Page 21 of Coming For Her Curves
"There's things you don't know—" I start to tell him, but the man walks up and hands Ryker his credit card. “Want me to load it up for you?"
Ryker, tense now, walks over to the tree and easily picks it up. "I got it. Thank you." He shakes the man's hand and then startswalking to his SUV. He single-handedly loads the tree on top. I stand back and watch him get ratchet straps out of the back and tie down the tree.
As soon as he's done, I walk up to him. "Ryker... We should talk." He searches my face and then nods. "Yeah, we should talk. But today we're going to enjoy. We can talk later."
I grab his hand and am about to ask him to kiss me when Brock walks up, all smiles.
I look around for Casey. “Where's Casey?"
He blushes. “She left with her family... but she gave me her number."
I put my hands to my mouth. “Oh, Brock."
He rolls his eyes. “Don't make it weird, Mom."
I suck in a breath. Right. I gotta be cool. “Sorry."
As we get into the SUV, Brock and Ryker talk the whole way home. We're unloading the tree when Brock's phone rings.
He looks at it. “It’s Dad."
"Go ahead and answer it. We got this."
He walks over to the porch to talk, and Ryker picks the tree up. I run up to the house and unlock the door. "Ryker, I can help you carry it."
He just keeps walking, tree on his shoulder. It's like I have my very own lumberjack.
We are getting the tree set up when Brock comes in.
"Mom?"
"Down here," I call from under the tree. I was setting the base for it to stand on.
“Dad wants me to come to his apartment."
I stand up. “Sure, we can do the tree trimming and the movie tomorrow night.”
He looks at me, unsure. “But we were going to decorate the tree and watchChristmas Vacation."
I keep the smile on my face. I know Brock wants to see his dad. It's been weeks, and he's missed all his games. “It's fine. We can do it tomorrow night."
Brock looks over at Ryker. “Is tomorrow night okay with you?"
Ryker looks surprised to be included but nods his head. “Yeah, tomorrow is fine with me."
Brock looks back at me. "Mom, are you sure?"
I laugh. "Honey, I'm sure. I'll be fine." I look over at Ryker. “We can grab dinner or watch a movie."
Ryker's eyes darken, letting me know exactly what he wants to do later. But he sounds all innocent when he talks to Brock. “Don't worry about your Mom. I'm going to feed her dinner and try to convince her why we should be together."
"Ryker!" I say.
Brock laughs. He's running to his room, hollering over his shoulder, "Okay, I'm going to pack a bag."
It's not thirty minutes later and Brock is running out the door to meet his dad. I stay inside, not wanting to get Allen riled up.
"You okay?" Ryker asks.
