Page 46 of One Mistake

Ryder smiled and shook his head. “Just sit back and wait. Mom has magic. She’s going to take every sin ever perpetrated in their marriage, and spin it, so it rests solely on his shoulders.” He glanced at me from the side.

“You okay with all of that?” I didn’t want to fail at my first assignment, but I also didn’t want to do anything that would make this suck anymore for Ryder.

He didn’t answer for a few seconds. “I don’t know. Twice in my life, he was going to let me hang for what he did.” He sighed. “But he’s also the guy who taught me how to throw a football and how to make a paper airplane.”

I hated to hear him so melancholy. “The ever underestimated art of folding paper to make flying machines.”

It could have gone either way. He could’ve been angry I was making light of it when I’d been the one who asked the question, or he could’ve taken it the way I intended—a way to lighten the air in the car. He squeezed my hand. “Don’t make fun. It’s a whole skill set. Every fold is essential to the amount of flight time, airspeed, wind resistance. It’s basic engineering and physics.”

And somehow, he’d made that whole explanation sound like dirty talk and foreplay. “You make it sound so naughty.” He shot me a side-eye and a grin then focused on the road again. It gave me a minute to think. To try to fix the things I’d done wrong. “When I said we were just catching up…”

“You don’t have to, Reese.”

“I know.” We were back together. There was no reason to bring it all back up, but I needed him to know, needed him to understand some things about me, too. “When I said we were just catching up, I was scared. I didn’t know if I could…get past what happened before.”

He nodded.

“And I don’t want you to think it’s about the money you have or the job or…anything else. I’m in this car right now because of the man you are, not because of the car you drive.” Oh, God. I needed him to believe me.

He didn’t speak until he pulled into the driveway at my house. I’d had my furniture from California shipped, painted some walls, and made some changes since he’d been here last and I wanted to show him, but he seemed to only want to sit in the car.

“Reese.” Hearing him say my name would never get old. Especially when he said it through a smile. It added something indescribable to the sound. “I dated a lot before I met you.”

I could’ve done without the a lot, but I let him hold my hand between his. “I know.”

He shook his head. “But at the same time, I feel like there’s never been anyone else but you.” His gaze held mine. His fingers touched me. His breath warmed me when he leaned in. “You’ve always been more than I deserved.” And he kissed me. Brushed his lips over mine once then came back in again. “Always will be.” And finally, he said the words I’d been dying to hear since we met. “I love you.”

And now, all was right with the world.

19

Ryder

At some point, I was going to have to stop worshipping her. I figured the lust would stop on its own, but apparently, that was going to take longer than the six months we’d been back together. And it certainly wasn’t going to happen while she was in a bikini on a beach in Jamaica, oiled and tanned, beautiful, but on alert.

She hadn’t stopped staring at the yacht on the water, barely even noticed I was there. “Baby, you found him. He isn’t going anywhere, and now we can relax.”

The Jamaican Constabulary Force was on their way in boats out to pick up Dad and ship him back to the states to face the wrath of Mom, and the FBI. Both of whom were very interested in his activities immediately before he left the country.

The whole damned thing had taken too much time away from me and Reese. Between her chasing leads all across the southern part of North America, and the other cases she worked for the firm, we saw each other a few hours a week these days. This was our vacation. Our time together. Reese had done her job. Now it was all about us. Our future. And the little velvet ring box hidden between my shirts back in our room.

Once, not even that long ago, I never would’ve dreamed I could be so happy again. Certainly wouldn’t have guessed I’d be proposing with a ring that didn’t come from one of those machines outside the supermarket.

But here I was. And my heart was about to burst.

And I had friends again. By default, since Reese couldn’t see much of her friends without them seeing me, but still, it had been a long time since I went to a game with the guys and it was nice. Especially since we were all a little more mature than before, but with Keaton and Finn and Jameson, there was always a minute of the day where we were ridiculous and child-like. Fortunately, Reese found it attractive.

She turned and lowered herself into the cabana chair, but kept a firm hand on the binoculars. She’d worked hard for this and didn’t want to miss it. Couldn’t blame her really.

But just when the first JCF boat pulled up to the yacht dad bought with my trust fund—money he hadn’t put into the offshore accounts—she turned to me, wide-eyed, sunglasses on top of her head. She flipped them down. “I have to talk to you about something.” The sentence came out as a single word. Then she chuckled and tried again. “I have to…we need to talk.”

Oh, God. This look—like she was about to throw up—never meant anything good was about to happen. I sat up and faced her so our knees bumped. “Is everything okay?” If she was about to dump me, I needed to prepare for a parachute-free landing.

Instead of answering, reassuring me so that my heart didn’t explode and my guts spill out the hole where my heart previously lived, she cleared her throat. “It’s…this has been the best six months of my life.”

Oh, God. She was dumping me. “Reese.”

“I wasn’t really close with my mom and my dad was gone before I could remember him. So, the concept of family for me is more…abstract.” Now she wouldn’t even look at me. The fear bubbling inside of me rumbled through my veins and I looked down at my arm, expecting a physical manifestation to have appeared. Was almost disappointed when it hadn’t. I probably needed to come in out of the sun, but no way could I move right now. “But the other day when your mom took me to the club for lunch, she introduced me as the daughter she never had.” A tear slipped down her cheek, and while I didn’t really understand how that was a bad enough thing to make her cry, I reached to catch it with my thumb anyway.