“Funny you should ask that. I thought I was going to have to give my first-born child to Christiano to get any information out of him. He pretty much told me not to get you into trouble while we’re here. What have you told him about me?”
“Nothing at all. I wouldn’t tell that man anything voluntarily about my life.” She let out an annoyed huff. “He’s so fucking annoying. I can’t believe he said that to you. Did he at least tell you where we’re staying?”
“He did after a lot of begging and promising that I really knew you. We were lucky to get a room. The hotel said they only had a couple that weren’t booked.”
“At least we’re all staying at the same hotel. We can eat dinner and then chill out at the bar downstairs or something.”
“Perfect, now let’s get ourselves a ride because I’m starved, and you don’t want to see me when I get hangry.”
Covering my mouth and speaking low, so Walker didn’t hear from his spot next to Pen, I asked. “How do you sit by and let those women, and I use the word women loosely, hang all over him?”
Pen leans back, not caring if anyone hears her. “I don’t really have a choice. If I acted all possessive over him, that would only stir up rumors. What about you? How do you handle it?”
“There’s not much to handle. Everyone we’re around knows Ryder and I are together. I can’t do a thing about all the women who eye-fuck him.” She tipped her head in each of our directions. “You two included.”
It was fun to watch as Walker, who’d be acting uninterested in our conversation, stiffened.
“When we were first together, Ryder took care of it for us when we were around new people. He’d claim me on the spot with a kiss that would leave me breathless and a whole lot more if you know what I mean.”
Oh, we knew exactly what she meant. Ryder would kiss her, and she’d want to jump his bones.
A sigh escaped her, and I knew Lexie was missing her husband and child. It meant a lot to me that she came on this trip with me. I needed to do something to repay her. Maybe I’d watch Delilah while they went out on a date or something.
“We were going to wait if you hadn’t stopped in Spain so we could make a little pit stop, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
Pen’s eyes went wide. “Were you going to look him up?”
“I mean, I was thinking about it.”
“This is new.” She wrapped her hand around Walker’s bicep and shook it with excitement. “Do you want to talk to him or just have great sex again because I bet Zelda would try to get his number if you really wanted it.”
“Well, in a perfect world, I’d like both and for him to be at least be on the same continent or sharing the same body of water. That’s not too much to ask for, is it?”
“I don’t see how you’re going to get laid if you’re not even on the same continent as the guy,” Walker muttered.
“See,” I slapped my hand down on the table. “He gets it.”
“Maybe you should stop focusing on that guy and find one more…” his eyes lifted to mine, “attainable.”
Ouch.
“Don’t listen to him.” Pen glared at Walker. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about or what you’ve been through. But,” she drew out the word, “maybe you should think about starting to date. Maybe download a couple of apps.”
“She should not do that.” Walker leaned forward with his elbows on the table and gave me the hard facts. “Listen, you don’t want to meet a guy off an app. They are there for one thing only, and that is to get laid. You’re a beautiful woman, and if you put yourself out there, any guy in the vicinity would want to date you.”
Throwing up my hands, I smiled over at the two of them. “Well, he won my vote. I say you keep him. Anyone who can simultaneously tell me something I don’t want to hear and compliment me at the same time is good in my book.”
“Is that really all it takes?” Pen silently shook with laughter from her side of the table.
“Well, I mean, you seem to like him since you’ve kept him around for a few months, which isn’t typical for you.”
Pen’s eyes narrowed as she shot daggers at me. “How about you don’t spill all of my secrets, so I can maybe keep him around for a bit longer?”
Walker looked to Lexie. “It’s like I’m not even here. Do they do this often?”
Lexie tilted her head to the side and smirked. “I’ve spent a lot more time with Stella than I have Pen, but I can’t say that they do.”
Turning to Walker, I apologized, trying to explain. “Sorry, we know you’re here. I wanted her to know you’ve got my seal of approval. I was worried that after I found out about you, I might not like you. That there might have been an ulterior motive as to why Pen kept your existence all to herself.”
Walker sat back and put his arm around Pen’s shoulders. “She felt bad about it if that helps.”
I would hope she felt bad about lying to me for months. As far as I knew, it was the only secret she’d kept from me.
“It helps some,” I murmured.
Our waitress brought out our food, and we all sat in silence for a few minutes as we ate. Lexie and I were starved since we hadn’t eaten since early in the morning, which seemed like ages ago. Pen had found a quaint little café that had a little bit of everything.
“You did good picking this place,” I said before I took another bite of my mini pancakes.
“Yeah, it’s good, or it could be because it’s been hours since we ate,” Lexie pointed out.
“You did good, babe,” Walker nodded. “How did you two like the show?”
“It was a damn good show. I wouldn’t normally go see a band play if I didn’t know their music, but your music sucked me in, and I was dancing along like I knew every word.”
“That’s a good thing.” He bobbed his head with an uptick of his lips.
“I’ll definitely be buying your music once I get home. I know my husband will love it too, so you’ve got three new fans. I know that’s not much—“
“No, it’s everything. It means a lot to me that you both liked our music. The whole band is astounded by the way everyone has embraced our music, and we have Pen here to thank for that. If it wasn’t for her giving us a chance, we’d still be playing at college parties and at the one bar that would let us play.”
I loved seeing the passion he had for his music and how humble he was.
“That gives me all the feels. I’ll have my husband download it and do something on his Instagram story, TikTok, or something like that showing that he’s listening to it. You’ll have a lot of new fans or at least sales if he does that.”
“Get their IG handle as well so he can tag them. They’ll get a lot of new followers,” Pen instructed, going into manager mode.
Walker sat up straighter. “How many followers does he have?”
Lexie scrunched up her face in thought. “I don’t know. Let me look.” She pulled out her phone and smiled down at her phone. Her home screen was a picture of the happy couple in an exotic location with Delilah on her dad’s shoulders. It was a gorgeous shot of them. The moment she clicked on Instagram, it lit up with notifications as she went to Ryder’s profile. “He has a little over a million.”