Page 22 of A Lot Like Love
Chapter 6
He stood tall as he waited for Chloe to walk down through the terminal to where he was standing. His brothers might have given him shit about taking the jet on short notice and whisking her off to Vegas, but he’d let them hassle him all they wanted if it meant keeping his secret.
Cool beads of sweat broke out across Ryder’s forehead just thinking about what he was keeping from his family.Stamp it out. It was the only way he could deal with what had happened, pretend like he was still in control and he was going to get it back. And he had to believe Chloe. His gut told him she could do it, that she could actually pull this off, but then he thought of Parker’s smarmy face and he wasn’t so sure all over again. But giving her a chance wasn’t his problem—there was no reason not to let Chloe try to help, because she couldn’t hurt him more than he’d already hurt himself anyway.
“Hey beautiful,” he called out as she came near, smiling when he saw her.
“Hey,” she replied, blowing away a strand of hair that had fallen forward to brush her lips.
Ryder took one of her bags from her so she had a hand free.
“You ready to go?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
She was clutching the handle of a carry bag, and one glance told him that something was making her nervous. Or maybe she’d been nervous this entire time and she’d just been doing a damn good job of disguising it.
“You okay?” he asked, running his hand down her arm, stopping at her elbow when her body stiffened.
Chloe smiled even though she was still tense to the touch. “I’m fine. I just didn’t think I’d be going back to Vegas ever again. It’s not exactly somewhere I’ve been yearning to visit.”
“Bad memories?” he asked, picking up their bags and walking slowly alongside her.
“Just imagine being dragged around casinos, bars, and back rooms as a kid, every night of the week sometimes, and then you’ll start to get an idea.”
Ryder glanced at her, saw that even though she was trying to be upbeat there was real pain behind her words.
“I had a shitty dad, too,” he told her. “Everyone thinks we grew up in this amazing house with everything we wanted, but sometimes all you really want as a kid is a parent to give a crap about you, huh?”
Chloe nodded, eyes meeting his when he glanced at her. “Did your dad pass away?” she asked.
Ryder nodded to the security guy and ushered Chloe through the door first, walking out onto the tarmac. “My mom died just after giving birth to me and my dad, well, let’s just say that some men shouldn’t be fathers.”
Chloe stopped walking, her expression hard to read. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.”
“What? About the fact that I killed my mom or that my dad walked out?”
She frowned. “Both.”
“Don’t feel sorry for me,” he said, clearing his throat and nodding toward the plane. “I had it way better than most and a granddad who’d have done anything for us. But if I saw my dad again right now?” He chuckled. “I’d tell him to keep walking.”
“Do you have champagne on board?” Chloe asked, eyes wide as she stared at the jet they were approaching.
He paused, considered how impressive the plane must have looked to someone who hadn’t seen it before. He’d been traveling in it since he was a boy, although Nate did most of the airtime in it these days for business, but he never tired of seeing their family crest on the side, the rearing horse proud for all to see.
Ryder waved at the flight attendant standing at the top of the stairs, in uniform and waiting with her hands clasped behind her back. The punch of fear hit his stomach again as he realized he was so close to losing all of this, that his granddad could take everything away from him for letting the family down. Partying and not giving a damn about life was one thing, but actually messing up like he had was unacceptable.
“Ah, we sure do,” he replied, gesturing for Chloe to walk ahead of him.
“Then I say we toast our crappy dads and then don’t waste another second thinking about them.”
“Cheers to that,” he muttered.
She stopped when he did. “We’ll leave our bags here. Just take up whatever you need on board.”
Chloe put her carry-on over her shoulder and headed for the stairs.
“I hope you brought some serious cash,” she said, walking ahead of him up the stairs.
