They’d been seated for about five minutes when he heard a high-pitched laugh out in the hallway of the mall and turned his head. Shit. There was Ryder with one of his bimbos.
And as rotten luck would have it, Ryder turned and saw him, grinned and pulled his date toward the restaurant. This was the last thing he wanted to happen.
Because he knew exactly what was running through his cousin’s mind and he wasn’t buying.
He was trying to figure out how to get out of this when Ryder walked over and said, “Wyatt, didn’t know you’d be at the mall today. You never come out to the mall. And who is this?”
“Adriana, this is my cousin Ryder. This is Sam’s youngest brother.”
“Hi,” Ryder said, reaching his hand over and then pulling out a seat. “I’m pretty hungry. How about you, Candi? Could you eat dinner?”
Candi was snapping her gum, then sat down next to Ryder. Her cleavage was hanging out, typical of the type of women Ryder spent time with.
“No,” Wyatt said. “Don’t do it. It’s not what you think.”
“Sure, it is,” Ryder said. “I can see it.” There wasn’t anything he could say right now without getting into an argument and looking like a fool in front of the woman he was trying to win over. He’d just have to deal with it when the check came.
“What are you doing here?” Wyatt asked. “You’re not one to come to the mall either.”
“I wanted some new thongs and bras,” Candi said. “Ryder was helpful picking them out with me.”
“I bet he was,” Adriana said, covering her mouth with her hand and grinning. Wyatt wanted to laugh but knew better.
“How did you two meet?” Ryder asked. “Oh, let me guess. You work at the hospital.”
Just great. That was the worst thing Ryder could have said. Especially when Adriana ground her teeth. “I do. We are just friends.”
That firm final sound was like losing the few steps he’d gained this weekend. He was going to kick his cousin’s ass when he got him alone.
And as he expected Ryder and Candi ordered more food than normal, and the most expensive items on the menu. After they ate, when Candi excused herself to go to the bathroom, Ryder waited a few minutes and then picked up her bag that had been placed by their feet and said, “I’ll go find her.”
“He won’t be back,” he said to Adriana.
“What?”
“He is ditching us after running up the bill.”
“That is horrible. Does he do that a lot? Is he the family freeloader?”
Wyatt laughed. As pissed off as he was with his cousin, he’d never let anyone think that. “No. Ryder is an architect at the family firm. What he did... well, it’s kind of a family ritual of sorts. We all do it. We see a cousin or brother out with a woman, interrupt their date, and run their tab up and then leave them with it.”
“That is horrible. Who started it? It was you, wasn’t it? I bet you did it first?”
He had to stop and think about it. “It might have been. I think Drake and I were out one day and saw Noah and decided to crash his date. Drake pulled his wallet out to pay and I leaned over and told him to leave it with Noah. Drake thought it was funny so we did. And from that point on, we kind of all do it to each other.”
“I want to think it’s funny.” And the waitress came over and brought the bill. “In this case it kind of isn’t.”
He snatched it away quickly. “Which is why I’m paying. I tried to tell him not to.”
“That’s what you meant by saying ‘it’s not what you think’? That he thought we were on a date?”
“Yeah. He thought it. And I’m paying. I’d never let you do it. There is no way. You can buy the next one. I won’t fight you unless a family member does this again. The chances of it happening twice are thin though. It will make the rounds in the family that it happened and then won’t again.”
“You mean it won’t with me?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said but wished it wasn’t true.
19
His Family Knew
Adriana hadn’t talked to Wyatt in a couple of days. They texted a few times, but that was about it.
She needed a bit of space after the weekend.
For some reason she was getting too used to seeing Wyatt and had to tell herself to stop.
Sunday was a prime example.
There they were, the two of them enjoying dinner and his cousin comes over and lumps her into the same group as the women Wyatt normally dates.
No, thank you. She didn’t need that.
To make matters worse, her mother called her on Tuesday night. She hadn’t wanted to answer but knew if she didn’t her mother would keep up.
“Yes, Mother,” she’d said after the third ring.
“Am I interrupting you?” her mother asked.
“I was in the kitchen and my phone was in the living room. I don’t carry it on me around the house. What’s going on?”
“Spencer is looking for you.”
“What? Why? No, I don’t want to know.”
She’d told him what he could do with himself when she found out he was married.
It was bad enough she’d been played a fool and he was married, but she hated cheaters with a passion and here she was... the other woman.
Whether she was aware of it or not didn’t change anything in her eyes.
And when Spencer tried to tell her his marriage was in name only and that they were getting ready to separate it didn’t mean shit to her.
They lived together. His wife moved to San Diego with him to start his new job. If they were going to separate then why move
