Slide (19 page)

“Shut up, Derek,” I growled, reaching for a small cushion beside me and hitting him across the head with it.

CHAPTER 19

Thursday felt like it
quickly
came around before I even had the chance to blink.

Ryan had arrived back in town last night and I was currently standing in his apartment, nervously waiting for him to get off the phone to his manager. Apparently, there had been an altercation during one of the games involving one of his teammates and a member of the opposite team. Ryan, being Ryan, stepped in to defend his friend, which resulted in a fight between the two men. There was a nice, purple bruise under Ryan’s left eye but according to the news the other guy suffered much more.

Ryan had been on the phone for over half an hour. There were shouting and plenty of curse words being thrown around at first but luckily it seemed to have died down.

Finally, I heard him say goodbye.

“
Fucking asshole
!” Ryan shouted angrily, stalking back into the room.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked, immediately wondering whether it was a good idea to bring it up.

“Brian Felton is a fucking dumb ass!” Ryan growled, causing me to wince.

I assumed this Brian Felton guy he was talking about was the Texas Rangers player he’d got into a fight with. “He’s claiming I broke his nose, which is ridiculous and he’s threatened to go to the press about the incident, saying that I started the fight by taunting him,” he continued in the same harsh tone.

He snatched up his sports bag and threw it over his shoulder. Was he going to be like this all day?

“I don’t understand why you were yelling at your manager though. Did he do something wrong as well?” I asked.
Just shut up, Evangeline― unless you want him to start screaming at you too.

“No. I just told him to sort this shit out. I warned him if this interview happens he can kiss his career goodbye. You
ready
?”

I shot him a dirty look but he wasn’t looking at me. He was already stalking down the hall, towards the front door. I got that he was angry but taking it out on his manager or me for that matter wasn’t going to make him feel better.

I shook my head and picked up my overnight bag before making my way towards him. “Ryan, I get that you’re annoyed but―”

“Babe, I am more than annoyed,” he cut in. I inwardly groaned.

“Yeah, okay, but just hear me out. You’re making it difficult for me to want to come with you if this is how you plan on acting all day, and I sure as hell don’t want to be spending the night if that’s the case. You’re pissed off. I understand that. But taking it out on your manager and even me, isn’t going to right the situation. And I doubt your family wants to deal with your outbursts all day. They have enough on their minds already what with your poor brother and all.”

Ryan’s head shot up to look at me, his eyebrows pulled together. I noticed a flicker of confusion in his eyes. “My
brother
?”
Huh?

“Umm, yeah.
Duke
?”

The tiniest hint of a smile played on his lips before he let out a loud sigh and it disappeared. “You’re right, babe.” Dropping his sports bag, he walked over to me and pulled me into his arms. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to speak to you like that before. Please forgive me.”

Wrapping my arms around him, I buried my face in his chest and sighed. “I forgive you. Just watch your temper, okay?”

I felt him nod against me. God, how was it possible that he was even listening to my words?

“Want to spank me and tell me what a bad boy I’ve been?” he whispered, suddenly licking and biting at my earlobe.

I jerked at his sudden touch before shoving him away and laughing. “
No
! Let’s go already or we’ll be late.”

“We can make it a
quickie
? I’ll be in and out, I swear,” he begged, grabbing my hand and forcing me to look up at his faux, sad puppy dog expression.

“You are beyond annoying sometimes,” I said, trying to contain my amusement. “The answer is still no. Now, let’s
go
.”

I practically had to shove him out the door before he gave up trying to rip my clothes off. Because of his inability to handle the word ‘no’, I had to suffer through the entire car trip to New Jersey with a very sullen Ryan in the driver seat. Ignoring all the faux scowls and the pouts he cast my way, I threw on my sunglasses and concentrated on everything outside the window of the car instead. The last thing I wanted was to meet his family looking like I’d just spent all morning having crazy sex with Ryan, no matter how much my body reacted excitedly to his touch every time he’d try to sneak a hand on my thigh.

We arrived and pulled up at a large, red brick house with a rich green, manicured lawn almost two and a half hours later. I still couldn’t believe Ryan had managed to tempt me on staying the night in the house he’d grown up in. He only had the one night free before he spent the weekend playing against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, so he wanted to spend as much time with his family as possible, especially since his oldest sister, Chiara had travelled all the way from Australia to visit. I understood this and finally gave in to his relentless nagging.

As soon as I closed the door to the Ferrari, the front door of the house opened and Annabelle came rushing out.

“Ry! You finally made it!” she squealed, running into his open arms.

They hugged and Ryan kissed her on the cheek before Annabelle pulled away and came skipping over towards me.

“Nice to see you again, Evangeline. I’m so glad Ry got you to come!” She threw herself at me and gave me a tight hug before I had any chance to react. I could see Ryan holding in a laugh from the corner of my eye.

When she finally let go and stepped aside, another figure came rushing down the stairs.

An older, voluptuous woman― with a proud smile on her face ―held her arms out near the bottom of the stairs and waited eagerly for Ryan to quickly make his way over towards her.

“
Mio figlio
!” the lady said as Ryan scooped her up in his big, strong arms.

“Mamma! It’s good to see you. Come, there is someone I’d like you to meet,” Ryan replied, taking her hand and leading her towards Annabelle and me.

I smiled noting the size difference between the two. Ryan had obviously gotten his height from his father’s side.

As they approached, I recognized the resemblance immediately. They had the same dark hair, although hers was streaked with gray; the same olive complexion, Ryan’s more of a bronze from spending so much time in the sun; and the same sharp, hazel eyes framed with thick, long, dark lashes.

“Mamma, this is Evangeline. Evangeline, this gorgeous woman right here is my Mamma, Serafina,” Ryan said, beaming proudly at me.

“Oh my, aren’t you a beautiful thing. Much better than the way my son has described you and also the pictures I see in the paper. Come here and give me a big hug,” Serafina said with a slight Italian accent before wrapping her arms around me and squeezing me tight. I hugged her back. For a shorter woman, she had a lot of strength.

“It’s lovely to meet you, Mrs. Fox,” I replied with a smile once she’d pulled away.

“Please dear, call me Serafina or Sera for short. I don’t mind. All my kids do.”

I chuckled, watching her shake her head with an eye roll.

“Where are the others?” Ryan asked his mother.

“The girls went out to get Duke some food and more medication. They should be back any minute. The poor thing has been very picky lately, not eating his usual food and won’t touch that dried stuff anymore either,” Serafina replied, turning to face her son with a somber expression.

Poor
Duke. He didn’t sound very well at all. It must be such a difficult time for all the family. I began to wonder why they had Duke at home and not in a hospital, surely that’s where he needed to be.

I opened my mouth to ask Serafina how her other son was doing when something caught the corner of my eye. Over by the porch sat a large, brown and black dog with long floppy ears and a droopy, sad look on his face.
Ohmygod!
He was the cutest thing ever!

Realizing I was looking at something, Ryan followed my gaze. “
Dukey!
There you are! Come here boy!” Ryan sang in an animated voice. ‘
Dukey’!?
Did I hear him correctly?

At the sound of Ryan’s voice, the dog’s tail began to wag and with a little more encouragement he soon came hurrying over. Ryan dropped to his knees just as the dog jumped up and the two began to wrestle around on the grass. “How are you, buddy? I’ve missed you. Yes, I have.” Ryan chuckled letting the dog lick his face.

“
Ugh
. I don’t understand how Ry lets him do that to him. Dog slobber is the worst and Duke produces buckets of it,” Annabelle said, pulling a face and poking out her tongue as she watched her brother with the dog.

“It’s good to see him moving around at last,” added Serafina, sounding relieved.

“Err…Annabelle? Did you just say the dog’s name was
Duke
?” I asked, turning back to watch Ryan, my eyes narrowing slightly at the revelation.

“Yep. That big, dopey Bloodhound right there is Duke,” Annabelle answered; oblivious to the daggers I was throwing at her brother with my eyes.

As if sensing my death glare, Ryan slowly turned away from the dog and gave me a cheesy, apologetic look. “So… I
may
have some explaining to do,” he said in a guilty voice.

“I would say, more than just ‘some’,” I replied, putting a hand on my hip and raising an eyebrow.

Ryan gave Duke,
the dog
, one last rub on the head before getting up. Duke obediently sat by his feet, tilting his curious, droopy face up to look at me. I’d never owned a dog before but even I had to admit this dog was in the running for most well behaved pet. After all, he hadn’t even made an attempt to come and greet me yet or even sniff me. Maybe dogs just didn’t like me?

“
Great,
what have you done now, Ry?” Annabelle groaned crossing her arms at her chest.

“Son?” Serafina questioned when Ryan didn’t answer straight away. He was too busy looking at me, searching my face for something. Forgiveness? Or maybe an off chance I found something funny in all of this?

I didn’t give him anything though. I kept my face impassive, only my eyes remained narrowed. Ryan still hadn’t answered his family, so I decided that I’d beat him to it. I turned to the girls. “Ryan told me that Duke was his sick brother. So, I came along to give him my support and because I thought that Duke really wanted to meet me,” I explained.

Annabelle burst out laughing, throwing her hands up to her mouth, while Serafina shot a look at her son then shook her head. I turned to see Ryan running a hand through his dark hair, still looking at me. His cheeks had reddened. Was he blushing?!

“That is one of the funniest things I’ve heard in a long time!” Annabelle said trying to contain her laughter. “They might as well be brothers, twins even. They look alike and the two are inseparable whenever Ry is here.”

Ryan looked away from me for the first time to shoot a glare at his sister.

“Annie, that is enough,” Serafina warned. “Why didn’t you tell her the truth, son? Were you ashamed to bring her here? You did not want her to meet your family?”

That woke Ryan up. He blinked then turned to face his mother. “Of course not, Mamma. I am not ashamed of any of you… well maybe of Annabelle.” He shot his sister a smirk to which she poked out her tongue at him. “It’s complicated between us and I didn’t want to scare her in thinking my mom had forced me to bring her here to meet the family.”

His mother seemed to accept his excuse with a single nod of her head, but I couldn’t. I was too busy still reeling in the first four words of his sentence, “
It’s complicated between us
”. Did Ryan also have no idea where this thing between us was heading?