Page 33 of My Best Friend Prince Charming

I knockedon Ryker’s window later that night. I’d seen his car in the driveway, so I could tell he was already home from Skippy’s. I had to tell him it was over. What we were doing was reckless and stupid. We just needed to move on in our separate directions.

Ryker came to the window and pushed it up.

“Hey there, beautiful.”

Ryker had never called me that before. I could get used to it. Too bad that would never happen. I just couldn’t allow it.

He reached out and helped me climb inside. “Is Parker in here?” I asked. I probably should have checked on that before I just climbed in and got Ryker in trouble. Now that we had a picture of us kissing plastered across the internet, I had a feeling Ryker’s dad wouldn’t be nearly as relaxed about us being in each other’s bedrooms with the door closed. There was no way we could claim we were just friends after that disaster. Unless we broke up and went public with it. Which was what I was planning to tell Ryker.

“Parker’s sleeping over at a friend’s house tonight.”

“Oh,” I said.

“Is everything okay?” Ryker said, running his hands down my arms.

“I don’t know.” I looked away from his searching gaze. “I saw the picture at work today.”

“I was afraid of something like that happening. I hoped you wouldn’t see it since you aren’t on social media, but people are stupid and love sensational stuff. But don’t worry. We’ll get through this together. You have me in your corner every step of the way.”

I needed to stay strong. I had my reasons for wanting to back out of this relationship, and I couldn’t let Ryker’s charming self distract me from my plan.

“But what about when you go to California, and you forget about me? I don’t think I could handle that. This hasn’t been something casual for me. That’s why I’m over here. I need to let you know that we can’t continue whatever this is between us.”

“Shannon.” He lifted my chin so that my eyes looked into his. “I can’t tell you what you should or shouldn’t do, but I can promise you that I have eyes for you and only you. It’s been this way for me for a very long time. Haven’t you noticed that I’ve never had a girlfriend before?”

“Yeah, but I just thought that was because you focused too much on school.”

“I did focus on school a lot, but the real reason is that I was actually focused on you. I couldn’t even look at another girl when you were in my life.”

“But I just kept you in the friend zone the entire time.”

“And as much as I didn’t like that, I still couldn’t look at another girl.”

“You didn’t like being stuck in the friend zone?”

“Of course not. What kind of question is that?”

“I just didn’t realize you felt that way about me the entire time. I might have brought you out of the friend zone if I’d known. I know I wouldn’t have still dated Austin for very long. That guy would have been in the dump zone.”

Ryker took my hands in his and placed a gentle kiss on my hand. “Can you reconsider breaking this off between us?”

I hadn’t realized that Ryker might be scared to lose me. I just kept focusing on the celebrity fangirls swarming him. I didn’t want to hurt Ryker. Like ever. And if I broke off our budding relationship tonight, I would break Ryker’s heart. And I couldn’t have that. I would let my own heart break into a million pieces before I knowingly hurt Ryker.

Ryker pulled me into his arms, and we stood in the middle of his room with my head on his shoulder. I fit right into his embrace like two matching jigsaw puzzle pieces.

I wouldn’t be breaking the relationship off with Ryker tonight, but as I climbed out of his window and crossed our lawns, I hoped he knew what he was talking about, or we would both end up miserable with shattered hearts.

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