The Good Ones Page 30

  She felt Ryder straighten up beside her. She didn’t look at him, because if he didn’t approve she didn’t want to know.

  Mr. Hargraves scratched his head, “You did hear the part about the barn being pink, didn’t you?”

  Maisy grinned at him. “Pink is actually perfect. How about seventy-five dollars per month?”

  “I say you just bought yourself the side of a barn,” Mr. Hargraves said. Then he turned to Travis and snapped, “What are you doing? You need to let these kids go. It’s a school night.”

  With that, Mr. Hargraves left, and everyone else followed in varying states of surprise and relief. Travis paused by Maisy and patted her on the shoulder. “That was genius.”

  “Thanks,” she said.

  She glanced back at Ryder, but he wasn’t looking anywhere near as pleased. In fact, he was glowering. As everyone left the room, he motioned for Perry and Maisy to stay.

  Ryder ran a hand over his face. Maisy recognized it as his calm down gesture. She glanced at Perry. There was no calming happening there. Her chin jutted out and she looked ready for a fight. That should have been her first clue.

  “Would you care to explain to me this ‘good deed’ that you led all of your friends into?” Ryder asked.

  “What’s to explain?” Perry asked. Maisy wanted to jump in and wave her hand across her throat to signify that she should can the ’tude but she doubted it would do any good. “I belong to a group, a secret society, in fact, and we do good deeds anonymously to help anyone who might need it.”

  “‘Secret society’?” Ryder asked. “Like a cult? What crackpot talked you into that?”

  Maisy raised her hand. “That would be me.”

  “You?” He looked at her as if he didn’t recognize her. “You’re having my child keep secrets from me?”

  “Not secrets, just anonymous good deeds,” Maisy said. She glanced at his face. He was not impressed. “That probably doesn’t sound much better.”

  “My kid got hauled into jail for vandalism, so no, not better,” he said.

  Maisy couldn’t argue the point.

  “Explain, please,” Ryder said to Perry.

  “Okay, so when I broke up with Cooper, I was feeling really bad, and we had a girls’ night.” She glanced at Maisy for confirmation and Maisy nodded. “While we were talking, we discussed how doing good deeds, like saving King George, made us feel better when we were low and so we decided to form a secret society that did anonymous good deeds. We’ve all done a whole bunch of stuff, but I wanted to do something big before I leave for school. You know, something Cooper and I could share, so I thought painting Mr. Hargraves’s barn, which desperately needs it, would be something special.”

  “Let me get this straight,” Ryder said. “You formed a secret good deed club and you’ve been doing stuff for people all over town and not letting them know what you’ve done?”

  “Yes,” Perry said. “Like Je—one of our members helped her neighbor’s son come home for a visit, and another is helping a certain person with his website, stuff like that. It’s supercool. I plan to write my college essay about it.”

  “Oh, good idea,” Maisy said.

  “Yeah, great idea,” Ryder said. “Try to leave out the part where you got hauled into the police station and almost arrested.”

  Perry glowered at him in an expression so similar to his that Maisy was taken aback. They really did have the same jutting chin and bright-blue eyes and donkey stubborn disposition.

  “Are we good now?” Perry asked.

  “Not even close,” Ryder said. He glanced at Maisy, looking at her as if he couldn’t believe she was involved in all of this. “You know this could have ruined Perry’s chance of going to Saint Mary’s.” He looked back at Perry. “It’s the best school in the country and you’ve worked so hard to be accepted. How could you jeopardize it like this? This was so incredibly thoughtless of you.”

  “Thoughtless?” Perry spat the word at him. “How can you say that when it was exactly the opposite? We were trying to do something nice. Mr. Hargraves isn’t pressing charges, there isn’t going to be a fine to pay or community service, and it won’t be on my permanent record. So, what is the big deal?”

  “The big deal is that you’re keeping secrets, and it could have cost you everything,” Ryder said. He said it as if it was all suddenly making sense. “You know how I feel about lies and secrets. How could you, Perry?”

  She shrugged. It was full of teenage attitude and Maisy cringed, knowing that it was only going to piss Ryder off, which it did.

  “That’s not an answer,” he said. Perry crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. Ryder stared at her as if he didn’t even recognize her. The tension in the room was clearly at a breaking point. Still, Maisy said nothing.

  “Oh, my God, you did it on purpose, didn’t you?” he asked, looking as if he’d just figured it all out.

  “What? No,” Perry said. She didn’t meet his gaze.

  “You painted the barn pink so that you would be caught,” he said. “You probably hoped you’d get into so much trouble you’d get kicked out of Saint Mary’s so you could stay here with Cooper. Is that it, Perry? Was that your plan?”

  Maisy knew she should stay out of it, but she felt like she needed to try to defend Perry. “Ryder, no, you know Perry’s not like that. She was just trying to do something nice. Only it just didn’t work out as planned.”

  “I’m not really sure you should be defending her, given the bad influence you’ve been on her with your ‘secret society,’” Ryder said. His tone was high snark and he even used the finger quotes. Maisy felt her own temper begin to heat. Before she could say anything, he turned to Perry and said, “If you didn’t do this on purpose, answer me this—how do you mix up bright pink and dark red? They aren’t exactly next to each other on the color wheel.”

  “Fine. I did do it on purpose.”

  Maisy sucked in a breath. She hadn’t seen that coming.

  “I did it. I hoped I’d get caught and I hoped it would keep me from having to go away. I don’t want to go to Saint Mary’s and you can’t make me.”

  “Oh, can’t I?” Ryder said. “This isn’t negotiable, Perry. It’s been the plan since before you were born.”

  “Plans change,” Perry said softly. Her lip quivered and Maisy could see she was about to cry.

  “Not this one,” Ryder said.

  They stared at each other, and Maisy felt her heart pound in her chest. Should she step in? What could she say? It was clear Ryder was blaming her in part for this, and he might have a point. Oh, man, she wasn’t a big conflict person and she’d already had her quota for the day.

  “You’re going to Saint Mary’s and that’s final,” he said.

  Perry glared at her father and cried, “Are you that desperate to get rid of me?”

  “You know that isn’t true,” he said.

  “Then why are you sending me away? Why?”

  “Perry, we’ve talked about this. You know why. I want you to have the best of everything and all of the advantages I never had,” he said.

  “Why?” Perry plopped her hands on her hips. Gone was the threat of tears. She looked fierce.

  Maisy glanced between Perry and Ryder. Perry was pushing him for something. Each word was like a fist punching a pane of glass, trying to make it crack. Ryder’s face was stiff, his expression frozen as if he knew what she was looking for and he just couldn’t deliver the goods. Maisy’s chest hurt because she sensed beneath his stoic facade, he was hurting mightily.

  “You can’t say it, can you?” Perry asked. “Even when you’re about to send me away from everyone I love and care about, you still can’t say it.”

  “Ladybug, don’t do this,” Ryder said. “You know how I feel about you.”

  “Do I?” Tears coursed down her cheeks. She looke
d angry and miserable and then she turned away as if she couldn’t take it anymore. “How could I? I’m fourteen years old and you’ve never, not once, told me that you love me, so how could I possibly know how you feel?”

  Maisy felt all of the air whoosh out of her lungs. Perry stormed from the room. Maisy glanced at Ryder, who wore an anguished expression as if Perry had ripped his heart right out of his chest. She reached out and squeezed his arm.

  “I’ll go after her,” she said. “She can stay with me tonight. I think that’s for the best.”

  Ryder nodded. He looked like a man who had just lost everything.

  Chapter Thirty-one

  “AND then what happened?” Savy asked. She was sitting on the edge of her bed, shoving cookie dough ice cream into her mouth as if Maisy were recounting the latest episode of This Is Us.

  “Travis gave us a ride home,” Maisy said.

  “Just like that? Ryder didn’t say anything? He didn’t come after you?”

  “Nope,” she said. “Perry is down in the hidden room with George and she’s going to crash on our couch tonight.”

  “Wow,” Savy said with wide eyes she stared at Maisy. “What do you think is going to happen?”

  “I have no idea,” Maisy said. She stared at the melted puddle of ice cream in her bowl and felt a sob hiccup in her throat. She was not going to cry. She refused. She was not going to shed one tear over that man. She had promised herself when this started—no crying.

  “Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry,” Savy said. She put her bowl down and put an arm around Maisy. “I was hoping Ryder was different. I was hoping he was the one guy you fell for that didn’t have something wrong with him.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with him,” Maisy said. “Maybe he isn’t great with verbal expressions of his feelings, but that’s pretty common with adult children of alcoholics. His actions speak so much louder than words. I know how he feels about Perry and she does, too.”

  “What about you?” Savy asked. “Do you know how he feels about you?”

  “I thought I did, but it might have changed,” Maisy said. As much as it hurt, she knew it was important to be brutally honest, mostly to herself, about the very real possibility that her and Ryder’s relationship was over. “He’s very unhappy with me right now. I’m pretty sure he blames the Royal Order of George and me in particular for tonight’s debacle.”

  “He’ll get over it,” Savy said. “He’s just not used to life changing the direction of the wind in his sails.”

  “Wind in his sails?” Maisy asked. “You’re awfully poetic tonight.”

  “I’ve been reading scholarly romances,” Savy said. “You know, Time Traveler’s Wife and Possession.”

  “Oh, those are good ones. You must be feeling the pressure of living in the shadow of our alma mater,” Maisy said. She was quiet for a moment and then she looked at Savannah and said, “You know, I’m wondering if I should have named the shop the Happily Ever After Bookshop, because for the first time I can remember, I’m not certain that HEAs are the sure thing I’ve always believed them to be.”

  “No, the name is perfect,” Savy said. “Because the books are what inspire us to keep trying to find that elusive happily ever after for ourselves. I mean, really, why should we settle for anything less? Ryder will come around and things will be better in the morning. You’ll see.”

  It wasn’t better.

  * * *

  • • •

  THE next morning, Maisy saw Perry off to school just before Ryder came in the front door. Maisy was working the front counter of the bookstore, which wasn’t open yet, and he didn’t slow down or stop to chat. He just tipped his head at her and started up the stairs. So that’s how it was going to be. The silent treatment. Oh, joy.

  Luckily, Maisy was busy. There was a readers’ group coming in for their first Regency Tea that afternoon, which Jeri was hosting, and they had decided to hold it in the front room and deck it out with Auntie El’s old Haviland china with the pretty yellow roses on it. Maisy’d had Seth retrieve a steamer trunk full of Auntie El’s old hats out of the attic. She thought the ladies might enjoy donning hats during their tea.

  Not that she was trying to catch Ryder’s eye—she totally was—but she was wearing the teal dress Perry had pointed to in her closet as being Ryder’s favorite color, and while arranging the hats in the old trunk she found a fantastic hat that looked like a big powder puff in the same teal color. She plunked it on her head, stuffing her curls up underneath it.

  She then went back to the counter, where she continued working on her laptop. Maybe it was the hat, but she felt empowered and at least four inches taller. When the workmen trickled out through the shop to go to lunch, she perched on the counter, pulling on a pair of Auntie El’s old elbow-length gloves as she waved them out. Ryder did a stagger step at the sight of her and Maisy met his gaze with a wicked one of her own, right over the top edge of her glasses.

  Ryder didn’t take the bait, however, and after he took a second to collect himself, he followed the men out the door. Maisy tossed a sour look in his direction and settled herself behind the counter and back to work. She was writing the bookshop’s first newsletter and she felt extreme pressure to get it exactly right. Ryder had killed her mojo, however, and she propped her chin in a gloved hand and stared up at the newly repainted ceiling, seeking inspiration.

  “Don’t move!” Savannah cried when she came out of the office. “That is so great!”

  She had her phone with her and she began to snap pictures of Maisy. She knelt down and shot from below and then dragged over a chair and shot the pics from above. She fussed with the lighting and the items on the counter. She had Maisy smile, pout, look bored, then friendly, until Maisy put her head down on the cool wood and said, “No more, I beg of you, no more.”

  “All right,” Savannah said. “But these are going to be fantastic on the website and in our social media feed. So retro! Yay!”

  With a twirl of her knee-length skirt, Savy disappeared back into the office. Maisy glanced out the door to see if Ryder was on his way back yet. He wasn’t. But there was Jeri, dressed in retro chic for her first run at hosting the tea. She was in a high-waisted, bright-pink dress with tiny blue polka dots on the poufy skirt and matching pink high heels. She looked very retro, especially with her pink pillbox hat and clutch purse. Adorable.

  A flurry of ladies arrived at the top of the hour. Maisy helped served the tea. Since this was Jeri’s show, she had chosen to start the high tea with a discussion of Georgette Heyer. Maisy was more of a glorified waitress, who also happened to be in charge of a cart full of classic Regency romances. When the call came for more petit fours, Maisy dutifully trotted to the kitchen.

  She pushed through the swinging door and came to a stop. There he was, right where they’d made love a few weeks ago, and he was standing in front of the counter, looking forlorn.

  “Oh, sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know you were in here.”

  He didn’t say anything. He just looked at her as if he was battling a whole host of emotions and he was trying to figure out which one should win. He walked toward her, and Maisy knew he was going to leave again. Damn it.

  “So, is this how it’s going to be?” she asked. “We’re just not speaking to each other or is it just you not speaking to me, because clearly I’m talk—”

  Ryder cut her off by putting his mouth on hers. He looped one arm around her back and hauled her up close while the other hand dug into her hair, knocking her hat off, allowing her curls to spring free and twine themselves about his fingers as if they could hold him prisoner. If only. He kissed her with a single-mindedness, his lips capturing hers while his tongue made a thorough sweep as if trying to taste the essence of her. It left Maisy breathless and clinging to his shoulders.

  “Maisy, do you need help in there?” Savy called. “Jeri said you were br
inging out more food. I need some pics of the petit fours.”

  The door started to swing open and Maisy shot out an arm and a foot. She heard a thump and a grunt as Savannah walked into the door.

  “Sorry,” she yelled. “I’ll be right out.”

  She didn’t let go of the door until she heard Savy mutter a confused, “Okay,” and walk away.

  Ryder let Maisy go and she bent down and snatched up her hat, shoving her curls into it. She must have been making a mess of it, because he brushed her fingers out of the way and took over the task. Neither of them spoke. For Maisy’s part, she absolutely didn’t know what to say and apparently, he didn’t, either.

  When Maisy was set to rights, she turned around and grabbed the box of petit fours. Ryder stalled her by catching her around the waist. He leaned close and whispered, “Meet me in the turret after the shop closes tonight.”

  “All right,” she agreed, and hurried from the kitchen. If Jeri or Savy noticed that she was flustered and flushed, they didn’t remark upon it. Maisy was grateful because even while she couldn’t deny how eager she was to be with Ryder, she also couldn’t help fearing that this was the beginning of the end.

  * * *

  • • •

  THAT evening while Maisy closed the shop, Ryder waited for her in the turret room. The crew had finished it that day, and they were all pretty stoked with how it had come out. A fancy crystal chandelier Ryder had found at an estate sale hung overhead, sending splinters of light all around the room. The turret was mostly large windows with built-in bench seats. The ceiling was high, with exposed beams. The scent of sawdust and plaster lingered, which made him feel as if he was leaving a part of himself behind. When Maisy entered the room, she gasped.

  “Oh, wow. It’s perfect,” she said. She clasped her hands over her heart. “I love it.”

  I love it, not you. He knew he had no right to expect her to say words to him that he couldn’t bring himself to say to her, but it didn’t change the fact that he treasured those words from her and he desperately wanted to hear them again.