Page 73 of Surprised By Her

Ryan turned the car off and looked at me.

“I can take you anywhere else you want to go. We could go home, and I can talk to your mama about candles, or we could go to my place. If this isn’t for you today, I support you.”

I leaned over and kissed her. “I’m okay. How about we come up with a word that I can say and if I say it, you’ll take me somewhere quiet?”

“Kind of like a safeword,” she said.

“Right. Okay, now to come up with a word that wouldn’t sound weird if I just dropped it in conversation.”

“How about…how about if you say you want another negroni? That’s normal,” she said.

“Hey, that works. Let’s go with that.”

I put my hand on the door and pushed it open. Ryan joined me and then I realized that people were going to ask questions about us going in together.

“What are we telling people?” I asked, grabbing her arm. “About you and me, what are we telling people? I know we haven’t talked about anything, so I don’t want to have that conversation right now, but I just need to know what you want to do.”

Ryan put both hands on my shoulders.

“It’s okay. We’re friends, right? I mean, we can tell them we’re friends and that’s all anyone needs to know.”

Friends. The word stuck my throat and normally I wouldn’t have minded it at all, and it was a good answer. If we said anything else, people would have more questions that neither of us could answer.

“Friends,” I finally said, hating the taste of the word in my mouth. “Friends is good.”

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Layne said. “Both of you.”

“Me too,” I said. There were three times as many people as I thought were going to be here and I was doing my best not to fall off a mental cliff. It was only Ryan’s looming presence next to me, her body almost up against mine that kept me from completely crumbling.

“Help yourself to food and drinks and hop in the pool and have a brownie,” Layne said as someone else came over to say hello.

“Thanks,” I said and then I shared a look with Ryan. “Shall we get food?”

“If you’re up for it,” she said.

“I am,” I said, giving her the best smile I could manage. Ryan put her hand on the small of my back and guided me toward the food table. Mark was at the grill and he gave Ryan a huge hug and called the twins over. They left a group of other kids and ran to come give Ryan hugs.

“Auntie R, will we be as tall as you?” one of them asked.

Ryan leaned down so she was closer to their eye level. “Only if you eat your vegetables and listen to your parents and get really good grades.”

The twins rolled their eyes in perfect unison.

“Auntie R, we’re too old to believe that,” one twin said.

“Thanks for trying,” Mark said with a laugh as he added some fresh burgers to the grill. “The older they get, the harder it is to lie about things.”

“You’re not supposed to lie,” the girls said at the same time. They might wear different clothes and hairstyles, but other than that, they were so in sync. I wondered what that was like.

“I don’t know how tall you’re going to be, but there’s a good chance, since both your parents are relatively tall, that you will be too. Have you learned about genetics yet in school?”

They shook their heads.

“You will,” Ryan said. “For now, don’t worry about being tall. There’s nothing you can do about it anyway. You can be in charge of your clothes and your grades and how you treat others. Okay?”

They nodded in unison and she smiled.

“You’re my favorite nieces,” she said.

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