15
Ryder
The evening was going better than anticipated. Trina was relaxed and pleasant. We bantered, but she didn’t have that edge of annoyance or disapproval that she sometimes had. The only little blip was when she came back from the bathroom. I could see her guard had gone up. I wondered what had happened. Did she see someone there? Or in a moment alone had she reconsidered this bet and decided she needed to keep her emotional distance?
Being someone who could go with the flow, I didn’t push her on it and instead, once we finished our dessert, I paid the check and led her back out to the truck. Instead of heading back to my place, I drove out to a secluded area overlooking the river. The sky was clear, and from this spot, a million stars glowed.
“What are we doing?” she asked.
“We’re parking and then we’re going to make out. How does that sound?” I grinned, hoping she didn’t see this as too corny.
One side of her mouth quirked up, even as her eyes narrowed. “We have two perfectly good beds at your place.”
I was happy to hear she still planned to have sex. After her trip to the bathroom, I wasn’t sure how she was feeling about this turn in our relationship. “The ladies’ magazines say that to keep a marriage fresh, it’s important to mix things up.”
“Are you saying we’re stale after a week?”
“Not at all.” I turned on the radio and rolled down the windows. “Come on.” I opened my door.
“Where are we going?”
I walked over to her side of the truck and helped her out. “I’m trying to be romantic. Bear with me.”
She eyed me suspiciously, but she was smiling, so I continued with my plan. I escorted her to the bed of the truck, putting down the back gate.
“Hop up.” I helped her up and then joined her. I grabbed the large duffle bag stuffed with sleeping bags, a foam pad, and as many pillows as I could fit. I rolled the pad out, and topped it with the sleeping bags and put the pillows up against the cab of the truck. “Join me.”
She blushed as she came to sit next to me. I put my arm around her and was thrilled when she rested her head on my shoulder. We had enough pillows to slightly recline allowing us to look up at the night sky.
“Have you ever seen so many stars?” I asked, kissing her head.
“I don’t know that I ever paid attention.”
I suspected there was a lot in that statement. I’d known Trina for a long time. I knew her father didn’t offer her a lot of stability, so she probably didn’t have time to enjoy things like stars in the sky. I wasn’t a shrink, but I suspected that’s why she was so controlling. It had been a matter of survival for her as a kid, but it was unfortunate that she held such a tight grip now that it made her so wary and guarded, and inflexible.
The truth was, I loved this crazy, uptight woman. I had for a long time. My goal now was to show her she was safe with me. To give me a chance when a bet wasn’t involved. I wasn’t sure how I’d do that, but I figured I still had three weeks.
An old ballad came on the radio talking about love and I sang along.
Trina looked up at me. “You have a great voice, Ryder.”
I gazed down at her in surprise. “I always thought you hated my singing.”
She gave me a sheepish smile. “Only when you sang my lyrics.”
It was a reminder of how badly I’d hurt her. It had been unintentional, but it happened. “I’m sorry for hurting you.” I kissed her head again. “I didn’t mean to. In fact, I thought it would flatter and impress you. Boy did that backfire.”
“Why would you want to flatter and impress me?”
“Because I had the hots for you.” I grinned.
She gave me a light slap on the chest. “Yeah, right. I remember you in high school. You didn’t have the hots for me.”
“I did too.”
She studied me as if she was looking for the truth. “Why didn't you say anything?”
I shrugged. “You’re Sinclair’s friend. I wasn’t sure how that would go. And then, of course, you started hating my guts. Then again, maybe you always hated my guts.”
She rested her head on my chest. “I didn’t. I used to think you were hot.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I did.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked, not sure I believed her.
“Because you’re Sinclair’s brother.”
I laughed. “It’s all Sinclair’s fault.”
“Then you stole my poetry and used it for your own nefarious purposes and you became my mortal enemy.”
I couldn’t believe it. Did she like me too, then? I had wondered a time or two if she had, but since she wasn’t overt in her interest like other girls were, I couldn’t be sure. The only thing I had been sure of was when she decided I was persona non grata.
What really irked was the amount of time I’d lost. Had I known how she felt, I would have done something, Sinclair’s opinion be damned. Maybe if I had shown my hand, Trina and I’d be celebrating ten years of something real instead of one week of something fake.
I turned to her, finishing singing the song, moving closer and closer to her until my lips were a whisper away from hers. Unable to hold back until the end of the song, I
