Page 66 of Something to Someone

“God, I cannot stand you sometimes,” I muttered under my breath, attempting to type my password for a third time. Shaking hands made the process difficult.

Ryder groaned and dropped his head back. “I told you, you can’t say stuff like that to me. It just turns me on.”

My retort fell dead on my tongue when the door opened, and Natalie stepped inside.

“Oh, Ryder, hi. I didn’t realize you…what are you doing here?”

God, we were lucky.Sofucking lucky that we had a built-in excuse for Ryder being in my office.

“We had a few last-minute things we had to talk about for Stephen and Miles’s wedding,” I said casually. Or at least, that’s what I was going for.

“And I had a meeting in the area, so I thought it’d be easier to just drop by,” Ryder added smoothly. He was so much better than I was at lying to his mom. Likely from years of practice, but also because he was less concerned about her reaction if she found out about all the sneaking around we did behind her back.

Guilt made me nauseous just thinking about it.

“That’s convenient,” Natalie said as she crossed to Ryder. They hugged, and I wanted to puke. “How was your day?” she asked her son, and I tried to entertain myself by responding to emails that could have waited and randomly clicking around on my home screen to appear busy.

I used the length of their short conversation to try to get my mind right and to push away the guilt at least for the time being. Not that I could do much more than that—it always came back.

“Care?” Natalie called my name, and my head popped up. I could tell by her tone—and Ryder’s barely suppressed smile—that she must have said my name several times.

“Yeah?”

Natalie was across the room and standing in front of the very large, purple bouquet. “Who are these from?”

“A client,” I said quickly.

She raised her eyebrows, and her smile broadened. I knew immediately she didn’t believe me. She tucked a piece of dark hair behind her ear and leaned forward to smell the flowers. “A client or a man?”

“What do you mean? I?—”

“I mean, I don’t believe you, but that’s fine you don’t have to tell me.”

Somehow, I managed to keep my expression neutral even with Ryder’s eyes burrowing into the side of my face. “Fine, it was a man. Are you happy?”

Natalie’s smile widened. “Is there a card?”

Fuck, fuck, fuck, I thought.

“I didn’t see one either,” Ryder piped up. Slowly, I turned toward him and gave him my most menacing look that he, for some reason, seemed to enjoy. It didn’t have its desired effect, but at least he knew that I didn’t appreciate his commentary.

“There wasn’t a note,” I said. “The delivery guy dropped it on his way up. But…I know who they’re from. A card wouldn’t have been necessary.” I knew I had to give Natalie something, otherwise she wouldn’t drop the topic. And with Ryder in the room, I was feeling pressure from all sides.

She pursed her lips and nodded. But I knew that look all too well—she’d descend into a million questions later, and I had to prepare for each of them. I began compiling answers as we stood there.

Fuck Ryder and his gorgeous bouquet.

“Okay, well, should we go? Unless there are other wedding details you all need to discuss?” Natalie clutched her bag in one hand and looked between me and Ryder.

“Nope,” I said quickly. “We’re done. Let me just grab my bag, and we can go.”

“I guess I’ll head out as well. Bye, Mom, love you,” Ryder said, stooping to hug his mom once again. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and strode toward the door. But before he walked out, he glanced back at me over his shoulder. I hoped Natalie didn’t note the way I tensed when his eyes landed on me.

“I’ll talk to you soon, Caroline.”

He left, and I finally felt like I could breathe again. Shaking away the lingering feelings, I grabbed my purse and shut down my computer, stuffing it into my bag.

I could still hear Ryder’s footsteps on the tile floor in the hallway when Natalie asked, “So, who’s the guy?”

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