Page 12 of A Lot Like Love
Chapter 4
Chloe hadn’t been lying when she’d told Ryder about her dad. Every now and again he’d win big and they’d live extravagantly, in a beautiful house with a gorgeous car parked in the garage. And then he’d slowly start to gamble again, even though he’d promise her over and over again that he was done with poker and every other game he liked to play. It had only taken her until she was fourteen to realize that while his heart might have been in the right place, his addiction always took over, no matter what he might have promised until he was blue in the face.
She drove slowly down the driveway, lights on low as they passed what appeared to be a smaller house, then the main homestead. It was everything she’d imagined it would be even though she only had a glimpse of it as the car’s lights washed over it. The house was huge, a two-story mansion that looked as welcoming as it looked imposing.
“Do I keep going?” she asked.
He frowned. “Yeah, we’ll go to the guest house. It’s a little bit farther down.”
“Embarrassed about someone seeing me?” she asked.
“Hell no. But if we go in there I’ll have to lie to my brother.” He stretched his arms out in front of him, letting out a low chuckle. “Then again, you’d be a pretty good distraction. He might forget about me entirely if you’re in the room.”
Chloe stifled a smile. Whatever feelings she might have had for Ryder before were irrelevant, her focus purely business now that he’d seemingly agreed to her helping him in exchange for money, but she was still flattered. Ryder and his brothers were all gorgeous, guys who were no doubt used to bedding more women than she’d like to think about, so the thought that they might find her attractive was a compliment she was happy to take.
“You and your brothers are all single?” she asked.
“You’ve met them?” he asked back.
She nodded. “Just in passing at the bar.”
“Then you know why they’re single,” he muttered.
Chloe laughed. Part of her wished she’d just bumped into Ryder after her shift, that they were hanging out because she’d said yes to going out with him. Then again if she managed to win his ranch back she’d never have to work the late shift at a bar again.
“Hey, they’re nice to me and they’re big tippers.”
“So what are you studying?” Ryder asked, suddenly sounding a whole lot more sober.
“I was at law school.” She shrugged. “But I’ve deferred for a year.”
Chloe parked the car outside the guesthouse, waiting a while before taking the key out of the ignition so she could study the place. It wasn’t anything like the main house, but it was still pretty in its own way with a porch across the front and shutters pinned to the outside windows.
“Does anyone actually live here?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he replied, jumping out and walking straight over to a rock near the base of the first porch step. She got out, too, and watched as he bent and retrieved a key. “I mean we did, until my granddad had to go into the hospital.”
She walked closer to him, conscious of the fact that he was still a little unsteady on his feet. Chloe guessed he was used to drinking a lot, but she never would have forgiven herself if she’d let him drive.
“I kind of float between here and the main house. That’s Nate’s place now, but before we used to both live here.”
So she was about to go into the infamous bachelor pad. “If only these walls could talk, huh?”
“Can I ask you something?” Ryder spun around, key in the still-closed door. He put his hands on her shoulders, hunched forward a little so he was closer to eye level with her. The night went dark around them then, the lights from the car cutting out automatically as they stood facing each other on the porch.
“Sure,” she replied, sounding a whole lot more confident than she felt. In that moment, in the pitch black as her eyes adjusted, with every other sense in her body on high alert, everything that had happened between them had been erased and she was back to being the girl from the rodeo the day before. The one who only had to glance at Ryder about to climb onto a bull to make her heart race, her body on high alert at the thought of those capable, strong hands on her body as she’d watched him clap the white powder into them before his ride.
Ryder’s finger brushed her cheek as his palm cupped her face. She stayed perfectly still, refused to give in to the urge to press her cheek into his touch. Instead she stared at his face until her eyes were adjusted enough to stare into his eyes.
“If I’d asked you out for dinner tonight, before the card game, would you have said yes?”
Her gaze had fallen to his lips. “Yes,” she murmured back. “In case you’ve forgotten, I already had said yes to a drink.”
He moved closer, his hand still on her face. “And now?”
She raised her eyes, meeting his stare. “Now you’ve got a long way to go to prove yourself to me,” Chloe told him as she bent forward slightly, her mouth inches from his as she slowly raised her hand to take his fingers from her face. “So don’t go getting any ideas,cowboy.”
Ryder’s smile disappeared as he cleared his throat and took a step backward.
