Some of my grumpiness dissipates. “Are you here for a sandwich of the day, too?”
Ray shakes his head. “Just picking up a couple of steaks. Thought I’d surprise your mom with dinner when she gets home from work.”
“That sounds nice,” I say, glancing over at Anderson as he steps up beside me. He looks at Ray like he wants an introduction.
He and Ray haven’t met yet, but the mood I’m in right now, I’m not exactly eager to introduce them.
“What’s up?” Anderson asks casually, nodding his head.
Ray eyes him up but doesn’t respond. Instead, he says to me, “This the Scorpio?”
Anderson darts a questioning glance my way. “The Scorpio?”
“Zodiac sign,” I explain, without really explaining.
This doesn’t clear anything up for him. “I’m not a Scorpio. I’m a Libra.”
Ray emits a low, unimpressed-sounding murmur.
Anderson’s gaze snaps to him, then back to me. “I’m lost.”
I don’t loop Anderson in. Instead, I tell Ray, “He’s not the one who sent the flowers. The Scorpio is someone else.”
“You figured out who sent you the flowers?” Anderson asks, understandably curious.
That’s another question I don’t feel like answering, so I make an introduction that turns awkward fast. “This is my… Anderson. This is Anderson.”
The faintest glimmer of amusement passes through Ray’s eyes, but I only notice it because I know him a little better. When he turns his gaze on Anderson, it’s hard and entirely unamused.
“Her boyfriend,” Anderson says flatly, thrusting his hand out.
Ray doesn’t look altogether convinced or interested in shaking hands, but after a couple seconds, he decides not to leave Anderson hanging and gives it a firm shake. “Ray.”
“Ray is my… well, my mom’s—”
“I’m Riley’s father,” Ray supplies, cutting me off.
My eyebrows rise sharply in surprise, but I can’t deny a little burst of happiness I feel hearing him say that. “Ray is my mom’s boyfriend. He’s a little crazy,” I state good-naturedly.
Ray releases Anderson’s hand and shrugs. “We’ll get married eventually, figured I might as well start claiming you now.”
The man behind the counter places Ray’s order on the counter. “Anything else I can get you today?”
Ray reaches into his back pocket and draws out a wallet, but then he looks over at me. “Go ahead and order, I got it.”
“Oh, I’ll pay for her,” Anderson interjects. Then to the guy behind the counter, he says, “We want to get two orders of the sandwich of the day.”
The man shakes his head. “Sold out. Sorry.”
On one hand, I’m disappointed. I really wanted that sandwich.
On the other hand, I’m in a bad mood, and I really want to bail on this date. I think I just found the perfect excuse.
“Aw, that’s a shame. But you know what? Actually, Ray, you probably need me to get into the house, right? You don’t have a key, and Mom’s not home yet, so I’ll have to let you in.”
Ray meets my gaze, catching on quickly. Thankfully, he plays along without hesitation. “That’s right. It’s a good thing I ran into you.”
I nod, so relieved that I forget I’m annoyed at Anderson and shoot him an apologetic smile. “Maybe we can grab a sandwich tomorrow.”
Anderson does not look remotely pleased. “I can’t tomorrow, that’s why we made plans today.”
“Oh. Right. Well, another time.”
The awkwardness is palpable as we all stand here, Anderson put out that I’m ditching him and only barely pretending to be bummed about it. Me, I just want to get the hell out of here, so I ignore the tension and look to Ray for help.
No more interested than I am in sticking around and soaking up the discomfort, Ray looks at the meat packed up on the counter, then asks the butcher, “Can I get one more of those? Turns out my daughter will be home for dinner, after all.”
Chapter Seventeen
Riley
Ray doesn’t say anything as I slide into the passenger seat of his car. He doesn’t ask about the awkward way I just dropped my boyfriend or my clear desperation to get away from him. Ray knows if all he needed was to be let into the house, I could have just given him my house key.
Hell, he was locked up for breaking into someone’s house—I don’t even know if he needs a key to get past a front door.
But he doesn’t ask, and after being grilled by Anderson, I deeply appreciate it.
Instead of interrogating me, he puts the steaks in the backseat, turns on the air conditioning, and fires up the engine. The radio suddenly blares from the speakers, filling the silence. The volume startles me, so he automatically reaches over to turn it down.
“Sorry about that. You want me to turn it off?”
I shake my head. “No, it’s fine. Just a little loud.”
He cracks a smile as he adjusts the volume a tad lower, then puts his hand back on the steering wheel. “Yeah. I’m not used to the quiet yet.”
I look over at him. “What do you mean?”
He glances at me, then checks his rearview mirror before he puts the car in reverse to back out of his parking spot. “Where I lived before. Not very quiet.”
“Oh. Right, I guess it wouldn’t be,” I murmur, looking down at my lap.
A few seconds pass and he doesn’t say anything else, so we fall into a companionable silence. I watch out the window as we drive through town, then when there’s nothing nice to look at anymore, I look back over at him.
“Sorry about crashing your date night with my mom.”
I’m sure he’s not thrilled about it, but you really can’t tell looking at him. He seems sincere when he shakes his head and says, “No worries.”
“I have a lot of homework to do tonight, anyway,” I assure him. “I don’t even have to eat with you guys, I can—”
He cuts me a look, interrupting without words. “I said it’s not a problem, Riley. Date night, family dinner—makes no difference to me. You can help me out if you want to. Throw together a salad or something and we’ll both take credit for the idea.”
Since he really doesn’t seem to mind that I invited myself to their date night, I relax a little… but only until I realize I told Mom I’d be out with Anderson tonight.
She’ll want to know what changed.
Even though it’s been a few days, I haven’t told her Hunter is back yet. I tell myself I’m not deliberately keeping it from her, that it just hasn’t come up between me being busy with school stuff and her being busy with work.
I know it’s not entirely true, though. My mom may be busy, but she’s never too busy for me.
I don’t want to tell her, that’s the real truth. She never liked Hunter, but she did soften toward him when I broke down and told her everything he was going through.
That soft spot hardened right back up when she heard from another mother what was going around the school about me. Only three people knew she’d caught Hunter in bed with me. It hadn’t come from her, and she knew I didn’t spread the rumor about myself.