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I nudge her foot with mine. “I swear you have the oversexed brain of a teenage boy.”
“And the undersexed body of a thirty-five-year-old,” she drolls, making me laugh.
“You’re in good company at least,” I say. “Maybe we need to be each other’s back up plan in case we’re not married in the next ten years.”
“I’m already in love with your cooking, so…” She shrugs.
“And we’re living without sex now,” I add.
“I do make a mean margarita,” she says.
I pat the cushion on the couch. “I’ve always been a little envious of your front porch.”
She holds up her hand, wiggling her fingers. “Five solid reasons for marriage.”
I laugh. “That’s hilarious.” Raising my glass, I take a deep pull and set it back on the table.
“It is, but who’s to say taking a pragmatic approach to find a life partner isn’t the way to go?” she asks.
I nod. “Yeah, the traditional way hasn’t worked so well for us.”
“I’d settle for a ‘for now’ partner. I just need to find him.”
“You could always try out Les,” I say.
She pretends to gag. “No way. I’d rather have sex with the most arrogant, controlling asshole on the planet than that creepster.”
“I guess it’s not a good sign when your new neighbor moves in and right after you meet, he tells you that if you look that good in clothes, you’re sure to look even better out of them,” I say. Which is exactly what happened when he and Lucy met. I’m relieved he hasn’t made any inappropriate moves toward me because I wouldn’t deal with it as well as she does. She likes to have fun with it, hence the fake kiss when I first came over.
“Yep, there were some red flags there,” she says.
Aside from him being my brother’s teammate and a player with the ladies, does Ryder have any red flags of his own flying around him? Not that the two I’m thinking about aren’t enough. But he’s tall, charismatic, and bearded, and those three things combined might be enough to obscure any red flags.
I’m so screwed.
Luckily, I only have to be in his presence two more times and then I can go back to admiring him from afar.
CHAPTER11
RYDER
“We’re going to starve,”I tell my dad. We’re one day removed from eating Calista’s leftovers and nothing tastes good anymore. She ruined my undiscerning palate.
He laughs. “We’re not going to starve. We have food to eat.”
“Yeah, it just sucks,” I add.
“You’re not wrong. Son, I never realized how horrible your cooking is.”
“Ha. That’s rich since you’re the one who taught me to cook. Actually, I don’t think you taught me at all. I just learned through osmosis.”
“Your mom was the cook in the family. If she was still here I’d be overweight and well fed.” He smiles at the thought.
“Do you still miss her as much as I do?”
“Of course. Your mom was my partner in everything from the day we met onward. We clicked from the start and it felt like we’d known each other forever. So to lose a relationship so special and to know I’ll never have that again, it’s devastating. But I’ve reached the point where remembering our life together makes me happy.”
“Dad, you could always date. You’re not too old.”
