Using his tie, I dragged him toward the bedroom. We could get in a quickie while they were doing the dishes. We only needed a few minutes now.
“Why, Miss Clarke, you vixen,” he said, slamming the bedroom door. I pulled him toward the bed, but he stopped me.
“Wait just a second.” He put on some music and turned it up. “Just in case.” Luckily, it was sexy-type music. “A Kiss to Build a Dream On” by Louis Armstrong. Definitely sexy.
“We could always hang a sock on the doorknob. That’s what Sloane and I did in college.”
He just shut my mouth with a kiss, and the next thing I knew he was going down on me and I was coming and then he was inside me and then . . . the front door shut. Loudly.
“Fuuuuuucccccckkkkkkk,” Lucah said, glancing over his shoulder at the door. “I swear to God.”
“Don’t stop,” I said, because we were kind of at the point of no return, so he focused back on me and then he came a moment later.
“What do we do now?” I said, over the music, which switched to playing “Wild Horses” by The Sundays.
“Wait for them to leave?” We froze as we were, both staring at the door. You’d think, this being the millionth time we’d almost been caught having sex, that we would have a contingency plan by now. But no. We didn’t.
The door slammed again and we both sighed. Lucah laughed against my shoulder and pulled out. He put on a pair of boxers and motioned for me to stay in bed. He went to the door, opened it and peered out to make sure we were alone.
“Hello?” No one answered, so he gave me the thumbs up.
After a quick clean up, I got dressed in a t-shirt and a pair of Lucah’s boxers and joined him in the living room. He held up a sticky note without saying anything.
You should really leave a note when you’re going to have sex. It’s a common courtesy.
-Ryder
“Well. He remembered to leave a note,” I said, handing it back to Lucah. He crumpled it up and went to throw it away.
“It’s progress,” I said, and he just shook his head.
19
Over the next few days we made more progress. Baby steps. Lucah went back to work, and Ryder voluntarily went to his therapy sessions with the farting therapist. Sloane cooked us dinner every night and Ryder helped her do the dishes.
It was our new normal.
“So, we’re going to be at my parents’. Would, you, um, like to come?” It seemed rude not to ask Ryder if he wanted to come with Lucah and me. I mentally crossed my fingers that he’d say no.
“Rory, you’re not obligated to invite me over to your family dinner. You’re not my family, and I’m sure you wouldn’t want me at your parents’ probably gigantic and fancy house.” Okay, so my house was gigantic and fancy, but that wasn’t my fault. I’d always worried about the fact that he’d grown up poor and I hadn’t, coming between Lucah and me, but I didn’t consider that it would cause a rift with Ryder. There went all that ground we’d gained.
“Well. I thought I would ask. Excuse me for being nice.” I’d found the best way to deal with him was to give it right back. That seemed to be the only thing he would respond to.
“You’re excused,” he said with a smirk. I wanted to slap it right off his face, but I just gave him my sweet smile back.
“What are you talking about?” Lucah said on his way from the bathroom to the bedroom to get dressed.
“Nothing,” Ryder and I both said.
“Besides, I already have plans today,” Ryder said, and he seemed very pleased with himself.
“And are you going to elaborate on those plans, or keep me in suspense?” I said, making sure I had my phone in my purse.
“I think I’ll keep you in suspense. The payoff is better in the end, don’t you think?” Somehow I didn’t think we were talking about his plans. He seemed to have also been given that knack of turning nearly everything into an innuendo. Wonder where he got that from?
I didn’t answer Ryder, but I didn’t have to, because someone opened the front door.
“Hey, hey, hey. What’s up?” Sloane was dressed in a tight tank top and jogging shorts. I nearly fell over.
“What’s up with the outfit?” I said, gesturing to it. I’d never seen her wear such a thing. I didn’t know she even owned anything like that.
“We’re going running in the park. You know how much I love running in the park.” Her glare told me that I should agree with her.
“Oh, right. Yeah. Running in the park.” I didn’t sound convincing. “That sounds like fun.” It sounded like hell. Who on earth actually would choose to run? Running was reserved for shoe sales and escaping from bears, in my opinion.
“I used to work out all the time, but I haven’t in a while and Sloane said she would show me the good running paths around here,” Ryder said. He hadn’t worked out in a while? Yeah, that was a lie. Those muscles didn’t just . . . happen. You had to work at arms like that. A lot.
“Well, she would know all the good running paths,” I said, trying to make up for my earlier dropping of the ball.
“What about running?” Lucah said, coming out and slipping his shoes on.
“Sloane and Ryder are going running,” I said, hinting with my tone that he should be supportive.
“Oh, that sounds . . . nice. Very nice. Well, don’t overdo it. We’ll be back later tonight. Ready?” He reserved the last word for me and I nodded and took his offered arm.
“You kids have fun,” Sloane said, putting her leg up on the counter and stretching like she did it all the time.
“Same to you,” I said and we closed the door.
“What the hell was that?” Lucah said as we walked toward the elevator.
“I have no idea,” I said, shaking my head.
“Oh, your brother decided not to join us?” Mom said the second we walked in the door and she’d taken our coats.
“He, um, already had plans, or else he would have. Maybe next week,” Lucah said, after a moment of surprise had passed. Good recovery.
“Well, we’d love to meet him, if he’s anything like you.” I shared a secret look with Lucah.
“He has red hair,” I said to Mom. The joke went right over her head as we walked into the dining room and found Dad staring at his phone. Mom had to clear her throat before he noticed we were there. He looked up and it took a second for him to realize who we were.