Love Takes Time (Christian Romance) (13 page)

“Yeah,
the wedding.  You better not have forgotten or I’d hunt you down.  By
hook or by crook, you are
gonna
be my date.  I
need to be able to show you off to Ava.  All the months that we have been
dating and for no real reason that I can think of, she hasn’t been able to meet
you in person.  This wedding is my chance to prove to her that you are a
flesh and blood man that I am with and not just some fib I made up to get her
of my back.  Forget the wedding?  Like I would really let that
happen.”

“Well
now you’ve got me scared!  Honestly I don’t even want to go on this trip.
 I already know that it’s going to be boring beyond measure.  I wish
I could bring you with me.”

Chelsea
responded very matter-of-factly.

“Hello,
I know you aren’t serious.  Do you think I can just get up and
leave?  I’ve got commitments.  Students.  Classes. 
Rent.  Besides that, I’m not the one going on another trip that I don’t
want to.  I don’t understand you sometimes.  Ryder if you don’t want
to go, then just don’t go.  I really don’t see what the problem is here.”

This
was the one conversation she hated having with him.  The closer they got
to one another, the more difficult it was to see him do things that made him
unhappy just for his job.  Just to please his father.  What about
pleasing himself?

“It’s
not that easy Chelsea.  I can’t just do whatever I want to do all the
time.  I’ve got responsibilities.”

Chelsea’s
gaze hardened a bit as she looked up into his eyes.  

“Are
you saying I don’t?”

She
listened as he stumbled over his words, trying without much success to explain
what he really had meant to her.   

“No
babe.  You know that’s not what I meant at all.  Cut me a little
slack please.  All I’m saying is that the company is depending on me to
close this deal.  I don’t have the luxury of being able to choose whether
or not I want to go.  It was decided for me when I took this position.”

She
didn’t like that about Ryder.   As in control and suave as he was,
when it came to work he really had a bad habit of letting his father make him
run all over the place.  It was almost like he was looking for validation
or his father’s approval and she couldn’t stand that he wouldn’t just stand up
for himself when it came right down to it. 

“But
don’t you get some kind of say?  I mean, this is your 
life
 as
well.  You can’t just live for the company.  You just told me
yourself how you didn’t want to make the same mistakes as your grandfather but
you’re choosing that right now.”

“Chelsea,
you just don’t understand.  I have to do this.”

He
walked up to her, holding her in his hands.  

“I
tell you what.  When I come back from this trip, it will be just you and
me.  I’ll pull back from work a bit and just spend some time with you.
 Once I get this deal done, things will be a little more relaxed at the
office and it won’t be such an issue.”

She
realized with his plea to appease her that she had gotten a little louder and
more excited with him than she would have wanted.  She was startled a bit
herself at how much passion she felt about it, but the last thing he needed was
her breathing down his back.  He got enough of that from good old dad on a
regular basis.  

“Fine.
 I wasn’t saying that for me anyway.  I was saying it for the part of
you that you are ignoring.”

“Well
thank you very much.  I appreciate you more than you know Chelsea.”

“Yeah,
yeah.  Show me when you get back.”

“Alright.
 I promise I will.”

Chelsea
led Ryder to the door and hugged him goodbye, closing the door behind him as he
left.  She heard Sasha’s door creak open.  

“Are
you ok Chelsea?”

She
turned around to see Sasha shuffle out of her bedroom with a look of
understanding and compassion on her face.  

“Yeah
of course.  Did you hear all that?”

“Um
yeah.  I didn’t try but it was hard not to.  You were really up in
arms for a second there.  I’ve never seen you care about something so
much.  This guy is really having an effect on you, isn’t he?”

Chelsea
knew she had lied to him.  She had told him that she wasn’t acting that
way for herself but truth be told she knew that she was.  She wanted him
to stand up for himself but she also wanted him to choose to stay with her
rather than go to work.  The rushing off had become a regular occurrence
and him choosing to stay with her rather than run off to who knows where at
least one time would be nice.  Maybe it would happen, but it wouldn’t be
that night.  

“More
than I’d like to admit.  It’s kind of scary.”

“What,
to finally wake up and have something in your life that gets you fired up?
 Something that you are willing to fight for and stand up for even when
you know you should just shut up?  That’s how love starts.  Of course
it’s scary.  But it can be fun too.”

As
she listened to Sasha speak, there was one statement that kept ringing in her
ears like a warning bell.  

“That’s
how love starts.”

Love.
 She wondered if that was what was happening to her.  She had never
experienced it before.  

***

One
week after Ryder had left, Chelsea was sure of two things.  The first was
that she was completely and totally head over heels for him.  The second,
and equally concerning thing, was that she did not like how vulnerable being in
love made her feel.  She missed Ryder while he was away.  That
aching, hollow, and empty feeling.  It was unlike anything she’d ever
experienced before. 

This
two-week trip was longer than most of the ones he took.  Typically, it
would be one or two days, three at the most.  It wasn’t until he was gone
for a few days that she realized just how much a part of her routine he had
become.  An almost central part of it.  She was also weirded out by
the fact that she even had a routine at all, which was so completely not like
her, or at least how she used to see herself.  She had grown up a lot
since she had been with Ryder. 

She
knew why though.  Routines made sense.  They made things easier and
they were definitely that way with Ryder.  He made her feel secure. 
They would go out two nights every single week with him taking her either to a
nice restaurant or jazz club.  A lot of the time they would just talk or
laugh or even just enjoy each other’s company while taking in the ambiance of
the place.  

Now
she got none of that while he was away and she found herself trying to figure
out what she had done with herself all of the twenty something years that she
had lived before she had bumped into him on the sidewalk.  Without him,
she felt like an essential component was missing.  Not that they didn’t
talk on the phone because he made a point to call her at least one to two times
a day but she really missed being in his presence.

She
sat on the park bench, looking up at the completely cloudless sky before reaching
into her phone.  She pulled up a number on her contacts list and hit dial.
 

“Chelsea?”

“Hey
Ava.”    

“Hold
on a second…”   

Chelsea
heard the discussion between Ava and Corey about the upcoming wedding.  As
his wedding planner, it was almost crunch time with the wedding in four days.
 She was enthusiastic about it.  She’d known Corey for as long as she
knew Ava and she knew her best friend would make sure that his wedding was one
to be remembered.   

“Sorry
about that Chelsea.  Corey says to tell you
hi
by the way.”    

“Tell
him hi for me.”    

“Alright.
 So what’s going on?”     

“Not
much...except I…”  

Chelsea
hesitated.  She didn’t know if she should even bother Ava with it.  She
felt like she was having problems with something that every woman should
already know about.    

“...never
mind.  This is stupid.”    

“Hold
on now Chelsea.  You called me so don’t go getting all flighty on me.
 What did you need?”

“I
don’t know Ava.  I’m thinking that I may be in over my head with Ryder.”
     

“What
do you mean by that?”     

“I
mean I’m scared Ava.  I’ve never felt this way about a guy.  I find
myself thinking randomly about him.  He’s gone barely a week and I miss
him.  I’m doing all kinds of stuff and acting ways that I wouldn’t have
before I met him. I’m just worried that I’m changing into somebody I wasn’t
before I met him and on top of that, he is so much of everything that I always
said I didn’t want to be.  Workaholic, routine, predictable.  I mean
you said it yourself, he is a stock broker.  Dating him alone is making me
a hypocrite.  I just don’t know what to do anymore.”     

“C’mon
Chelsea.  Get serious now.  So you have grown up a bit and look at
life a little more differently.  So you are a little less all over the
place and random.  I’m sorry but those are 
good
 things.
 I don’t want to sound mean but I don’t see any issue here at all.
 There are at least a million women in America that would love to trade
places with you.  You have a really nice, handsome, and smart guy who just
happens to be fully loaded financially.  What should you do?  Grab on
tight and don’t let go.  Oh, I’m sorry Chelsea but I have to go.  I
have a goofball on my other line that’s been calling me a few days trying to
change prices on me a month before his wedding.  Nobody is messing with my
wallet.  Now you, don’t be stupid.  You know what to do.  See
you Saturday.  Bye.”     

Before Chelsea could utter a word, Ava had
already hung up the phone.  Either way, Chelsea had gotten what she needed
from her anyway.  And it’s not really like she never knew it before
because she most certainly did.  All she had to do now was fix the
problem.   That started now and would continue when she saw him again,
which still didn’t feel like it was soon enough for her. 

Ryder had told her that he
was going to be back Friday and would pick her up for the wedding on Saturday.
Every time situations required a little bit of commitment or offered the
possibility of pain, she always retreated into her facade of wanting to be
free.  Ava had made it clear right away that she was just being scared and
childish.  Six months ago she would have said that her friend was being
too overbearing.  Now she just realized that Ava might have been right all
along.  Maybe she was the one with the problem.
 

Chelsea
was happy for Corey.  He and his new wife had decided on doing an outdoor
wedding and everyone was thankful that the weather worked in their favor. 
The rays from the sun beamed down on them, keeping everyone warm and
comfortable.  The wind did its complimentary part too, blowing a soft
breeze that helped to cool her skin.  It felt more like a tropical island
than New York. 

She
admitted to herself again that Ava was easily the best wedding planner she
knew.  The woman cold probably plan circles around the so called experts
on the television wedding programs.  For Chelsea, the wedding was
completed by the arm candy that was sitting beside her.  In truth, she
felt like she was luckier than the bride because she had the most handsome man
at the party with her and she finally had the opportunity to show him
off.  For his part, he was decked out in his tuxedo and looked like he had
just stepped out of some men’s clothing and style magazine. 

She
wasn’t happy about how everything had gone since he had been back though. 
Ryder was back in town late Thursday night and upon finding out she had hoped to
see him then or at least some time Friday seeing that it had been so
long.  Unfortunately, the work never seemed to stop for him.  In
fact, it felt to Chelsea like it was getting worse, not better.  At times
it seemed to Chelsea like work wasn’t just the most important thing in the
world to him.  It felt like that was the only thing in the world to
him.  It was already hard to play second fiddle in his life. 

Those
were the worst times of course.  But then there were times like just a
minute ago.  She had been looking away from him for a moment.  When
she turned her eyes back in his direction, she found his gorgeous smile and
pleasure inducing gaze focused only on her.  So even though it did bother
her, she forgave him because the moments like this told her that he did enjoy
her company.  On some level she even felt bad for him.  He didn’t
have the chance to just enjoy life and that was a crime to her so even though
he had been back two days and she’d done no more than talk with him on the phone
since then, she chose to not let it bother her. 

This 
was their moment and she was enjoying it for all it
was worth.  She looked around the table where she and Ryder were
seated.  They had been seated with Ava and her husband Ben.  He was
currently wiping tears of laughter from the corners of his eyes while his wife
continued to tell a story of how he got his neck stuck in the handlebars of his
bicycle when he was a kid.  When she started paying attention to the story
even more, she soon found her own belly cramping from laughter. 

“You
can’t be serious.  I wish I had a picture.”  

Chelsea
spoke through giggles.

“Oh
but there are pictures.  Quite a few actually.  Apparently his aunt
was the type that thought everything was funny.  Before helping him pry
his head out of the handle bars, she ran into the house and grabbed her camera.
 If you look in his mother’s photo album, you can see that big
ol
’ head poking through the handlebars, like one of those
cut outs for photos.  Tears all running down his face.  It’s pretty
funny.”

Chelsea
was having a hard time containing her laughter at the story but out of the side
of her eye, she noticed Ryder was checking his phone for what she figured had
to be the third time in the last couple minutes.   Yes, she had made herself
a promise to not get upset about him and his phone today but this was getting
annoying.  And rude. 

“Chelsea,
Ryder.  Excuse us for a second.  Ben, honey let’s go say hi to Corey
and his new wife. We’ll be right back.”

“Ok.”
 

Chelsea
saw Ava roll her eyes a bit at the response before walking off with her
husband.  It seemed that Chelsea wasn’t the only one who took note of his
preoccupation.  By her count, that single word response was all he’d said
to anyone in the past few minutes.  He had been too busy checking his
phone.  Sure, he pretended to pay attention well enough to fool most
people, but Chelsea knew.  And she would have let it go if it wasn’t so
obvious that Ava saw it too. 

But
this was bad.  He was even blatantly looking down at his phone before Ava
and Ben had even fully turned in the direction of the bride and groom.
 Chelsea slapped his shoulder . . . hard.  She didn’t even care if
anyone saw.  He looked at her seemingly confused as to what was going on.  

“What’s
up?”

His
surprised response only bothered her more and she gave him a look of death.
 She leaned into him, her voice low as she worked to control her
frustrations with him today.  

“Ryder
I cannot believe you.  She was actually talking to you and there is
absolutely no way that she didn’t see you constantly on your phone.  I
don’t know why I even made you come.  Do you need to leave?  Because
if you have somewhere you need to be or something else you would rather be
doing, by all means go do it.  With the way you are carrying on, I might
as well be here by myself anyway.  At least then you won’t look like such
a jerk.”

She
didn’t understand why he had such a surprised look on his face.  He had to
realize how important this was to her.  She knew he hadn’t finished up his
big deal just yet but surely he could spare one afternoon.   

“No
I don’t need to leave Chelsea.  I was just checking a couple things at
work.”

“You
know,
I was hoping this didn’t happen.  Ryder,
you were gone for the past two weeks and maybe I wrongly assumed that you would
look forward to leaving work alone and spending this time with me, meeting my
friends.  When I met your family, I didn’t constantly act like I had more
important things to do.  The whole time you have been here you have been
glancing at your phone or being downright rude.  Quite frankly I’m
embarrassed, which I never really thought you’d do to me.”

“Chelsea.
 I’m sorry.  I guess that I have been a little standoffish and
preoccupied today.  I didn’t realize that this client would even take any
of my time today but they are being a major pain in the you know what.  I
guess I let that interfere with today.”

That
was all it took to get her features to soften somewhat.  She smiled at him
before brushing a crumb off of the shoulder of his jacket.  She was
completely sincere in what she said next.  She knew what she wanted but
she also knew who she had. 

“I
know you aren’t doing it on purpose and that for you to act that way, it’s got
to be important.  I want you to know that you can leave if you want and I
won’t be upset.  I’ll tell everyone that you got called off to work. 
Honestly, I know I should just be glad you were able to spend this much time
from your schedule with me and it’s not that I don’t want you to do well at
work.  It’s just that I thought today would be a chance to get away from
you always being called off to work.  But this is even worse.  To
have you sit right beside me all day but be somewhere else the whole time is
ten times worse than you just leaving to do what you have to do.  I’m not
telling you to stay or to go, but if you are going to stay, then you need to
relax with me and focus on this day.”

“You’re
right.  I definitely want to be here with you.  For the rest of the
day, no more checking my phone.  In fact, . . .”

She
watched as Ryder turned his phone onto vibrate mode only and stuck it in her
purse. 

“Give
it back to me when the wedding is over.  Right now, Chelsea Warner, I’m
all yours.”

She
smiled, realizing that he had finally chosen her over work for once.  That
action meant the world to her.   

“Good,
because you’re all I really wanted today.”

She
leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Ava returned to the table.

“So
you finally got him to wake up, did you?”

“I’m
sorry Ava.  I have been rude to you and Ben.  Sometimes work takes
over.”

“You
don’t have to tell me twice at all.  I’m not only a guest, but I’m also
the wedding planner.  Work 
never 
stops.  Still, this is my best friend so be nice.”

They
both chuckled.

“Yes
ma’am and thank you for understanding.”  

They
talked for a while more when Chelsea heard the sound of Ryder’s phone vibrating
in her purse.  She looked at him and he must have heard it to.  
As if to cement his decision to dedicate himself to her today, he smiled and
shook his head from side to side.  The wide grin on Chelsea’s face was
evidence that it had done the trick.  

“Alright.
 It’s time for you all to see the real Ryder Chatham.  Let’s have a
goodtime.”

Ryder
pushed his chair out and stood up from the table quickly.

“Sorry
to leave you two so abruptly, but I need to take my lady to the dance floor and
get down.”

Chelsea
listened to the upbeat dance music playing and tried to give Ryder an out.

“Honey,
how about the next song.  This one may not be quite our speed.”

“Excuse
me?  I’ll have you know that I was trained by one of the best dance
instructors in the New York area.  I’m pretty sure I can handle this.”

“Okay
but don’t say I didn’t warn you.  Excuse us guys.”

Chelsea
got up with Ryder and hurried to the dance floor where his dance moves
completely surprised her.  A few songs later and she was exhausted but she
didn’t care.  She was having a great time dancing with the man she
loved.  Life couldn’t get much better than that for her. 

***

Ryder
hummed as he unlocked the front door to his penthouse condo.  It was funny
because he hadn’t hummed since…never.  His mother did that a lot but he
always thought it was silly.  Now he understood why.  He was more
relaxed than he could remember.  Maybe there was something to taking some
time for himself.  Chelsea definitely made him happy and he was sure of
that.  

He
walked into the house, shut the door behind himself, removed his jacket, and
headed into the bathroom to take a hot shower.  It had been a long week
with him having to travel to Japan, but he felt like he pretty much closed out
the deal and just needed to finalize things with a firm agreement and then
Moronobu
could get approval from his own company’s board.
 Since Chatham Holdings was one of few companies this large that were
still family owned, he had veto on any decision for the business.  He only
needed his father’s approval on the deal and it would close, and he already had
that.  

He
stepped out of the shower and into his room and before he knew it, Chelsea
began to consume his thoughts.  Everything about her made him feel like he
was living more than he ever had.  

He
took his phone out of his jacket pocket and went to turn it on, but the battery
had died.  Apparently his battery was lower than he realized.  He
plugged up the phone, then walked into the kitchen to grab a glass of water
before going to sleep.  He heard the phone buzz repeatedly.  

That’s
probably her calling already.  Quicker than usual.  
 

He
had always thought it was cute.  She would always call to make sure he
made it home safely after he dropped her off from a date.  He didn’t want
to make her worry so he stopped what he was doing in the kitchen and ran to grab
it.  When he swiped the screen to unlock it, he almost shrieked in shock
when he looked at his phone.  There were twenty-three missed calls,
twenty-three voice mails, and a bunch of text messages with all of them but one
coming from Trent.  The lone outlier was his father.  That one was
over three hours ago.   

Uh
oh.  This cannot be good.  

His
father was calling him on a Saturday evening was strange enough in and of
itself.  Compounding his worries was the fact that Trent called him over twenty
times on the same day.  It made his stomach turn and he was dreading
listening to any of the voice mail messages but he knew he had to.