Page 42 of Playing for Keeps
The sound of her father’s nickname for her in her mother’s voice was foreign and made Rylan extremely uncomfortable.
“I shouldn’t have come here. You never gave a damn about me. It was always Naomi for you.”
“And you for your father. Yes, that’s the way the battle lines were drawn in this house.” Estelle shrugged. “I won’t say I’m proud of that fact, Rylan. But there’s no use in crying over the past. You are my daughter and I care very much about your well-being. I believe in your potential to be anything you want. I also hope, for you and your sister, that you both find love and can really be cherished and respected by the man you give your heart to. Just because it didn’t work out for your father and I, doesn’t mean I don’t believe it can work for you. But don’t be fooled, Rylan. Don’t let sentiment or your desire to keep things in your life the same because it’s the only way you feel safe, lead you down the wrong path or into the wrong man’s bed. Demand more from him from the start so that in the end, you won’t be disappointed.”
Rylan couldn’t stand any more of this. She wasn’t going to listen to advice on her love life from her mother, the woman ending her marriage. Her feet couldn’t move fast enough to carry her out of the house and into her car. And when she switched on the ignition and pulled out of the driveway, she drove to the only place she knew that would make her feel better.
Del opened his front door at a little after eight to see Rylan standing on the Santa head-shaped doormat.
“Hey. Are you okay?” he immediately asked because her eyes were brimming with tears and she was rocking side-to-side, her arms folded around herself and the puffy coat she wore.
“No,” she whimpered and one tear rolled down her cheek.
His heart nearly stopped.
Del reached for her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulled her inside. He closed and locked the door and then pulled her close. For endless moments they stood there with him holding her tightly in his arms. He had no idea what had happened or when. All he knew for certain was that Rylan Kent didn’t cry. He’d seen her fall off bikes and walk away with busted knees and elbows without shedding a tear. She’d climbed trees and jumped fences with the rest of the boys in their neighborhood. And the one time Lance had agreed to race her, Rylan had beat him by two cars, but tripped over her shoelaces at the very end tumbling onto the sidewalk where she busted her lip so badly she had to be rushed to the emergency room to get stitches. And she hadn’t shed a tear.
So, seeing her like this wasn’t normal for Del. Not as her friend, nor as a man who cared very deeply about her.
She continued to make that quiet whimpering sound, her arms around his waist, holding him as if she were afraid he might let her go. He had absolutely no intention of doing that. He did lean back away from her just enough so that he could touch a finger to her chin and tilt her head up until he could look into her eyes.
“Let’s get you out of your coat and we’ll go sit down. Okay?”
She nodded.
Del unzipped her coat and pulled the sleeves off each arm. He hung it on the coat rack behind the door and then took her hand, leading her into the living room. They sat on the couch and Rylan shivered. He immediately went to the fireplace and worked to get a fire started. Moments later when he returned to where she was still sitting on the couch, he sat beside her and took her hands in his.
“Tell me what happened,” he implored.
After she finished, he had no idea what to say. There’d been rumors floating around town about Mr. Will’s gambling and Ms. Estelle putting him out of the house, but Del hated the rumor mill in Providence. He’d been its topic of discussion one time too many, so he tended not to believe everything he heard on a third, fourth, fifth or whatever retelling. And he especially tried to mind his own business. He had enough to worry about with the business and the repairs that were coming to the forefront on the house he owned with his siblings. There was no time to take on anyone else’s problems.
But Rylan wasn’t just anyone else.
“How much would you need to buy the business from your father?” Del asked because he had no idea how much an auto body shop was worth.
He also didn’t know how much money he could offer her since he’d tied up most of his savings in the restaurant. And while he’d made some sound investments while he was living in D.C., he didn’t have a number on how much they were worth at the moment.
Rylan sighed heavily. “I went to the bank a month ago and applied for a small business loan. But since I have no collateral, I’d need a twenty-five thousand dollar down payment, or the amount they could offer me without it wouldn’t come close to being enough to make the purchase. Besides that, my father refuses to sell to me because he thinks I should get married and let my husband take care of me.”
She shook her head. “I mean, I never said I didn’t want to get married and have a family. But when I do, I’d like it to be because I’ve fallen in love with someone and not because I need a man to help keep a roof over my head. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself, I’ve been doing so for a while now.”
Del agreed. She had taken good care of herself, even if she was living in a too small, subpar apartment building likely because she wasn’t making enough money at the body shop. She drove an antique car which was great for a collector, but she could probably use something a little more reliable. These were just the things that Del noticed. He had no idea if there was anything else Rylan was going without or sacrificing for this business. The thought briefly crossed his mind to say that this might be a blessing in disguise, but Del knew better. He knew what it was like to have a dream and have it collapse while you were helpless to do anything to stop it.
“And you’ll continue to take care of yourself,” he told her. “This is going to work out, Rylan. You might not feel that way right now, but it will. And if not with this body shop, then with another. With your own, one that you could build and run the way you want to. You have the education and the training to make it work and I believe you can do it. As for your parents’ marriage,” Del paused. He could only shake his head at that situation. “That’s their problem, not yours. Sure, it affects you, but there’s nothing you can do but watch and wait while it plays out.”
She was sitting quietly on the chair now. She’d used her free hand to wipe the tears from her face.
“I know,” she said with another sigh. “I just feel so helpless and I hate that feeling.”
“You’re not helpless,” Del told her. “You have the power to do whatever you want to do to make your life better.”
His mother had told him that and though it had taken him a while, Del wholeheartedly believed it.
When Rylan only nodded, Del leaned forward. He untied and removed her boots and then lay back on the couch, pulling her against him. Reaching back to the end table, he handed her the remote to the television.
“It’s your choice tonight,” he said before kissing the top of her head.
She accepted the remote and snuggled back against him. “I’m gonna need an action movie tonight. No wonderfully cheerful Christmas movie’s going to help my mood,” she told him, her tone not as light as normal, but not as dismal as it’d been when she first arrived.
