Page 55 of Very Unlikely
With Rye’s glare hot enough to burn, and my confidence at an all-time-high that Summer is passed the fuck out, I confess a truth I swore I’d never tell anyone. “I didn’t sleep with Bethany. I couldn’t. The hurt in Summer’s eyes…”
When I pause to make sure I don’t choose the wrong set of words, Rye finds the right ones for me to use. “Got to you?”
I nod without thinking. “It’s been there since day one too. It just grew harder to ignore the more time we spent together.”
Rye doesn’t look happy, but instead of dissecting my insides as if they are gizzards, he sinks back into his chair and makes a teepee with his index fingers. “Then why haven’t you done anything about it?”
“I can’t.” There’s no hiding the croakiness in my voice when I mutter, “I don’t want to hurt her.”
My brows stitch when Rye murmurs, “And this isn’t?” He waves his hand around our suite. “She’s a smart girl, Lennox, but you have her convinced she needs to become them to be accepted when all she needs to do is let them see her how you see her.” When I nod again, he leans over and squeezes my shoulder. “That means you only have two choices. Either love my daughter or let her go. Stringing her along isn’t an option.” He more pinches my shoulder than squeezes it in comfort during his last sentence. “I’ll give you a week to make your decision. If you haven’t made it by then, I’ll make it for you.”
My eyes bounce between him and the door when he makes a beeline for it. I didn’t think I’d get him out of here without a crane, but he up and leaves of his own accord, shocking the hell out of me.
“You didn’t book the room next to ours, did you?” When he fails to answer me, I stand to my feet. “Rye?”
The silence that swamps me should have me slow off the mark. Thankfully, I work great under pressure. In an impressive two minutes, I confirm with the hotel receptionist that there’s no one staying here under the surname of Ramsay and catch the vomit Summer isn’t anticipating until its surges up her food pipe so fast, her eyes pop out of her head.
“Lennox…” she murmurs several painful heaves later.
“It’s okay. I’ve got you. I’m right here.”
She peers up at me with groggy, bloodshot eyes that are full of admiration… until she spots the mess she made. “Did I get vomit on your shirt?”
“A little, but that’s alright. I never really liked this shirt anyway.” I bob down next to a bin full of vomit and a girl with an incredibly sorry head. “Do you think you’ve got anything left in your stomach?”
I grin when she drops her bottom lip into a pout. “I don’t think so. That’s pretty much everything I ate the past twenty-four hours.”
I move the bucket away from her before it makes her stomach churn as much as it does mine, then I help her to her feet. “Do you think you can make it back to our room in one piece?”
“Umm…” When she strays her eyes to the bedroom door to mentally calculate the number of steps needed, I scoop her into my arms. “Lennox, don’t. I can walk.”
“Probably. But since that would shave a good ten minutes off my sleep schedule, I’d rather carry you. I’m fucking zonked.” I wish I were lying. I haven’t slept in over thirty-six hours.
During the trek to our room, it dawns on me that Rye must trust me. If he didn’t, why would he leave the safety of his daughter in my hands?
I’m kind of shocked. Cody wasn’t the only one who misunderstood what he walked in on. I was getting stink eyes from strangers. If Rye didn’t arrive when he did, who knows how things would have ended. I’m reasonably sure Cody would have a black eye and a busted nose either way, though.
After placing Summer on the left side of the bed so she’ll see the ocean when she wakes, I tug off the shirt that caught some of her vomit before the bin, then yank my shorts down my thighs. While acting ignorant to Summer’s heated gawk, I switch my daytime boxers for nighttime ones, then request for her to scoot over. I want her to see the ocean when she wakes, but since her thumping head would be demanding for her ear to be squashed against my heart, I have to sleep on the same half of the mattress as her.
I switch off the lamp on the bedside table so it won’t reflect off my teeth when Summer squashes her ear to my chest a mere nanosecond after I slip beneath the sheets. She remains quiet for several long seconds, her silence only breaking when her eyes lock onto the dress she stripped out of in an impressively quick ten seconds. “The foggy memories in my head are accurate, aren’t they? They’re not vivid daydreams.”
“Depends on exactly how accurate you’re talking. Do I need a ta—” I cough out a chuckle when she socks me in the stomach.
“Don’t be rude.”
“I didn’t even get to finish my sentence, so how the hell can you accuse me of being rude?”
She has me over a barrel when she replies, “I know you, Lenigan69. You don’t even need to speak for me to know what you’re thinking.”
Incapable of denying the truth, I mutter, “True.” After tightening my grip around her waist, I balance my chin on the top of her head. “That’s why I’m so shocked you’ve been giving me such a hard time lately.”
Her sigh ruffles the half a dozen chest hairs nestled between my pecs. “I’m shocked too. You just…”
“Piss you off?” I fill in when silence overwhelms her for the second time tonight.
Her head slides up and down my chest. “But it isn’t the normal type of annoyance. Yours is the special kind.”
“Told you I’m special.”
