I was out of time.
“I… have to take this,” I said, pulling my phone out and seeing Astrid’s name on the caller ID, as expected.
“Tell her we’ll do it,” Ward said, letting go of me except to squeeze my hip. “Tell her wewantto do it,” he added, brushing his lips over my cheek.
I really needed to see someone about my knees going weak all the time. That couldn’t be a good sign.
“Have you seen the light yet?” Astrid asked as soon as I answered the call.
Ward had moved to hug his dad hello now, but he was looking at me over Mr. H’s shoulder. I could still read a look like that as though we had some kind of psychic connection.
He wanted to do this. For me.
Because he was a better man than anyone on the whole planet deserved, let alone me. Not that Ward had ever cared about who deserved what from him. He just gave and gave and gave. Always had.
“I…”
Dammit.
I hadn’t wanted this. Any of this. If I could go back and not let myself be weak, not give in and hookup with some stranger, or if I’d left the moment I realized he recognized me… if I could have taken it all back, I would’ve in a heartbeat.
But some mistakes couldn’t be taken back. Some mistakes you had to live with.
I’d learned that when I found out I’d screwed up my college registration and couldn’t correct it from home.
And Ward… Ward had bailed me out. We’d taken off for two days in the same pickup truck he was still driving to go to the campus so I could correct it in person, like they’d told me I’d have to.
He’d been doing things like that for me for as long as I could remember. Now, he was doing it again.
But the look in his eyes said he wanted to. Maybe… maybe that was enough. Maybe it’d have to be.
“Yeah,” I said a few beats too slow. “Yeah, umm. We’ll do it.”
“I knew you were my smartest client,” Astrid said. “Send me everything you’re planning to post to your Instagram before you post it and I’ll work on finding you a nice party to show him off at.”
A party to show Ward off at.
Great.
“You boys hungry?” Mr. Harrison asked. “I could murder a steak.”
6
Ward
I’d made a mistake.
Everything had happened so fast—one second I’d been trying to convince Ryder to let me help him, ready to do anything it took.
The next, I’d seen an opportunity. Ryder loved Dad as much as I did, and the feeling was mutual. He wouldn’t have let Dad down for the world.
The thing was, neither would I.
The other thing was, Dad was really,reallythrilled to see me with Ryder.
He’d always liked me hanging out with him, and while we talked over dinner about the Def Leppard concert he’d taken off to see halfway across the country like some kind of teenager, he kept looking at the two of us with more light in his eyes than I’d seen in a long time.
I knew he worried about me not dating. Not in a weird, overbearing,where are my grandkidsway—even if he joked about that sometimes. Just… worried. Worried that I was lonely, that I didn’t have what he’d had with mom. An ally. Someone who was always there.
