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“What?”

He shakes his head. “You’re going to ditch me on our first night in the new house?”

“What if we do something special tomorrow night?” I ask in an attempt to pacify him.

“Yeah, sure.” He turns away and stomps down the hallway to our bedroom. The mattress springs squeak as he plops down on the bed and I sigh. Well, this is getting off to a fantastic start.

“Ryan,” I call out but he ignores me. With another sigh, I march off down the hallway after him and find him lying on his back in the middle of the mattress with his arm slung over his eyes. “Ryan.”

“What?” he asks, glaring at me from underneath his arm and I feel two feet tall.

“Please don’t be mad at me. Why don’t you call your friends and see if they want to get together?”

“Go get ready, Emma. You’re going to be late.”

“Ryan, please,” I plead with him. I hate this feeling and I don’t want to leave the house knowing that he’s so upset with me but it’s important to spend time with the girls, especially with my brothers still not really speaking to me.

“I’m done with this conversation. Get in the shower.”

With a huff of annoyance, I peel off my sundress and march into the master bathroom. Fine. If he wants to be a stubborn ass, then I’ll just go out and have fun with my girls.

* * * *

Ryan is sitting on the couch with a beer in his hand, watching a baseball game on his phone, when I step into the living room. He doesn’t even look up to acknowledge my presence and all my hopes of making up tonight die a slow death. He wouldn’t even speak to me when I left a few hours ago and I had hoped that he would calm down after a little time to clear his head but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I glance around nervously for a moment before sinking into the couch next to him. He still doesn’t acknowledge me. Biting my lip, I reach out to touch him and he slams his beer down on the end table before pushing up off the couch.

“I’m going to bed,” he tosses over his shoulder as he walks down the hallway and tears well up in my eyes as I watch him go.

“Ryan,” I call to him but he keeps walking, not even sparing me a second glance. “Ryan!”

When he still doesn’t answer me, I grab his half empty beer off the end table and take it to the kitchen, dumping it down the sink before heading down the hallway to the bedroom. He’s lying on his side of the bed, facing away from the door when I enter.

“Will you talk to me?” I ask but my plea is met with silence and an ache springs in my chest. “Baby, please.”

More silence.

Wiping a tear from my cheek, I quickly retreat into the living room and sink into the couch again as more tears fill my eyes. As they start spilling down my cheeks, I lean back into the couch and try to figure out how the night went so terribly wrong. Even after thinking about it all night, I can’t see how what I did was so wrong. He knew that Addy’s birthday was tonight and that I was going to go. Why is he acting like this? His silence hurts so much more than I thought it would and I have to wonder if I made a mistake moving in with him so quickly if this is how we’re spending our first night together.

With silent tears running down my cheeks, I rack my brain – desperately trying to figure out why he got so upset about the fact that I went out tonight. But more importantly, how can I make this better? The more I think about it, though, the more unsure I am. I go back and forth between being angry that he’s acting this way to just wishing that he would talk to me. I think at this point, I might do just about anything.

Giving up, I stand up and slowly make my way back to the bedroom before slipping out of the dress that I went out in. On the way to the closet to hang it up, I decide to take another shower to wash the night off of me and duck into the bathroom, turning on the water. Steam fills the room and I take a deep breath as I slip under the water and watch it form little rivers on my skin. My mind is still searching for the reason we fought tonight but more than anything, I wish that he would come in here and wrap his arms around me. No matter what is going on in my life, Ryan makes me feel better. Fresh tears spring to my eyes as I think about Ryan lying in the other room, angry with me and I vow to myself that I will do whatever it takes tomorrow to get him to forgive me.

After stepping out of the shower, I quickly dry off and go in search of some pajamas when I spot Ryan’s t-shirt hanging off the end of the footboard and I grab it, pulling it over my head. His scent surrounds me and I breathe it in for a moment before crawling into bed and staring at his naked back. I had hoped that he still might be awake but his even breaths tell me that he’s already asleep and I close my eyes, hoping that in the morning, he’ll let me fix things.

I lie in bed for what feels like hours but when I open my eyes again and glance over at the alarm clock on Ryan’s side of the bed, I groan. It’s only been forty-five minutes and I feel like I’m never going to get to sleep tonight. Squeezing my eyes shut again, I blow out a breath and relax into the pillows. Finally, I drift off to sleep but it’s restless. I toss and turn all night long – worrying about my fight with Ryan and how I can make it up to him in the morning – before finally opening my eyes to bright sunlight.

Sitting up in bed, I groan and reach out to the space next to me. My hand meets cool sheets just as the smell of coffee and bacon registers in my mind and I realize Ryan must have been up for a while. Sucking in a deep breath, I yank the covers back and climb out of bed, mentally preparing myself for some epic apologizing.

“All right, let’s do this,” I whisper to myself as I creep out into the hallway in Ryan’s shirt. Peeking around the corner, into the kitchen, I find Ryan at the stove, cooking bacon in a pair of mesh shorts and nothing else.

“Good morning,” I say, sounding much more confident than I feel as I step into the kitchen. Ryan glances over his shoulder and grins at me, his gaze falling down to my bare legs.

“Good morning, gorgeous. I’m lovin’ my new view.” He nods at me and I blush, trying to figure out how he’s going to play this. “You hungry?”

“Um, yeah,” I reply as my stomach growls loudly. I was so worried about our fight last night that I barely ate anything at dinner. “So, listen, can we talk?”

He scoops some bacon and eggs on a plate before handing it to me. “About what?”

“Our fight last night. I’m really sorry that I upset you by going out but you knew Addy’s birthday was last night.”