Page 26 of Accidental Mile High Daddy
His brown hair was styled and tousled, pushed back from his face for once. His cream suit was almost atrocious, sickening in a way that made me want to tell him how tacky it looked. But it was the scowl on his face that made me shrink back just a hair, almost imperceptibly, but Matt caught it. His fingers dug a little more into my ribs.
“Didn’t think I’d see you here,” Ryan said, his eyes glancing at Matt before sliding back to me.
The image of his legs tangled in the sheets of his bedroom, Lauren under him, her legs bent back like a fucking pretzel — it flashed in my head, just briefly, just enough to do mentaldamage before I could force a smile on my face. “Life’s full of surprises,” I said, my voice far steadier than I felt.
Matt tucked me into his side the moment Lauren appeared on Ryan’s right. “Baby, you didn’t tell me you were going to talk to them,” she mumbled, a fake grin plastered to her cheeks as she turned to me. “Hi, Sienna. So nice to see you. Why on earth are you here?”
I gritted my teeth hard enough that I worried I’d crack a molar. Just straight into it, then.
“She’s with me,” Matt said. “If that wasn’t obvious.”
Ryan dragged his tongue over his teeth, looking between us like it was both the most confusing and obvious thing in the world. “So, you’re what, dating?”
“I’m pretty sure I told you my girlfriend was coming,” Matt deadpanned. “So, yes.”
“And how long have you been seeing each other?”
Matt shrugged, looking down at me as if I had a magic answer trapped between my teeth.
“About a month,” I said, which wasn’t exactlywrong. That trip was almost five weeks ago.
“A month,” Lauren scoffed. “That’s not exactlyplus one?—”
“I don’t remember seeing any fine print on the invitation,” Matt countered, lifting his glass of whiskey back to his lips.
“Ridiculous,” Ryan mumbled, dragging a hand down his face before staring between the two of us. “He’s old enough to be your dad. Even with the age gap aside, it’s a little hard to believe, don’t you think?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What, that someone could actually want me without lying about it for an entire year?”
Lauren’s mouth twitched, but she said nothing, turning her attention to Ryan instead, as if she was expecting him to lash out at that.
But he didn’t. Of course he didn’t. Ryan never rose to anything when he was called out. All he did was turn back to Matt, meeting his gaze head-on, but Matt gave him none of that energy — if anything, Matt just lookedbored.
“Come on,” Ryan said, chuckling as if all of this was hilarious. “How much did you pay her to be here? Seriously.”
A second passed. Two. Three.
Matt didn’t answer.
“No one paid me,” I lied, words flowing far more easily now. “Do you genuinely think any amount of money would sway me to be here? I’m here so that the man I’m seeing doesn’t have to deal with his shithead brother alone. That’s it.”
Matt smirked into his whiskey as his gaze briefly met mine. I didn’t even have to decipher it —good jobwas written all over his face.
Ryan looked at Matt again, studying him, staring him down. “You’re fucking?—”
“Do you really want to finish that sentence?” Matt asked, raising a brow. “Because I would suggest neither of you take issue with who I’m seeing.”
Another beat of silence. Ryan just stared up at him, a vein popping in his forehead, his jaw ticking. It wasn’t even a threat, at least not really, but something about it got under Ryan’s skin like nothing else had, something about it I clearly didn’t understand.
“Let’s go,” he muttered, turning to Lauren finally before pushing her toward the bar.
I blinked in confusion.
“What was?—”
“I’ll tell you later,” Matt said, everything about him screamingcalmas he leaned back on the door frame again, releasing his death grip on my waist. His knuckle dragged alongmy arm, his gaze lingering on my lips for half a second before flicking to my eyes. “You did a good job. Held your own.”
I rolled my eyes. “Did you think I wouldn’t?”
