Page 86 of The Lessons

I froze.

“At the library,” we both replied in unison.

“Library, huh?” Marcus looked at me and then back at Ryan. “Hmm. I guess I need to start reading.” He stood up. “I’m gonna get another beer. Anyone want one?”

Most of the hands shot up, except for Ryan’s and mine. He leaned into me and asked, “Did you drive?”

I shook my head. “Uber.”

“Need a ride home?”

My core clenched, and I grew warm as his velvety suggestion cut off the oxygen to my brain.

YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES

“Sure,” I breathed, so no one but him could hear.

He smiled and leaned forward, his body still fitting itself against mine.

“So, speaking of libraries, how’s Ains?” Lambo continued.

Ryan spun his empty glass around in his hands before answering. “She’s good. Better.”

“Still hot and blond?”

I looked back at Ryan. His eyes darkened, and his eyebrow arched. “Lam.”

“Hey, man, relax. I’m just playing with you.” Lam turned to me. “Would you tell this guy he needs to learn to take a joke?”

I smiled, not daring to say anything. Whatever dysfunctional bro-y thing they had going on between the two of them, I wasn’t going to be the one to help them hash it out.

“I think we’re gonna get going,” Ryan said as he stood up.

A few whoops and catcalls erupted from the crowd.

“Gentlemen, are you fucking animals? Lay the fuck off.” The whoops got twice as loud. Ryan turned to me and offered his hand. “Ready?”

I nodded, grabbed his hand, and said some quick goodbyes. As we left the bar, I felt ten sets of eyes pinned to my back as I walked out the door, hand in hand with Ryan Andrews.

We walked across the parking lot, his thumb outlining little circles in the palm of my hand.

“Thanks for coming out tonight. Did you have fun?”

I didn’t dare look up at him. “I did. Thanks for inviting me. Your friends are something else.”

“Yeah, they’resomething,alright.”

“I was dying to ask: do they, uh, do they know what you do? I mean, your job?”

His fingers stopped mid-circle, and he looked over at me. “You mean the surrogacy stuff? Are you kidding? No way. I mean, they know I do therapy work, but they don’t know the nature of it.”

“Must make it hard to date, though. They don’t give you crap about that?” I asked and then immediately cringed. Thankfully, the lights in the parking lot were dim.

He shrugged. “A little, but with school and work, well…” he trailed off.

Once we reached his bike, he let go of my hand so that he could unlock his helmet.

“Put this on,” he said, lowering it over my head and buckling the chin strap.

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