She hid her smile and leaned back against the Jeep. “I couldn’t see your abs very well because of the angle, but I could definitely make out the head of your dick peeking out of those tiny shorts.”
“You’re welcome.”
She snorted and rubbed her eyes.
“Tired?”
“I got up at four this morning to prep for the event. I’m whooped.”
Ryder rested his elbows on his knees and ran his hands over the back of his head. “Can I ask you a question?” he asked without looking up.
“Is it another weird one?”
“When you told me not to call Serena back…”
Oh, this was serious. “Yeah?”
“Why?”
The soft murmurs of the packing vendors bounced this way and that, and the evening shadows stretched across Main Street. The night air chilled her skin, and she rubbed her arms to bring warmth back into them. “I guess because I heard the way she spoke to you, and I hated it. I wanted you to show her. I imagined her sitting at her computer with an evil smile, waiting for you to come crawling back, and I wanted you to be stronger than that. Stronger than her. Or maybe that’s what I wish I would’ve done.”
“What do you mean?”
“I dated someone who pulled all the strings, and I let him for a long time. I was convinced he was it for me. If I just overlooked this and overlooked that, I was compromising like I was supposed to. I was being a good girlfriend, and he would appreciate it.”
“And did he?”
“No. He worked out of town, so I only saw him on the weekends, and apparently he met someone out on a job.” She shrugged her shoulders up to her ears to try and stifle the shame Blake still made her feel. “He broke it off with me because he’d proposed to her.”
Ryder shook his head and watched Sprinkles zooming around in front of them in her little cart with wheels.
“Blake knew he wanted to be with her for the rest of his life after cheating with her for three months. We’d been together for four years, and I hadn’t managed to lock him down. I’d put in the work, put up with more than I should’ve, lost myself along the way, and he picked someone else behind my back. I guess when I saw Serena talking to you like that, it reminded me of how Blake used to treat me and how I’d settled for this awful existence because I’d convinced myself it was better than being alone.” She nudged Ryder’s shoulder with her own. “But it’s not.”
Sprinkles tried to climb up on the curb and got stuck, and before Lexi could move, Ryder got up and righted her in the grass, then sauntered back. And this time, when he sat on the bumper beside her, he held her hand with shocking familiarity.
Lexi stared down at their arms. Her skin was tanned from her time in the sun, and his was fair and covered with freckles. His hand was massive compared to hers, and calloused, but so warm, so strong. Steady.
He dragged a troubled gaze to hers and murmured, “Blake’s an asshole, so is Serena, and tonight we both move on. You don’t have to ask me about her anymore.”
“What about Dottie?”
Ryder scratched his red facial scruff with the back of his thumbnail and sighed. “She ain’t mine to worry about anymore. I gave her to Serena when she was a puppy. Little mangy mutt I found at the shelter, but I thought maybe Dottie would open up Serena’s maternal instincts. She was terrible with kids, and I wanted them somethin’ fierce. But Serena didn’t open up. She looked at Dottie as a burden, so she became my baby, you know? I was gonna hire a lawyer to fight for the dog, but because I gave her as a gift, my chances were slim to none at keeping her. Serena emptied our joint account, bought herself a sixty-thousand-dollar SUV right before we broke up, and since we shared the damn account, she got away with it. I didn’t have any money to spend on a lawyer that probably wouldn’t get me my dog back.”
“Oh Ryder, I’m so sorry. So her talking about you not having a job?”
“Is bullshit. I grew up as a logger by trade with the crew I was born into. Moved away from the Boarlanders and went to welding school and made good money at it. I hated the hours, though. It was two weeks on, one off on a rig, and I was miserable, but Serena liked the income. So yeah, when I would come home, and she was bitching at me for this and that, I would go off with my buddies and drink just to get a few minutes where I felt normal. Where I could feel like not everyone hated me. The worst part,” he said, squeezing her hand. “The absolute worst was when I came here for the first time. Wyatt was in deep with vamps and wolves, fighting to buy some land to try and help Harper out.”
“Your alpha?”
“Yeah, but at the time she was just one of my good friends. She was real sick, and her days were numbered unless her dragon could choose a treasure. Wyatt was trying to do that for her, give her the mountains. He needed money, and I could’ve helped if he’d come to me a few months before that, before Serena emptied me out. I think that was my breaking point when I didn’t want to consider chasing her anymore. I was in it for Dottie after that.”
“How long were you with Serena?”
“Three years.”
“Why didn’t you propose?”
He gave a single, dark laugh. “I did. She wouldn’t have me. Not like that. I did what you did, waited around for her to be ready, but I wasn’t it for her, you know? I wasn’t the one.”
“We make quite the pathetic pair,” Lexi murmured.