Page 133 of When Wrecked Meets Ruined
“No more of that fancy shit,” he said as we strolled down the street at a more reasonable pace. “I should have known better than to trust Gideon.”
“He’s the fancy one, huh?”
“Yeah,” Ridge said with a laugh. He showed me his phone screen.
Ridge: You’re an asshole. That place sucked.
Gideon: You philistine. It has 2 Michelin stars. The sea urchin is better than sex, and the Wagyu beef melts in your mouth.
Ridge: If you think a sea creature is better than sex, you’re doing it wrong.
I laughed, and it eased some of the tension inside me.
He was still Ridge.
CHAPTERFORTY-EIGHT
Evie
We endedup at a place with exposed brick walls, tall windows, and woodfired pizza. The restaurant was casual and unpretentious and the food was delicious. I’d forgotten how much Ridge could eat. He’d ordered chicken scallopini with fettuccine, a salad, and a pizza, and that was all just for him. He’d finished most of it while I was still eating my pizza and salad.
“Better?” he asked, taking a pull of his beer.
“Much.” I smiled and took another bite of my pizza.
He sat back in his seat and pushed his hand through his hair. His jacket was hanging on the back of his chair, and he’d rolled up his shirtsleeves. He looked more like himself now. More comfortable and relaxed.
“I don’t know what I was thinking. Maybe I wanted to impress you.”
My gaze snapped to his face. I’d been staring at his forearms. Vein porn at its finest. “You don’t have to spend money on me to impress me. Just being you is impressive enough. Even before you were a hotshot NFL player, you were something special.”
He rested his folded hands on the table and lowered his head. I wanted to reach across the table and take his hands in mine. But instead, I took a sip of my beer and waited. I could always tell when Ridge was about to say something important.
He lifted his head, and our eyes met. “You fucked me up, Evie.” He exhaled loudly. “And I know… I know that what you went through was horrible. I get that. I do. But I don’t get how you could just cut me off like that.”
I knew I owed him an explanation, and I’d gone over it in my head a million times, anticipating this moment when we’d finally come face to face again. But now, I didn’t have the words to adequately explain it. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Leaving you was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” I hoped he heard the sincerity in my words because I meant every one of them. “But I just… I was so fucked up. And I…” I cleared my throat. “I don’t expect you to understand, but at the time, I truly believed that the best thing I could do for you was to let you go.”
He shook his head and let out a humorless laugh. “Bullshit. You didn’t do that for me. Because that’s not what I wanted. I would have stayed. I would have waited. All you had to do was ask.”
“I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
“Yes, you could have.” He leaned forward and clenched his jaw. “I would have done whatever it took to be there for you.”
“I was four and a half hours away. It was hard enough when we were only forty minutes away.” He opened his mouth to protest, but I didn’t let him. “It wasn’t just the distance. It was everything. It just all hit me at once. My mom leaving. All those years of struggling to survive. And I know you’ve been there. I know you’ve lived it.” My gaze lowered to the table, and I traced a knot in the wood. “But at the time, I kept thinking that you had a chance to make all your dreams come true, and I didn’t want to be the girl standing in your way.”
Ridge shook his head. “That’s fucked up, Cherry.”
“I was fucked up. You have no idea,” I said quietly.
Ridge thought about my words for a moment. “And now?”
“I’m working on it.” It wasn’t an answer, but it was the most honest one I could give him. “I’m working hard to get past all the bad shit and build a future for myself.”
He nodded slowly, probably trying to decipher what that meant. “So, medical school, huh?”
“Yeah. Can you believe it?”
He gave me a little smile. “I always knew you’d do something amazing. I knew that somehow you’d find a way to get that life you wanted.”
