“Unfortunately.” Just thinking about it was making him angry all over again. Before he could say anything else, however, the doorbell rang. “That’ll be them.”
“I’ll get it,” she said as she went to stand, but Ryder stopped her.
“No, you relax and enjoy your wine. I’ll get it.” Then he gave her a quick kiss before going down to the door.
He welcomed Jake and Austin and motioned for them to go up the stairs and smiled when he heard them talking with Peyton.
“Promise me you’ll call Mallory and go out for a girls’ day,” Jake was saying. “Between the shop and the kids, she doesn’t take nearly as much time for herself as she should. And she’s mentioned more than once how long it’s been since the two of you went to lunch and got pedicures.”
“Ooh…that is true,” she agreed. “I’ll call her tomorrow and set something up.”
“Oh, and that also reminds me,” Jake went on. “I’ve got some clients coming in next week and I want to have lunch brought in. Any chance you can cater on such short notice?”
She smiled. “For you? Of course! Have your assistant call me tomorrow and we’ll set it all up.”
“Thanks, Peyton. You’re the best.”
Ryder was about to chime in when his phone rang. His brother’s name came up on the screen and he knew he should take it, so he excused himself and walked over to the living room. He was only half paying attention, but saw Austin put his iPad on the kitchen table while talking to Peyton.
“Hey,” he said distractedly, as he answered the phone. “What’s up?”
“Hey, Ryder. You busy?”
“A little.”
“Um…so I had dinner with Mom and Dad last night and thanks for the heads-up on what’s going on with Mom!”
Ugh…he really didn’t want to get into this right now. “It wasn’t my place to tell you and besides, it’s been less than a week, Patrick. It’s not like we talk that often.” Looking across the room, it looked like Austin was showing something to Peyton on his tablet. Maybe he was showing her the resort plans? But…that wouldn’t be right. Why would he pull them out?
“Yeah, well…I had dinner with them last night and Mom wasn’t looking so good. She said she was tired and I didn’t think much of it. Then she raved about your new girlfriend. Again, thanks for the heads-up. Now she’s after me to meet a nice girl like yours.”
“Wait…that’s not right,” he heard Peyton say. She looked up at him and frowned before returning her attention to the tablet.
What’s not right?
“You know this is going to be a wild time with them,” his brother was saying. “I mean…we should make a joint effort to spend more time with Mom. I know she’s definitely looking to spend more time with you and Peyton. Me? Not so much. She didn’t ask about when I’d be around, only you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Patrick. Of course she wants to spend time with both of us,” he reasoned. “I’m sure it’s nothing personal.”
“It feels personal,” he murmured.
“This looks nothing like it’s supposed to!” Peyton’s voice got a little louder and he couldn’t figure out why she was getting so worked up about the resort property. They had nothing to do with the kitchens for the restaurant or the café.
“Don’t obsess about this. It’s all going to be okay.”
“Aren’t you the least bit concerned? Our mother has cancer, Ryder. Cancer!”
“Of course I’m concerned,” he said with a huff of annoyance. “I just think…”
“What the hell, Ryder?” Peyton cried, and he suddenly put everything that was going on around him together.
Her restaurant plans.
Not the resort.
And the changes he never told her about.
“I have to go,” he said quickly into the phone before hanging up. Ryder knew he could deal with his brother later, but this…this needed his full attention right now. Stalking across the room, he kept his eyes on her. “Peyton, I…”
“You changed everything, Ryder!” she said frantically. “Everything!”
“In his defense,” Austin started, but she cut him right off.
“He has no defense! Those were my plans. My plans!” She stepped around both men and stormed toward him. “You said you were building my restaurant, Ryder! Those plans barely resemble anything of mine!”
Holding up a hand to stop her, he knew one of them had to stay calm and be the voice of reason. “There were issues with the plans,” he explained. “In order to maximize the potential of the property, some changes needed to be made. It’s not a big deal. If you take a breath and just look at what we did, you’ll see that the changes are no big deal. If anything, it made everything better. More efficient.”
Her eyes narrowed to near slits and he nervously glanced at Austin and Jake–who both turned away.
“Peyton, come on. Be reasonable. You can’t possibly think that your plans were so perfect that nothing needed to change,” he went on casually, even though he had a feeling he was digging an even deeper hole for himself. “You drew that design yourself. You can’t possibly know everything there is to know about architecture and all it entails to make sure a building is safely placed on a piece of property.”
Glancing over her shoulder toward her cousin, she asked, “Was the design safe, Austin?”
“Um…yes?” he said weakly. “But there were…”
She wasn’t listening. Turning back to Ryder, she said, “And you know what? I could have handled the changes if you had bothered to talk to me about them. I’m not a child and I’m not an idiot and this feels all too familiar, Ryder.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s like we’re right back to when we first met. You’re not taking me seriously and it feels like you…you lied to me to get your way!”
“How did I…?”
“You thought you could throw cash at me and when that didn’t work, you promised to build my restaurant! We agreed it would be seventy-five, twenty-five and yet you had no intention of sticking to that, did you?”
“Of course I did! If you’d just calm down…”
“And I’m sure once we started sleeping together you really didn’t think you had to honor our agreement!” She groaned as she shook her head with disgust. “I can’t believe I trusted you!”
“Um…maybe we should go,” Jake said as he and Austin began gathering their things.
“No,” Peyton said loudly, firmly. “You guys stay. Apparently you have all kinds of plans to discuss that don’t involve me. I’ll go.” She stormed around gathering her things and rather than feeling bad, it angered Ryder.
“You know what, Peyton? Yes, you should go. Go and calm down and think about all the crazy shit you just said.” When she turned and glared at him, he didn’t back down. “I made a mistake and didn’t talk to you about the plans, but it wasn’t intentional and I certainly didn’t do it because I don’t value your opinion!”