“You know what I meant, smart-ass.”
“Actually, I don’t. They spent the night together. What do you think happened?” Ryder rolled his eyes for the benefit of his beer bottle.
“Why would they do that?” Suzanne demanded.
See, this was where he didn’t understand his ex-wife. Or any woman for that matter. “Uh . .
. because they wanted to?”
“Don’t be obtuse.”
He didn’t even know what that was, so he didn’t see how he could stop being it.
Suzanne didn’t wait for his answer. She continued, “If Elec had a thing for Tammy, why didn’t he just ask her out? She’s not a one-night-stand kind of girl.”
“They just met last night, Suz. There was no thing, it was more like lust at first sight. And she clearly is a one-night-stand kind of girl because she did just that. It’s no big deal. It’s good for Tammy.”
“Except that now she’s upset and feeling bad about it. She thinks he’s a player.”
“Why would she think that?”
“Because I accidentally might have told her that. I always see Elec with some dumb blonde
. . . I was trying to protect her and make sure she knew that she should take it for exactly what it was—a night of fun.”
Ryder sighed. Suzanne meant well, but sometimes she needed to mind her own damn business. “Except that Elec is moping around crushed because he asked her out, she said yes, then she just texted him and canceled. Probably because you freaked her out.”
“He really did ask her out? How do you know?”
“Because he told me. He was here not five minutes ago apologizing for making free with my coach and looking for some advice. He wants to go out with her, there’s no question about it.”
“Oh. Shit.”
“Shit is right, sugar. Do you think Tammy likes him?”
“I actually think she does, because she’s not the kind to sleep with a guy unless she does like him, you know what I mean? So I guess we need to fix it since we messed it up.”
Ryder plopped down on his couch. “I didn’t mess anything up. You did. But I told Elec I’d throw a barbeque and invite Tammy. Getting ’em in the same room is a start, don’t you think?” Beyond that, Ryder figured it was up to Elec and Tammy to sort things out. They were big kids, and if they wanted to be together, they’d find their way there eventually.
“That’s true, but maybe not a barbeque. Then she’ll bring her kids and she’ll use them as a shield. No, we have to have something more intimate or they’ll both just avoid each other.”
Clearly, Suzanne didn’t share his philosophy of standing back. He also knew her well enough that she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “What do you want me to do? Just tell me so I can go to bed. I’m tired.”
She gave a huff of impatience. “Sorry. Didn’t realize I was keeping you from your bed.”
“Care to join me in my bed?” He knew she would say no, but just the thought that there was any possibility that she might say yes had his worn-out body stirring to life.
“No, thanks. I prefer my own bed, where you’re not stealing my covers all night.”
“Sounds lonely.”
“Everything’s a trade-off. My vibrator has never once pissed me off, whereas you . . .”
He didn’t want a list of all his flaws and infractions, so Ryder just said, “Point taken. But if your batteries ever die, you know where to find me.”
“And you probably won’t be alone.”
Ouch. Okay, this conversation was going all sorts of wrong. Ryder could hear the bristling from Suzanne clear through the phone lines. He kicked off his shoes and tried to deflect the tension. “So you want me to throw a party or what?”
“Yes, a dinner party. A victory party for today’s race. We’ll have it tomorrow night at your condo. And we’ll invite Ty and Elec as the top three. We’ll let Ty bring a date, and you tell Elec that Tammy will be there. I’ll drag Tammy over, telling her it’s just Ty and you, then we’ll feed her wine all night. This will be perfect, don’t you think?”
He thought Suzanne was cracked if she believed that Tammy was going to be happy about being set up on a date with Elec after she had just canceled her own plans with the man. But there was no arguing with Suzanne when she was playing matchmaker. Hell, there was no arguing with Suzanne most of the time. That had been their problem—he had argued.
Old habits died hard, because he couldn’t completely bite his tongue. “Tammy is going to be hopping mad at you, Suz. She’s not going to like being set up like this.”
“I’ll tell her you ran into Elec last minute and invited him since he finished third.”
“Okay, whatever you say. You handling food or am I? And what time?”
“Seven. I’ll take care of food. You invite Elec and Ty.”
“Alright, now let me grab some sleep since I’m suddenly entertaining tomorrow.”
“Fine. Good night, Ryder.”
“Bring your pie,” he demanded before she hung up. If he was going to get stuck jumping through hoops, he wanted some apple pie, damn it.
There was a pause and he waited for a snarky remark and a refusal. But Suzanne said,
“You’ll get your pie.”
Holy shit. That almost sounded like she was saying . . . Ryder opened his voice to ask for clarification, but Suzanne had hung up.
He sat in stunned silence for a second, then went for his shower. A cold one.
TAMARA stared across the table at Suzanne and set her iced tea back down. “Why are you throwing a victory party for Ryder?”
She had agreed to this spontaneous lunch with Suz between her morning and afternoon classes because she needed her friend’s opinion on Elec. He hadn’t responded to her text message and she found that odd, to say the least. She thought that he would have either argued or else sent an “Okay, thanks” kind of text. But he had been totally silent and she didn’t know how to read that.
Then Suzanne had blindsided her with an invitation to a dinner party she was hosting for Ryder. Which, frankly, just didn’t sound like a good idea for a whole lot of reasons.
“Because I called to congratulate him and he was very forlorn,” Suzanne said, dumping three packs of sugar in her coffee and stirring it vigorously.
“Forlorn? Ryder?”
“Yes. He went on and on about the parties I used to give him and how I always made him a pie, and I just felt bad. I opened my big mouth and said I’d have a party for him, now I absolutely have to have you there to help me get through this without murdering him.”