36
Denise - Gran and Gladys, Bad Bitches
“You don’t need to answer me right now,” Ryder says. “Just come back in and enjoy your party. You can think about what I’ve said later. For now, let our friends show you how much they love you, too. Take a minute here to relax and then come back in when you’re ready. I’ll go fend off the wolves.”
He kisses me deeply one more time, not as needy as before, but a slow tasting of me that stops my breath. Ryder pulls away slowly and my lips follow as though his lips are pulling me forward. I kiss him this time, my hands reaching up and weaving into his hair, pulling him close once more.
“Ewww, they’re just out here in the hallway and they’restillkissing.” Xena interrupts our kiss with her oh so hilarious assessment of the situation.
“Jesus, Ryder. Get a room. You have one here, you know.” Connor yells from inside the dining room. “But keep it down. We don’t want to have to listen to you two fucking while we’re here trying to have a perfectly respectable party.”
“Fuck off,” Ryder yells back. “I’ll see you in there,” he whispers to me, with one more kiss before going back into the room.
“Well, that looked like some pretty steamy kissing to me.” Xena comes and leans against the wall with me. “Want to talk about it?”
I nod my head and lead her through the kitchen and out to the deck. Heat rises in my cheeks when I look over to where Ryder and I sat that first time, when he made me come with just his fingers.
“So?”
“So, I don’t know.” I answer honestly. “He says I wouldn’t be forcing him into anything, but I still feel like I would be trapping him. I don’t want to bring someone into this baby’s life just to have him duck out when it gets too hard. But he sounded so sincere when he said he wanted it all. He even included vomit and dirty diapers in the list of what he wants to be a part of. So it’s not like he’s going into it with this rosy view of cute, chubby angel babies who never cry or get messy. He sounds like he knows what he would be in for.”
“Then why don’t you just let him decide for himself what’s good for him? Why don’t you just let him love you like he so clearly wants to?”
“Because I can’t!” I whisper yell. “Because I have to be the one to take care of everything, otherwise it won’t get done. How can I rely on someone else to do some of it? Especially someone who’s been as unreliable as Ryder? Do you know how often I’ve had to step in and rescue him from stupid situations he’s gotten himself into? Or paid people off to get photos deleted? What if he goes back to being that guy?”
“OK. That’s a fair question. But how do you know that any other guy in the future wouldn’t turn into that guy? I’m sure you never would have even considered being with Andrew if you had any notion that he’d turn out the way he has. The fact is, you have no way of knowing what will happen in the future. Anyway, according to Devon, Ryder was just acting that way to take his mind off not being able to have you.”
“Oh? Devon said that? And since when do you have long conversations with Devon?”
“Don’t change the subject.” Xena snaps. “We’re talking about you, and your control freak tendencies. I got news for you, darling. You won’t have much control once you have a baby around. Those things run on their own schedule and have their own ideas of what’s best.”
I’m about to answer when I hear the buzzing of my phone from inside my purse. Everyone I know is here. Who would text me now? I put my finger up to Xena to show her I need a second and pull my phone out of my purse. The lock screen shows me I have a text from Andrew.
“Ugh, it’s Andrew,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“What the hell does he want?”
“Not sure. I’ll read it later.” I’m about to put my phone back in my purse when Xena grabs it from my hands and swipes the screen to get to the message.
“Uh, Denise? Maybe you should look at this now. Why would Andrew send you a picture of an old lady napping?” She turns my phone around so I can see the picture up on the screen. It’s a photo of Ryder’s Gran, and it looks like it’s taken through a window. She appears to be resting on the couch.
“That’s Ryder’s Gran.”
Just then another message comes through and I grab my phone.
Andrew- Tell your boyfriend he took something from me, so now I’m going to take something from him.
“What the hell does that mean?” I whisper. “What did Ryder take from him?”
“Uh, hello? Ryder took you. At least that seems to be what dickhead here is thinking.” She gestures to the phone in my hand.
Oh shit! Andrew is going to do something to Gran.
“Do you have your car?” We need to get to Gran before Andrew does something stupid. I can’t believe he would hurt her because of me. “I don’t want Ryder to freak out about his Gran. We can call your brother and have him meet us there. I’ll call Ryder once Kaden has Gran safe, and they have dealt with Andrew.”
“I do, but my keys are in my purse in the dining room. I can’t just go get it without people noticing. What should I tell them?”
“Tell them I have a headache and you’re grabbing pills for me. Grab a bottle of water too, to make it more convincing.”
