With every step, her odd request had echoed in my head.
She wanted us to fly under the radar.
This shouldn't have bothered me.But it did.
For the past few years, my life had been filled with women eager to appear at my side – too eager, some might say. At first, I'd gotten a kick out of it – all those selfies, social media posts, and carefully curated captions.
But lately?
I considered all of it a pain in the ass.
So why did the thing with Tessa bother me?
It should've been refreshing, right?
