“It’s open!” she yelled.
I was just about to ask her if she’d seen Ryder, but I didn’t have to. He was standing in her kitchen, laughing at something she’d said.
“Oh, hey, Ryder. We were wondering where you were. Lucah’s been freaking out because you left your phone at our place.” He pretty much ignored me.
“Hey,” Sloane said, elbowing him. “Don’t be an ass**le.”
“I’m not being an ass**le. I am just silently objecting to the fact that I’m being treated like a lost child. Pretty soon here my brother is going to chain me to the radiator. That wouldn’t be the first time, but all the other times were for more pleasurable reasons.” He wiggled his eyebrows and Sloane giggled. There it was again. That giggle.
“Well, anyway. Maybe you could leave a note next time? He was worried.” I was still standing in the doorway, nervous about entering.
“Sure, I’ll get right on that,” he said with a smirk.
That smirk was the last straw.
“Look, I get that you don’t like me, and that’s fine. Go ahead. Hate me. But what you fail to realize is that you are living in MY house. I didn’t have to let you in, but I did. Because you’re my boyfriend’s brother and you needed a place to go. In case you haven’t noticed, no one else was standing in line to help you. So I would appreciate it if you could treat me like a human being. And if you EVER ogle me like you did this morning again, I will come into your room when you are sleeping and you will wake up minus one penis and a set of balls. Got it?” I didn’t mean to pull out the voice I used to reprimand employees when they screwed up, but once I started, I couldn’t stop. I’d also moved until I was looking directly up at Ryder.
“I wouldn’t mess with her. She means business,” Sloane said, standing beside me and pointing at Ryder with her spatula.
“I . . . “ He seemed to be at a loss for words. Thank God. Miracles were possible.
“So. That’s all I have to say. I’m going to leave now.” I turned on my heel and stomped out the door, but an arm caught me before I could step into the hallway.
“I’m sorry,” Ryder said, shrugging. I waited for something more, but then his jaw clenched and he let go. That was all I was going to get. But it was a start.
“Thank you for your apology. It has been accepted. Now I suggest you come back down the hall with me so your brother, who cares about you, doesn’t have a heart attack before he turns thirty.” I didn’t look back to see if he was still behind me, but I heard him say something to Sloane and then he did follow.
“Found him,” I said to Lucah and pointing over my shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” Ryder said before Lucah could even get up the breath to start yelling at him. “I went down the hall to help Sloane with dinner. I thought it would be nice. I should have left a note. I won’t do it again.” Wow. Why didn’t I get that with my apology?
Lucah’s face was red from his suppressed anger, but I saw him reel it in and nod.
“Okay. Just don’t do it again.” Ryder nodded and that was that. No one said anything more about it.
Ryder ended up going back down the hall to help Sloane carry everything over to our place. She’d really gone all out with sausage and rice stuffing in baked acorn squashes, a chopped salad topped with goat cheese and cranberries, and a white chocolate and raspberry mousse for dessert.
Ryder was the only one who hadn’t yet sampled what Sloane could cook and it was kind of funny to watch his face as he ate.
“Fuck, this is good,” he said with his mouth full.
“Thanks,” Sloane said, ducking her head. She normally took praise well, but Ryder was different.
“This is really great, Sloane. Another masterpiece,” I said and she grinned at me. She was glowing, and it wasn’t the tall candles she’d lit for ambience that caused it.
There was more silence as we ate, and I wished I knew something to say to make it stop.
“My therapist farted during our session,” Ryder said out of the blue. It almost made me knock over one of the candles as I reached for seconds of salad.
Lucah and Sloane both snorted, and then Lucah glared.
“What? It’s true. He tried to pretend it was the chair or something, but he definitely did.” I couldn’t hold my laughter in anymore, and once I started laughing, everyone else did. Even Ryder.
“How was the session, other than that?” Lucah asked.
Ryder shrugged.
“I don’t know. It seems weird to pay someone to listen to you bitch about your problems. I don’t know if it’s working yet.”
“Well, it takes time,” Sloane said. “And sometimes you need to find the right one. I went through three before I found one I liked.”
Sloane mentioning she was in therapy caused Ryder to turn completely in her direction.
“What were you in for?”
“Ah, the list is long,” she said with a smile. I knew what was on that list, but it was her story to tell. “But I had this one guy who had a lazy eye, so I was never sure if he was looking directly at me. I felt horrible, but it was really hard to focus during the sessions.” I remembered her telling me about him, and that got all of us laughing again, and we started telling random stories.
“If he farts in the next session, I’m going to have to get someone else. I just can’t deal with that,” Ryder said. For the first time since I’d seen him in the hospital, his face was open and he smiled easily. Especially at Sloane.
We finished dinner and Ryder offered to help Sloane with the dishes, which she accepted. I gave her a warning look as she left with him, but she just gave me one back.
“That was so much better,” Lucah said after they’d left. “I haven’t seen that side of him in a really long time. He was a riot when we were kids. Our family clown. Whenever things were at their worst, he’d make a joke, or do something absolutely stupid to make us forget that we didn’t have any money, or Dad had lost another job.” He shook his head at the memories.
“I’d thought maybe that part of him was gone, but it was nice to see it again.”
“It was. I was beginning to think he was a complete ass**le.”
“He’s still an ass**le. He’s just nice every once in awhile.”
“I don’t know ANYONE like that,” I said, pulling at his tie.
“It’s probably genetic,” he agreed.