Page 86 of Save Me

That’s when Kate turned to Arianna and Will. “Did you set a date? Is that why you’re all whispering over here? Were you going to surprise your father and I over dinner?”

“Oh God…” Ari whined. “No one’s set a date, Liam hasn’t proposed, Ryker hasn’t proposed, and Jamie never will propose because no woman would put up with him.” She smiled broadly. “That’s why we were all laughing.”

Nodding, Kate glanced at all of them. “That makes sense.” Then she put her arm around Jamie. “It doesn’t mean no one will ever love you,” she told him. “It just means that maybe you should pay a little more attention to the things you do and say.”

“Wait…what?” he asked.

“I’ll bet Mom knows a couple of nice girls she could fix you up with,” Liam said with a straight face, while the rest of the family seemed to struggle not to laugh.

“Oh! I do!” Kate said excitedly. “One of the nurses who comes to do physical therapy on your father is very sweet. I’ll bet you’d really hit it off with her. Maybe I should call and see if she can stop by today so you can meet her?”

“Mom!” Jamie snapped before glaring at his siblings. “Not cool. All of you…not cool.” Then he stormed off toward the kitchen. When he was out of earshot, Kate smiled at all of them.

“Now that was fun.” And with a wink, she motioned them all toward the dining room. “Come, we’ve got a ton of food in there. Ari, I have plenty of salad dressings in the kitchen that you can grab.”

And just like that, a dozen different conversations started up again.

It wasn’t until everyone was seated around the large dining room table that the conversation turned to him.

“So Ryker,” Shane Donovan began from the head of the table. “Have you settled on a name for the business? Everyone’s been speculating. I think Ronan’s got a pool going on what you end up with.”

That made him chuckle because it sounded exactly like the kind of thing Ronan would do. “I think I’ll have it finalized this week, but I don’t want to jinx it. Several things will have to fall into place for it to happen.”

He looked over and saw the confusion on Ryleigh’s face, and he reached for her hand and gave it a slight squeeze.

“Actually, your daughter was a big help with it. She got me to be creative, so…”

“Did she also get you to cut your hair?” Kate asked with a knowing smile.

“No, ma’am,” he said firmly. “That was all on me. I thought it would be a thoughtful gesture so that maybe you wouldn’t be so hard on Ryleigh when we came for dinner.”

You could have heard a pin drop in that moment.

Kate’s eyes went wide for just a second before they narrowed at him. “Why would a haircut do that?”

Clearing his throat and straightening slightly in his seat, he kept his gaze directed at her. “I’ve seen all the men you’ve tried fixing her up with, and I thought if I looked like one of them, maybe you’d be willing to accept me as the man in Ryleigh’s life and not be secretly plotting to find her someone else.”

She arched a brow at him. “I’m sure Ryleigh’s already explained to you how I promised to stop doing that.”

Ryker kept his expression neutral. “She told me, but I’m not sure I believe it. It seems like you gave in too easily. Plus, you hadn’t spent any time with the two of us as a couple, so I was trying to stack the deck in our favor.”

“Interesting,” she slowly replied. “You’ve only been dating my daughter for such a short time and yet you think you know this family so well?”

“Not the whole family, just you,” he clarified.

“Ryker,” Ryleigh whispered from beside him, but he simply gave her hand another squeeze.

“What I know is that I watched Ryleigh spend far too much time crying and doubting herself. I’ve held her while she wondered what was wrong with her and why you treated her the way you did.” He leaned forward slightly. “I sat and held her while we talked things through. And I did it to help her see just how amazing she is. I didn’t mind doing it because she deserved to have someone on her side. But I didn’t do the one thing that I should have.”

“Oh?” Kate asked. “And what was that?”

“I should have come here weeks ago and put a stop to it. Just like I should have gone to the pub and kicked Jamie’s ass the day he came over and made her cry.”

“Hey!” Jamie hissed. “Dude, what the hell?”

Ryker spared him a look. “You and I both know what you did and why, and maybe Ryleigh’s forgiven you—because she’s got a bigger heart than anyone I’ve ever known—but I don’t. You hurt your sister and it’s going to take me a while before I can trust you.”

“Now just a minute,” Jamie argued.

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