Hot Finish (7 page)

CHAPTER
SIX

“THIS
is the way it should be,” Ty said as he settled back into a folding chair, the flames from the fire pit dancing in front of him. “Just us guys, relaxing in nature, no women, no complications.”

There were murmurs of approval from the other guys around the fire, a sort of forced joviality. Ryder gave a similar lackluster response. He wanted to enjoy himself, wanted to sit there in the woods around Lake Norman without a care in the world, drinking beers with his buddies, but he was having a hard time getting into the spirit of this guys’ weekend.

It had been five days since he had seen or talked to Suzanne. It had seemed like they’d ended on a positive note with their teasing texts, but then nothing. Not a word. And it bothered him, he could admit it.

“Maybe another time we could bring the women with us,” Jonas said casually, his eyes on his beer can.

They had decided to start including Jonas in their outings since he had invited them into his wedding, but those kinds of comments weren’t going to win him friends, not when Ty and Evan were determined to pretend they were having fun without female companionship. Elec had stayed home with his wife Tammy and her kids, pleading bonding time with his stepchildren. Nobody had dared argue with that, and Ryder had to admit he envied the guy at the moment. Not that he wanted to be at home, because in his case, he’d be all alone, but he envied Elec his family.

“What would be the point in bringing the women?” Ty said, but he spoke a little too quickly, a little too sharply. “This is about us, the men. Doing men stuff.”

“Like what?” Evan asked. “Freezing our asses off together?” He stomped his feet on the ground and shoved his hands deeper in his pockets.

“Like fishing and hiking.” Ty threw a peanut violently into the fire and watched it burn. “Look, I love Imogen to pieces, and I want to spend a hell of a lot of time with her. But I want to spend time with my friends, too. Excuse me.”

Ryder laughed, despite his own determination to feel gloomy. “Hey, I for one appreciate you planning this, McCordle. Otherwise, I’d be home watching the Food Network and denying it.”

“Truth is, I’m just jealous I don’t have a woman to bring,” Evan said. “My sleeping bag is a little lonely these days. You know what I’m saying, Jefferson.”

Yeah, he knew, and thanks for the reminder. Ryder wasn’t normally hurting for female companionship, not because he was such a good-looking stud or anything, but because he was a race car driver. Women were always willing to go out with him. But lately, he hadn’t been giving chase, and had been ignoring some obvious invitations from various acquaintances, and he wasn’t sure why.

Hell, yes, he did. He was too worked up over Suzanne and dating anyone else wasn’t appealing. For months, ever since Suzanne had started dragging Ryder into her matchmaking efforts for her friends, Ryder had been preoccupied with Suzanne and hadn’t slept with another woman in longer than he cared to consider.

Which made for a damn cold sleeping bag. “Glad I can be in the lonely hearts club with you, Evan.” He crushed his empty beer can in his hand with a satisfying squeeze.

“Hey, I’m not looking for love.” Evan held up his hand. “Or marriage. But I’d like some reliable booty, if you know what I mean.”

“Is that your pick-up line?” Ty asked him with a grin. “‘Hey, sweetheart, wanna be my reliable booty call?’ No wonder you’re sitting here with us then.”

“No, I don’t say that,” Evan said in clear annoyance that his lothario skills would be questioned. “But I do make it clear I’m not looking for marriage.”

“What do you have against marriage?” Ty asked, looking ready to defend the institution like any recently engaged man would. “Your brother is mighty happy with his wife.”

“That’s Elec. It works for him. But dining in the same restaurant every night doesn’t do it for me. I know myself too well and that’s not realistic.”

Ryder leaned toward the cooler containing the beer and thought about that phrasing . . . dining in the same restaurant every night. That had never even entered his head when he had married Suzanne. He had been thinking that he was the luckiest man alive to get her locked in and signed on the dotted line as his.

“Wait until you meet the right woman,” Jonas said, glancing up from his lap. “Then you’ll change your mind.”

Whatever Ryder thought of Jonas’s choice of a wife, he had to admit, the guy seemed happy. In fact, if he wasn’t mistaken, Jonas had his cell phone in his lap. “Are you texting Nikki?”

Jonas gave a sheepish smile. “Yeah. I can’t help it. It’s so hard to be away from her.”

“That is a guys’ weekend violation,” Ty declared. “Hand over the phone.” He switched his beer to his left hand and held out his right.

“No.” Jonas clutched his phone tighter. “Nikki’s feelings will be hurt if I don’t answer.”

Ty had no doubt that Nikki with hurt feelings wouldn’t be pretty. He pictured the pizza box hitting the carpet. “Let him text his girl. It’s not a big deal.”

Jonas looked wistful and pleading.

Evan looked like he wanted no part of the argument.

Ty looked disgusted, then resigned. “Fine. But if you can text Nikki, I can text Imogen.”

Ryder almost rolled his eyes, but restrained himself. “Text whoever you want. There aren’t rules here, you know. We’re just supposed to be having fun, hanging out. That doesn’t mean you can’t check in on your fiancée. My feelings won’t be hurt if you send her a dirty message.”

He might wish he could send his own dirty text to a certain someone, but he could lament that at home just as easily, and at home he wouldn’t have his friends to talk to. And if he did send that dirty text either here or at home, he’d be shot down like a goose in hunting season.

“Alright, just one,” Ty said, holding up his finger.

Jonas was already typing furiously on his phone’s keyboard.

“So do you have any plans for the next month?” Ryder asked Evan. “The season’s right around the corner.”

“I’m heading to Mexico for a week for some chill time, but that’s it. We’ve got the wedding, but mostly I need to get back to work, because I’m not finishing twenty-goddamn-fifth again next season.”

“No, you’re going to finish fortieth,” Ty said, ribbing him.

“Shut up and send your damn text.”

Ryder glanced over at Jonas, wishing his toes weren’t going numb. He should have put on a second pair of wool socks. Jonas was staring at his phone, his expression stricken.

“What’s up, Strickland? Trouble with Nikki?”

Jonas was a big guy for a driver, with a slow, ambling speech, and he always reminded Ryder of a soft teddy bear. Right now he looked like a teddy bear who’d just had the stuffing yanked out of him.

“Um . . .” Jonas shifted on his nylon chair. “It turns out Nikki and her girlfriend are on their way up here. Just to drop by for a few drinks.”

Right then Ryder felt his own phone vibrate with a text message.

“What?” Ty yelled. “Tell her no.”

Ryder pulled out his phone and read the message. Uh-oh. This was bound to get interesting.

SUZANNE
had just put on her pajama pants when Nikki called her. She seriously considered not answering it, then figured it was better to just get it over with and deal with whatever it was Nikki wanted. “Hello?”

“Hey!” Nikki’s voice was loud and there was a lot of giggling in the background. “Can you like come and pick me up?”

“What? Why?” Suzanne ran her free hand through her hair. If Nikki needed to be bailed out of jail, she hoped it wasn’t because she’d killed Jonas. That wouldn’t be the kind of publicity she would like for Weddings by Suzanne.

“Me and my friend are going up to the lake to crash in on Jonas’s boys’ weekend and we totally need you to drive because we’re drunk.”

Now what was the proper response for that? “No,” Suzanne said. Was the girl nuts? She wasn’t hauling her drunk skinny ass out to the lake. Jonas probably wouldn’t mind but the other guys would kill her for dumping Nikki in their laps.

And Ryder was there. No way was she driving out to the lake with Ryder there.

She hadn’t heard a word from him in five days and she was weirded out by that. While they certainly didn’t talk every day, this seemed like a glaringly long gap in communication. Then again, maybe she was just hypersensitive since they’d shared that kiss. Hell, she was, she knew she was. In the past two years, there had been times when she’d gone weeks without talking to Ryder and hadn’t thought anything of it. They were divorced after all.

Sort of.

But that had been before he’d planted his lips on her.

“You have to!” Nikki wailed. “If you don’t, I’ll get arrested for DUI and then I won’t be able to get married!”

The girl had a point. And if she didn’t get married, Suzanne didn’t get paid.

Damn it.

“Alright, are you at home? I’ll be there in ten minutes.” But she was picking up Imogen first, because there was no way in hell she could be in a car with Dumb and Dumber all by her lonesome.

Imogen resisted the idea, but caved after Suzanne threatened her with getting Ty drunk and having Imogen’s face tattooed on his backside.

“Ty is going to be upset that I’m crashing his guys’ weekend,” Imogen said, pushing up her glasses after closing the car door and fastening her seat belt.

Probably, but Suzanne would be damned if she’d admit it. “No, he’s not. I bet he’s been texting you all night, hasn’t he?”

As she pulled down the street and headed toward Nikki’s apartment, she glanced over at Imogen. Her silence spoke volumes. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

“Yes, he has been texting me, that’s true. But that doesn’t mean he actually physically wants me present.”

“Are you kidding? Once Nikki and her friend blow in, Ty’s going to want to jump onto your lap and be held.” The very image was about the only thing amusing Suzanne lately. “He might even call you mommy.”

“That’s disgusting,” Imogen replied. But she did smile. “Maybe you’re right. It’s a bit awkward for him with Nikki sometimes, since they used to date.”

“Yeah, I don’t get how that really works. I mean, you think Jonas would feel some kind of guilt, or jealousy, or something, but he seems to think it’s totally normal that Nikki cheated on Ty with him. And now wants him in his wedding party? It’s kind of weird.”

“I think it would be significantly more awkward if Nikki or Ty had genuine feelings for each other. But theirs was merely a mutually satisfying temporary arrangement.”

Booty call. Suzanne got that. “Well, it’s a good thing my life isn’t complicated like that,” she said with a healthy does of sarcasm. “I mean, I’m just still married to my ex-husband. That pales in comparison.”

Imogen laughed, then her amusement was cut short as they pulled up in front of Nikki’s apartment building. Nikki and one of her bridesmaids whose name Suzanne couldn’t remember, were doing stripper dances on the telephone poles adjacent to the parking lot. “Oh, my goodness.”

“Good Lord.” Suzanne shook her head. “I was young and stupid once, too, but I like to think I saved my gyrating for men, not inanimate objects. Somehow that just seems a notch classier.”

“Are they even old enough to drink?”

“Nikki is twenty-two. All grown up.” Suzanne got out of the car and yelled to Nikki, “Come on, let’s go. Time’s a wastin’ when there’s wine to be tastin’.”

“There’s wine?” Nikki asked. “Hooray!” She threw her arms up and stumbled over to Suzanne in her fuzzy boots and fuzzy coat. “You’re the bestest, greatest, most awesomest ever.”

Suzanne accepted the hug, patting Nikki on the back. When she wasn’t tossing pizzas onto the floor or screaming at her fiancé, Nikki was a sweet girl.

The other girl said, “I’d better get laid once we get there. That’s the only reason to go into the woods at night.”

Charming. Though the girl kind of had a point.

Nikki burped loudly. “Evan Monroe is there.”

“Ooohhh. That will work.” Her eyes widened and she hiked up her skinny jeans, a smile on her face.

Suzanne got in the car and shot Imogen a look. Imogen looked as nervous as she felt. Pulling out her phone, she texted Ryder.

Incoming blondes. Retreat if possible.

She did still care about the man. It was only fair to warn him.

RYDER
heard Nikki and her friend before he saw them. They were singing a song at the top of their lungs, though it was so garbled he couldn’t have said what song it was. He had appreciated the warning from Suzanne, but he couldn’t abandon Ty and Evan.

Besides, he’d ridden up with Ty, and he knew McCordle wasn’t going to surrender their camping trip without a protest.

Jonas actually smiled as he heard his fiancée’s wobbly voice. “Hey, that was fast. They’re here already.”

“Yippee,” was Ty’s opinion.

His own thoughts matched Ty’s, but Evan was the one who gave voice to the basic problem in front of them.

“Great. Now I have to be cold
and
annoyed.”

Nikki saw Jonas as they came up the path and she ran to him, tripping and nearly landing in the fire pit. Jonas grabbed her arm and prevented a barbequed Nikki. “Whoa, babe. You alright?”

“I’m drunk,” she told him with a giggle.

“What did you drink?” he asked. “You never drink.”

“Skinny bitches,” she said, her words slurring a little as she collapsed onto his lap, her fur coat lifting up to surround her cheeks. “Vodka and Diet Coke with a lime. The other drinks have too many calories.” She smacked her own bottom. “Can’t get fat.”

Ryder was about to ask how many skinny bitches the skinny, uh, Nikki had consumed when he realized Imogen and Suzanne had walked into the campsite, too. He sat up straighter and pulled off his knit cap. Damn it, now his hair was fucked up, and Suzanne looked smoking hot in jeans and a puffy white vest with a tight black turtleneck under it. He crammed the stupid hat back on his head, figuring that was better than jacked-up hair. Though he wondered exactly why he cared, as Ty jumped up out of his chair.

“Imogen! Darlin’, what are you doing here?” A smile split Ty’s face, and for a guy who’d been holding tight to the ban on women, he looked pretty damn giddy to see his fiancée.