Page 112 of Head Over Heels
He brushed a lock of her hair from her shoulder. “That’s just scratching the surface.”
Their gazes met and held, and all of a sudden it felt unbearably intimate between them. She glanced away to find four interested people staring at her with smiles on their faces.
She took a drink of her lemonade-spiked vodka and prayed for a change of subject.
* * *
Ryder was putting dishes in the sink when his mom finally cornered him. It had been a good afternoon, filled with lots of embarrassing stories about him. They made Sophie laugh, so he didn’t mind too much.
He smiled at his mom. “Are you here to grill me?”
“Not grill. I never grill.” She leaned back against the counter. “I do like her, though.”
“Good. So do I.” He opened the dishwasher.
“Do you?”
He turned his attention toward his mom, his instincts going on high alert. “What does that mean?”
“It means I think you more than like her.” Her expression turned smug. “In fact, you’re in love with her.”
He laughed. “It’s only been a month. Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“I’m not. A mother knows. And you’re in love with her.” She picked up a pretzel from the bowl on the counter. “You just don’t recognize it because you’ve never felt it before.”
His brow furrowed. That was going too far. Yes, he liked her. Yes, he liked her more than any other woman he’d ever been with. But love? It was too soon for love.
“Mom.” His tone filled with warning.
She held up her hands. “I know. I know.”
He put a cup into the dishwasher. “But I’m glad you like her.”
“I do.” Her expression creased with worry. “What are you going to do when she leaves?”
Panic about kicked him in the gut. “I’m not going to worry about that right now. She’s here, everyone loves her, she’s doing a great job, and we’re having fun. That’s all I’m focusing on at the moment.”
“Ryder,” she said, her voice taking on that motherly tone from his youth.
“Mooommm.” He gave her a quick hug. “It will be okay, I promise.”
She smiled. “I don’t want you hurt.”
It was already too late for that. There’d be no getting around being hurt unless he somehow managed to convince her to stay. Convince her they were worth it. “I’ll be fine.”
She nodded. “I really do like her, but more than that, I like the way you look at her.”
“And how do I look at her?”
“Like she matters. There was a time I’d thought you were incapable of that. I’m happy to be wrong.”
He grinned. “I wasn’t that bad.”
She popped another pretzel into her mouth, chewing slowly before she swallowed. “You’ve always been a wonderful son and brother, but you’ve always stayed detached from women. I don’t know why you and Jessica are like that. Maybe we raised you too comfortable.”
“There’s not one thing wrong with how you raised us. You gave us an ideal childhood. There’s no fault in that. It’s the dream, right?”
“I suppose.” She glanced out the window to their family sitting around the table. “But I wonder if maybe we gave you kids the impression that it was easy, so it lost its value.”