The Good Ones Page 9

  Maisy rolled her eyes. “Perry is here returning a book she borrowed and now she’s looking for a new one.”

  “Well, this is the place. What are you looking for? Contemporary comedy? Historical? Suspenseful? Paranormal?”

  “Para-what-al?” Perry asked.

  “You know, with vampires and stuff,” Savannah said.

  “Can I have one of each?”

  “Done,” Maisy said.

  She perused the titles. She didn’t want to give the teen anything too erotic so she went with The Hating Game, Venetia, The Other Daughter, and Born at Midnight. She handed the pile to Perry.

  “Venetia is a Regency by Georgette Heyer, the most Austen-like. If you want more, feel free to stop by anytime. We have all of hers.”

  “Thank you so much,” Perry said. She cradled the books in her arms.

  “Cool. Now come on upstairs and join us for junk food and a chick flick,” Savy said.

  “Oh, I should probably go,” Perry said.

  “Are your parents expecting you home?” Savy asked.

  “No, Dad and Uncle Quino have soccer tonight,” she said. “They won’t be home until later.”

  “Uncle?” Maisy asked. “I didn’t realize you had family here.”

  “I don’t. Technically, Joaquin Solis is not my uncle,” Perry said. “I’ve just called him that since I was born. He’s my godfather, actually.”

  “Oh.” Savy sent Maisy a look. Unfortunately, Maisy had no idea what it was supposed to mean, otherwise she would have waved her off or possibly tackled her to keep her from going where she went.

  “So, does your mom play soccer, too?”

  Perry shook her head. “Nah, at least, I don’t think so. She doesn’t live here.”

  “Really?” Savy asked. She made her green eyes round with curiosity. “Where does she live?’

  “Well, when Dad and I moved here, she moved to Los Angeles,” Perry said. “Then she went to Vancouver for a while for a show she was on. Now she’s pretty much back and forth between Vancouver and L.A.”

  Savannah’s eyes narrowed, but Perry was looking at the books in her hands and missed it. When she glanced up, Savannah was smiling. Maisy stood behind Perry, making slashing motions across her throat. This was not their business, not even a little.

  Savannah looped her arm through Perry’s and led her to the stairs. “Come on, then, text your dad and ask if you can join us for some movie time and ice cream.”

  “Okay, thanks,” Perry said. She pulled out her phone and fired off a text to her father. In seconds, her phone chimed. “He wants to know what the movie is.”

  “Well, it was going to be The Sure Thing but to celebrate your finishing the book, we simply have to watch Pride and Prejudice,” Maisy said.

  “Firth or Macfadyen?” Savannah asked.

  “Has to be Macfadyen,” Maisy said. “The Firth one is six hours long. We’d be up all night.”

  Savannah and Perry both stared at her.

  “No,” Maisy said. She looked pointedly at Perry. “It’s a school night.”

  “But the lake scene,” Savannah protested.

  “No,” Maisy said.

  Perry sighed and texted her father. Savannah smiled over the girl’s head at Maisy and then wiggled her eyebrows. Maisy glowered. She was not discussing Ryder, not even in pantomime.

  “Dad says it’s okay, but to hold the movie for him,” she said. “He’s coming over and he’s bringing pizza.”

  “Well, well, well,” Savannah said.

  Maisy shook her head, discouraging any rosy glow Savannah was attaching to Ryder’s motives. “That’s because he’s never seen it before.”

  “How do you know?”

  “He told me when I lent Perry the book.”

  “It’s true,” Perry said. “He didn’t even know who Jane Austen was.”

  “Horror,” Savannah said.

  “Right?” Perry asked.

  The two of them turned and headed up the stairs, leaving Maisy to lock the front door and follow. They had just reached the first landing when Savy decided to clarify. “So even though your parents live in different states, they’re still married? That takes a lot of work.”

  “Oh, no,” Perry said. “They’re divorced. They divorced three years ago when my mom went to Los Angeles for her career.”

  A book lurched off its pile and tripped Maisy. That was the only reason she could figure she was sprawled facedown on the steps.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Yup, just fine,” Maisy lied. Nope, there was nothing to see here. Just that the earth had collapsed beneath her feet at the news that Ryder was single and she was having a complete freak-out. Otherwise, situation normal.

  “Tomorrow we clean the stairs,” Savy said as she reached down and hauled Maisy to her feet. “Priority one.”

  “Right,” Maisy said. She wasn’t listening. Savannah could have said they were going to get belly piercings the next day and she would have agreed, because she was consumed with this brand-new information that changed everything.

  “But, Perry, your dad wears a wedding ring.” The words flew out before Maisy had the presence of mind to stop them. Luckily, Perry didn’t seem to think Maisy noticing her dad’s ring was odd.

  “Yeah, the women were chasing Dad pretty hard when he first got divorced. He said he wasn’t interested in a relationship anytime soon,” Perry said. “So he put his ring back on, hoping it would ward them off.”

  “Like garlic to a vampire,” Savy said.

  “Exactly,” Perry said. “Only it doesn’t seem to work on everyone.”

  “Imagine that,” Savannah said. Her tone said she wasn’t surprised at all.

  “Yeah, turns out some women don’t care that he’s married. In fact, in some cases the women seem to chase him even more,” Perry said. “That was a glimpse into human nature I did not need to see at my tender age.”

  “Preach it, sister,” Savy said. “Thankfully, we have just the remedy for that. A little Elizabeth Bennet played by Keira Knightley will make everything all right.”

  Savannah broke into a jog and they trotted up the last flight of stairs, leaving Maisy to follow them with her heart thumping wildly in her chest and her pulse pounding in her ears. Ryder wasn’t married. He was single. Available, but wearing a ring to ward off anyone who might be interested. Wait! Was he wearing it to keep her at arm’s length?

  Maisy wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Had she been too aggressive? Did he think she was interested? She felt a hot flush color her face. This was just so embarrassing. She mentally reviewed all of her interactions with Ryder to see if there was anything she had done that was forward or pushy or inappropriate. She couldn’t think of anything.

  Still, he wore his ring, and he had never mentioned that he was divorced. Clearly, he was only interested in a professional relationship between them, which of course he was. Why was she even thinking that it could or should be anything else? Maisy slapped her forehead with her palm. She had to get it together.

  Then again, he was coming over and bringing pizza. But only because his daughter was here! Ugh, Maisy felt like she was going to have a brain hemorrhage.

  As soon as they got into the small apartment, she poured Perry a soda and then ducked into her room to change. She was not wearing her hang-out pajamas around the man. Savannah must have felt the same because she disappeared into her room, too. They both returned wearing jeans and T-shirts with all of the appropriate undergarments on.

  A knock sounded downstairs and Perry jumped up from her seat on the floor and shouted, “I’ll get it.”

  Maisy was more than happy to let her. The up-and-down of a three-story house had her in better shape than she’d been in years.

  “So, he’s coming over,” Savy said.

  “Don’t,”
Maisy said. “Just don’t.”

  “But it turns out he’s apparently available. Why are you being weird?”

  “I’m not being weird,” Maisy insisted. “Obviously, he’s not interested in anything other than a professional relationship or he’d have taken his ring off.”

  “Maybe he forgot.”

  “He didn’t forget.”

  “Clearly, he’s not oblivious to your charm.”

  Maisy barked out a laugh. “I have no charm.”

  “You have buckets of charm. You just waste them on the wrong guys.”

  “Savy, I love you like a sister, but I am telling you—”

  “No man comes over to a woman’s house to watch Pride and Prejudice with her, her bestie, and his teenage kid unless he’s interested,” she said.

  “I’m sure he is interested,” Maisy said. Savannah looked mollified until she added, “In having me accept his bid to work on the house.”

  It was Savannah’s turn to roll her eyes. “You’re impossible. And you’re doing it again.”

  “Doing what?”

  “When Ryder was unavailable, you were all gooey eyed about him, like he could be the one but, oh, shucks and darn it, he’s married. But now that we know he’s not and there’s a chance that you could actually have your interest returned, you’ve wrapped yourself up in razor wire.”

  “I have not,” Maisy protested. “But if we’re going to work together I just think it would be prudent—”

  “You got part of that word right,” Savy said. “Prude—you.”

  Maisy gasped. “I am not.”

  “Yeah, you are,” Savannah said. “I didn’t want to be the one to point it out to you, but there are critters in these Smoky Mountains that hibernate for half a year and they’re getting more action than you.”

  “That is not—”

  “Knock knock,” a man’s voice called from the doorway. “Are we interrupting anything?”

  Maisy’s head whipped in the direction of the open door. Ryder was standing there with Perry, holding two huge pizza boxes. Maisy couldn’t move, quite certain the humiliation of being overheard might have turned her to stone.

  “Not a thing!” Savannah cried. “We were just having a discussion about the mating habits of the local wildlife.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Yeah, we’re really into botany,” Savy said.

  “That’s plants,” Perry said.

  “Bears, bushes, same difference,” she said. She crossed the room and grabbed the pizza boxes from Ryder. “I’m Savannah. You must be Ryder. Come on in.”

  Ryder and Perry entered the apartment and Maisy forced herself to smile in welcome. It must have looked as forced as it felt because Ryder cast her a concerned look and asked, “Are you sure you’re okay with me crashing the party? I just figured since I hadn’t seen it and all, it would be a good time for me to expand my literary education.”

  “Absolutely. The more the merrier,” she said. “Everyone should be familiar with Austen; she’s one of the few literary authors who is actually widely read.”

  Savannah was standing behind Ryder. She gave Maisy a look of disbelief and then pretended to have fallen asleep standing up. Maisy knew she was telling her to stop being so boring, but Maisy was having a minor panic attack here, and she always tapped into her inner professor to ward off a bad case of nerves.

  “See, Perry? I’ve been here for five minutes and I’m smarter already.” Ryder smiled at Maisy and his gaze was kind, making her feel even more awkward, if that was even possible.

  She wanted to go climb into her bed and pull the covers over her head. Why, oh, why couldn’t do-overs happen in real life?

  “How come you’re not at soccer with Uncle Quino?” Perry asked her father.

  “Because he took a cleat to the thigh and was so cut up and bloody we had to call the game,” Ryder said.

  “Daisy isn’t going to like that,” Perry said. She looked alarmed.

  “Is Daisy his girlfriend?” Savannah asked.

  Maisy would have told her to mind her own business, but she was so relieved to have everyone’s attention off her, she was okay with having her friend’s terminal nosiness spare her any more scrutiny.

  “No, she’s not,” Perry said. Then she looked at her dad and laughed. “Or maybe she is.”

  Maisy and Savannah exchanged a confused glance, and Ryder explained, “Daisy is his horse.”

  “Quino owns Shadow Pine Stables,” Ryder explained. “He’s an old friend of mine from Texas. We rent the guesthouse on his property.”

  Savy looked at Perry. “You ride?”

  “Every day,” she said. “Uncle Quino has me teaching a few classes, too.”

  “You ladies should come out to the stables sometime,” Ryder said. “We could go on a trail ride.”

  “That’d be great,” Savy answered for them. “I haven’t been on a horse in years.”

  Everyone turned to look at Maisy and she panicked. Seeing Ryder on a horse might end her, completely end her. “I don’t know. We have a lot to do to get the bookstore open.”

  Savannah blinked as if she couldn’t believe the stupidity she was being forced to witness. “M, I love you, but you know what they say about all work and no play.” She turned back to Ryder and Perry with a determined look. “We’ll figure it out, I promise.”

  Thankfully, Maisy’s inability to articulate like a normal person disappeared as she got caught up in the movie. Occasionally, she’d glance at Perry to see how she was enjoying it. Once while looking at the teen, she caught Ryder looking at her. Their eyes met, only for a moment, but she felt it all the way down in the pit of her stomach. He sent her a small smile and she glanced away, back at the movie, before her expression revealed any of her feelings, which frankly were a hot mess of holy bananas and oh, my Gods.

  When George Wickham, the dashing and dastardly officer who elopes with one of Elizabeth’s sisters, came on the screen, Ryder threw a piece of popcorn at him. His aim was true and the popcorn bopped Wickham on the nose.

  “Dad!” Perry protested.

  “What?” Ryder asked. “He’s a bad guy.”

  “No, he isn’t,” Perry said. “He’s just horribly misunderstood.”

  “Sorry, kiddo,” Savy said. “I’m with cowboy-architect dad on this one.”

  “Me, too,” Maisy chimed in. “Wickham is a scoundrel.”

  “I think he’s handsome,” Perry said. There was a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

  “That’s it,” Ryder said. “You’re never allowed to date. Your judgment is impaired. Why is it women always go for the rogue? They kick the decent, hardworking, nice guy to the curb and chase after the bad boy like a dog chasing a truck?”

  “Is that what happened?” Perry asked.

  “Huh?” Ryder glanced at his daughter, who was sitting on the floor beside him, leaving the couch for Maisy and Savy.

  “Did Mom go chase a bad boy?” Perry asked. “Is that why she left us?”

  Chapter Eleven

  THE room went quiet. Even the sound of the movie seemed to fade to background noise. Maisy didn’t know where to look, and yet she couldn’t look away. She’d suffered a few awkward silences in her time, like when she ran into dingleberry and his wife. As appalling as that had been, at least it had involved her directly. This was a new level of awkward, like finding a mug shot of your boss online or bearing witness to the serving of a subpoena.

  Maisy would have preferred either of those situations right now. No such luck. Instead, she was watching Ryder on the hot seat with his precocious daughter being the one to turn up the heat. To his credit, he pulled it together pretty quickly.

  “No!” he stated emphatically. He glanced at Maisy and Savannah before looking back at his daughter. “You know she didn’t, ladybug. Your mother was given a shot a
t her dream. She had to take it.”

  “You both said she left for her career,” Perry said. “But she could have had a career and us, but she chose not to—why?”

  Maisy felt her heart drop into her feet. Oh, boy, the man had been dumped and he was still wearing his wedding ring. No matter what Perry said about him wearing it to ward off aggressive women, Maisy wondered if that was true or if he really just couldn’t let go of his wife. The warning bells were ringing so loudly in her head, she almost missed his next words.

  “She got a major part on a TV show,” he said. “She couldn’t walk away from that, and I couldn’t move to Los Angeles.”

  “Couldn’t or didn’t want to?” Perry asked.

  Ryder looked at his daughter. His gaze was tender and his voice was gentle when he said, “Both.”

  Savannah gave Maisy a wild-eyed look. She knew Savy was thinking the same thing Maisy was. Primarily, that this was a conversation she didn’t want to be in and she had no idea how to get out. Maisy gave her a tiny shrug, mostly with her eyebrows, to let her know she had no idea how to escape, either.

  The disappointment on Perry’s face was wrenching. She wrapped her arms around her knees, looking like she wanted to disappear right into the floor. Ryder sat beside her, looking like he wanted to hug her but was uncertain if it would be welcome. Maisy wanted to give him a hard shove to the back, but she didn’t, because, really, this was none of her business.

  “Hey, don’t look so bummed,” Ryder said. “Didn’t you have a blast with her when you flew out to Disneyland and rode every ride at least one hundred times?”

  “Yeah,” she said. It was grudging, at best.

  “Doesn’t she call you every Sunday?”

  “Yes, but it’s not the same,” Perry said. “I was eleven when she left and look at me now. I’m fourteen. I’m growing up and she’s missing it. In a few more years, we’ll be strangers.”

  “You won’t,” Ryder said. “Your mom and I will always be there for you. You know that.”

  “Sure, I guess,” Perry said. She pushed up off the floor and stood. She glanced at Maisy. “Is it okay if I go look for more books?”

  “Of course,” Maisy said. “Help yourself.”