Page 68 of Just Forever

The hell do you want me to do?

“Lake is studying to be a doctor,” Ryker says in an unnaturally loud voice, completely out of the blue. He seems tobe a second away from dragging my chair in front of his and hiding behind my back.

I glance toward him and say, “Smooth,” out of the corner of my mouth. I shrug when he sends me a glare, but I take pity on him.

“I am,” I say, straightening up so Kara pulls back a bit. “I was watching a documentary the other day about a coronary artery bypass.” I tell the two of them all about it in excruciating detail. Fun for me, but I’m pretty sure after a while, even Ryker’s eyes start to glaze over. About fifteen minutes in, Kara escapes to the bathroom, which is excellent timing because I’m a first-year med student, so there’s only so much I know about coronary artery bypass, and for the last two minutes I’ve been making up words.

“So that’s the reason I keep you around,” Ryk says.

I send him my most pleasant smile and flip my middle finger up.

“Is that a payment plan for me for services rendered? Because noted,” he says.

I take a quick glance at Paige, the person closest to us, but she’s in the middle of a conversation with Björn and Kian, so nobody’s paying any attention to us.

“I’ll ho?—”

My phone starts to vibrate against my ass. I pull it out of my pocket and make a face. Oh, good. Scott. Again. Ever since I texted him to suck it, and that I wouldn’t be able to make it to dinner after all—only with different words and more polite—he’s been hounding me with phone calls I refuse to answer.

Why would I?

I’m twenty-three. I’ve managed almost a quarter of a century without any input from Scott. Why the fuck would I want to start now?

I don’t. I really don’t. I’m fine. I’m not some cliché who needs a father figure because my own was such a disappointment and has left me with a lifetime of issues as a parting gift.

My life is great.

I stuff my phone back into my pocket. When I look up, I find Ryk eyeing me knowingly.

“Scott again?”

I choose not to answer. He knows already, so I’d just be wasting my breath.

“You think he’s gonna stop if you just keep ignoring him?” he asks mildly.

I send him a glare, and he holds his hands up. “I’m just saying. He’s been pretty persistent about this.”

The problem with having a well-adjusted, emotionally mature husband is that his solution to absolutely everything is talking it out and facing your problems head on, whilemysolutions to dealing with my problems are ignoring them, crossing my fingers that they’ll just disappear, or running away.

Now, I’m not saying one of those approaches is better than the other, but only one of them allows me to avoid a messy confrontation with my own emotions and issues. So really, is there even a question about what I should do here?

I sigh and rub my palm over my eyes.

Ryk is right. Of course, he is.

Realizing it is one thing. Acting accordingly is a whole other, though.

And it’s not like Ryker is going to pressure me to do the mature, logical thing. He never has. Even when he told me he wanted us to become something real, to define our relationship and be a real couple, he never did it in a way where he pressured me to see the light and trust him just because that was the right thing to do and that was what he wanted. He simply told mehow he felt and then gave me the opportunity to choose what I wanted to do.

That’s just who Ryker is.

But now this Scott situation is suddenly starting to feel like a test.

Just for once, behave like a normal person.

Don’t avoid.

Don’t hide.

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