Page 20 of Playboy For Hire

“Just allergies,” I said. God,hadI been? How embarrassing. “So what else have you committed us to while I was gone?”

“Nothing too terrible. Just Sunday brunch with your mom and dad, a double date with your cousin and her boyfriend, and Christmas at your aunt and uncle’s in Frederick.”

I gaped at him. “What? Which cousin? A double date? Why would you—”

“Hey, hey, I’m kidding,” Ryder said soothingly. He held up three fingers. “Scout’s honor. I was just joking. Though I may actually have gotten myself invited to your Nana’s virtual book club.”

“At least it’s virtual,” I said, huffing slightly with relief. Jesus, Ryder had scared me for a second.

“Their next book is ‘The True Confessions of a Pastor’s Mistress,’’” he said. “It sounds kind of fun, to be honest. Sort of trashy, which is always a plus.”

“So is that the kind of thing you do in your free time?” I asked. “Limbo classes and book clubs? Or are those work-only activities?”

He laughed. “I wish. But no, if I’m not working, I’m usually doing schoolwork. Or at practice. My soccer scholarship is how I got out of my hometown. Either that, or I’m at the gym. Gotta keep the assets in shape in the off-season.”

“Oh, come on, you must do something for fun,” I pressed.

“Not really.” Ryder shrugged. “Though maybe that’s because I’ve been brainwashed by too many gym smoothies.”

“Oh, I’m sorry about that.” I winced. “I meant to warn you ahead of time about Auntie Marie.”

“It’s fine. Like I said, I’m good with people.”

“You could have been a little less flamboyantly into her clothes, though,” I couldn’t help adding. “But I guess it worked, so I shouldn’t complain.”

Ryder frowned. “Was I flamboyant?”

“You tried to name the season and year her outfit was released. I’d say that’s a little much.”

“I didn’ttryto name it, Ididname it. Correctly. Is there something wrong with that?”

“I guess not. But you don’t have to lean so hard into that stereotype about gay men.”

Ryder gave me an unreadable look. “I wasn’t trying to be a stereotype. I was genuinely interested. I pay a lot of attention to how I dress. I kind of have to, in my line of work. And somedesigners have really distinctive styles. Anyway, I was just trying to get her onto a safe topic.”

“Safe?” I asked.

“My dad’s kind of like that,” Ryder said. “He started spending a lot of time online and wound up in some weird places. Didn’t take long for him to go off the deep end with conspiracy theories. But if you try to bring him back to reality, counter his beliefs with logic, he just digs in harder.” He sighed. It made him sound older than he was. “The only way to have a normal conversation is to engage him on other topics. But even then, it’s hard.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that.” I cocked my head to the side. “But I suppose I don’t know much about your family.”

Ryder grimaced. “I don’t talk about them for a reason.”

That piqued my curiosity. He was so affable and easy-going. Was he close with his mom? Did he have any siblings? How long had his dad been living in a separate reality?

But Ryder clearly didn’t want to talk about it, so I didn’t ask.

“Usually Marie is happy just telling me how scrawny I am,” I said ruefully. “But when she gets going on one of her conspiracy tears, she can be hard to stop.”

“Does she do that a lot?” Ryder looked offended on my behalf. “Tell you that you need to be more masculine?”

I looked away. “She doesn’t mean it in a bad way. She’s just kind of—”

“Critical?” he offered.

“Yeah, but it’s not serious. She’s always been like that, my whole life.”

“I don’t mean to speak ill of your family, but that doesn’t sound ‘not serious.’ It sounds like a kind of crappy thing to say to someone you’re supposed to love.”

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