Ginny turned to her immediate left and caught Ryan as he contorted his face at Blaire before returning it to normal. Ginny elbowed his belly but giggled as she warned, “Don’t you make this harder by irritatin’ her, Coach. We’ve already been standin’ here forever.”
“I don’t know whatever you could mean, Remillard. I just wasn’t sure what business face she was wantin’, that’s all.” He nudged Ginny back, just lightly enough so as not to garner attention from Blaire. “You did well at practice last night. I think we’re actually gonna win this thing.”
“Of course I did. I’m a Remillard.” She winked.
Ryan leaned closer. “I’ve seen Georgia throw a football. Bein’ a Remillard has nothing to do with it, Gin.” When he smirked at her, a piece of his wavy hair falling over his forehead, Ginny had to turn away to regain composure.
“Guess what socks I’m wearin’ today…” he whispered, his breath causing a flutter of sensation down her spine.
“Footballs?”
“Wrong.” Ryan chuckled in her ear and started quietly chanting, “Quack. Quack. Quack.”
She held back a delighted grin, still continuing to look as if Blaire shuffling their small team into the perfect formation was far more fascinating than the completely innocent, but private conversation she was having with their coach. “Ducks? You have duck socks? Could you be more adorable?”
“Irresistible, right?”
“Like Chloe said, Hot Gordon Bombay, for sure.” She flitted her eyelashes at him as dramatically as she could muster, and winked again. “I love ducks.”
“Me, too,” Ryan said, holding her gaze with his tilted smile.
Over the past week, something had shifted in Ginny’s friendship with Ryan. They’d spent nearly every day together. At first, things hadn’t been purposeful. Yes, she’d kept him company on Saturday night when she hadn’t shown up as Mood Music. And, yes, she still felt terrible for keeping such a huge secret from him. But Ryan had seemed to bounce back. They’d had fun together eating corn dogs, drinking frozen hot chocolates, and asking folks at the festival about the puppy. The puppy they’d been arguing over about names ever since.
On Sunday, Ryan filled in for James again on the worship team. And when Ginny had arrived early after leaving her apology for Melody Man at the record store, Ryan had offered to show her how to play a few chords on the guitar. He’d insisted that she showed promise and suggested they meet for coffee the next day after work for another lesson.
Do you want another lesson learning to play guitar with the man you’ve not so secretly been crushing on for years and have VERY secretly been swapping notes with for over a month?
Again, yes. Please.
Ginny had received Melody Man’s response on her Monday morning visit to For the Record, but just as he’d said, there’d been no more letters. And Ginny had checked. Daily. She prayed his lack of correspondence meant Ryan really and truly did forgive her—Mood Music. But she struggled over whether she had made the right choice. And if Ryan learned the truth, would that forgiveness look the same? This very sentiment she relayed to all her sisters over group text Monday night after her second guitar lesson with Ryan,who’d worn his glasses and a green, threadbare tee shirt that matched his eyes—for goodness’ sakes. Ginny knew she couldn’t carry her secret alone any longer.
Ginny: Something happened.
Georgia Snow: Gonna need more information, Gin.
Carolina Honey: Oh my gosh, did you kiss Ryan again?
Sadie Girl: Where have you been, Virginia?! I’ve been trying to reach you since Sunday!
Ginny: I know! I’m sorry!
Carolina Honey: Don’t leave us in suspense. Those must’ve been some glitter bombs.
Georgia Snow: You actually sent the glitter bombs? I thought we were gonna flamingo his yard?
Ginny: No. It wasn’t the glitter bomb… yet
Sadie Girl: What happened?
Ginny: Melody Man is Ryan
Sadie Girl: No Way!
Ginny: I told ya it wasn’t Danger.
Sadie Girl: And I told you Melody Man was hot!
Ginny: You were right. He’s a smoke show.
