SWAY (Part 1) (20 page)

“But Justin did come home and he got in bed with me.
And before you ask, yes he knew I was in it and no, I had no idea he was there until the next morning when Eve woke us. I love you Ryan. I would never…” I trailed off.

“I know. I know,” he mumbled as he drew me closer to hold me. “I’m sorry. She seemed so sure. The thought of you with him…”

“I know,” I sniffled.

“I just love you so much, having to spend all this time
apart is harder on me than I realized. I trust you, I do.”

***

I called Justin the next day to tell him what Eve had done. I expected him to be angry with her, but he just kept apologizing to me, which I thought was odd.

“I’m sorry she did that. I’ll talk to Ryan if you need me to.”

“Everything’s good with us. But she better think twice about running her mouth again because I just might have to kick her bony little butt.”

“Um.
I wish you wouldn’t say anything if you see her.”

“Why not?
She tried to ruin my relationship. She flat out lied about some things and twisted others to her advantage. I mean, I know toward the end she didn’t like me much, and I understand why, but that still doesn’t give her the right to cause problems for Ryan and me, or you and me for that matter.”

“I know, but we were together a long time. She was
really hurt when I ended it. I know that’s not an excuse, but please, for me, don’t attack her if you see her.”

I snickered at the word
attack
. “I won’t,” I whined. I was mad, but still didn’t think I would actually be able to hit her. “She’s lucky I care so much about you.” I agreed to leave it alone, because in the end she hadn’t caused any real damage to either relationship.

“Thank you,” Justin said. “I’ll talk to her.”

28

I was completely dreading having to be in the same room with Ryan’s mother for Thanksgiving dinner, but I couldn’t allow her to think I was afraid of her by not showing up. I did make sure that my wardrobe was in season this time.

Ryan’s house was full of people. As he introduced me to everyone, I noticed that none of them were related to Valerie. They were all John’s family. Ryan explained that his mother had a sister and two brothers that they saw only at Christmas. One of her brothers and his wife had a vacation home in Colorado where they met for four days every year.

“So that means you’re not going to be here for Christmas,” I asked, deflating.

“No, I’ll be back the day after. I was going to tell you later. My dad told me she booked the flights yesterday. I’d bail, but I don’t want to stick him with my mom and her family on his own at Christmas.”

“I understand.”

“I thought that maybe you and I could have Christmas early, before I go, if that’s okay.”

“That would be nice.” I smiled at the smile on his face.

“Hey, yo, Ryan. What’s up?” I heard. Ryan turned and slapped hands with this preppy looking tween kid.

“Same old,” Ryan said. “Ben, this is my girl, Annie. Annie, this is my cousin Ben.”

He gave me a slight nod. “S’up?” he asked rhetorically.

“What’s up with some Xbox?” he asked Ryan, rubbing his hands together.

“I don’t know, man.”

“Aww man, you scared?”

Ryan chuckled. “Never scared.”

“
You gettin’ soft, bro? Lazy or what?” Ben taunted. I wanted to laugh at this kid calling Ryan out like that.

“
She makin’ you that way?” He threw his head in my direction. My eyes widened.

“Aww,” Ryan chuckled. “No. You know what it is though?” he asked Ben.

“What is it?”

“It’s on. That’s what it is,” Ryan stated. They slapped hands again.

“Alright. There he is,” Ben chanted.

Ryan grabbed my hand and told me to come on.

“Hold up,” Ben protested, shaking his head no.

“You go ahead. I’ll be fine,” I said quietly to Ryan.

“I don’t want to leave you alone.”

“Boo, no girls, dude. No way,” Ben protested, waving his arms in the air.

“She’s not your average girl,” Ryan defended.

Ben raised his eyebrow and smirked at me. “Do you have a uterus?” he asked. I chortled, “Yeah, I…uh…do.”

Ben looked at Ryan. “Then she is your average girl. She stays behind, dude.”

Ryan looked at me. “Uterus, huh?” he chuckled.

“How old is he?” I asked.

“Eleven.” We both laughed.

“I’ll be fine, really, go play,” I insisted. Ryan looked sweetly at me. “You’re sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“I’ll be back soon.” He kissed my mouth and then the two of them trash talked each other all the way to the living room. I was shaking my head at the thought of an eleven-year-old boy throwing around the word uterus when I heard Valerie’s voice.

“Hmmm, very nice,” she complimented, circling me, ta
king in my outfit, a possible smile forming on her mouth.

“Thank you. You look nice, too.” That was an understat
ement. Valerie looked like a model that’d just had a team of professionals vomit flawless all over her.

“So, Ryan left you to fend for yourself?”

“He’s playing with Ben.”

Her mouth pursed. I could tell she wanted to say som
ething cross, but kept it to herself. I imagined she didn’t appreciate Ben’s tween speak or that he’d set up his Xbox in her fancy living room. Thinking about Valerie using words like
yo
and
dude
was just too funny to me.

“Can I get you something to drink?” she asked.

“Sure.” I expected her to be nice to me—at first. It was what she planned to do to me later that had me worried.

“Wine?” she asked, her hand already snaked around the stem of a glass.

“Sure.”

“Beaujolais Nouveau?”

“Yes, thank you.”

I imagined she didn’t think I knew what Beaujolais Nouveau was, but because Pam’s such a connoisseur, I know way more about wine than most people would probably care to.

Beaujolais Nouveau is a French wine, released on the third Thursday in November every year, kicking off festivals and pa
rties in France as the bottles are sent on their way to a liquor store near you. I was surprised that Valerie even had such an inexpensive wine in her house at all. But I thought she’d probably intentionally put it out for John’s family just to be snarky.

“So, how’s that friend of yours? Justin, isn’t it?”

And there it was.

I smiled. “Justin’s fine.”

“Did he come home for the holiday?” she asked, pouring herself a glass of wine as well.

“Yes, he’s home.”

“What ever happened to him and that little blond?” Why on earth was she asking me about Eve, or anything else about Justin’s personal life?

“I didn’t realize you knew Justin so well.”

“Oh, I don’t dear. I’m just making conversation.” There was no
just making conversation
with Valerie when it came to me, I was sure of that.

“They didn’t work out,” I answered simply.

“Interesting,” she cooed.

“This is good, smooth.” I complimented the wine, an a
ttempt to change the subject.

“Thank you,” she mumbled. “I heard you visited Justin r
ecently for a weekend.”

“I did.”

“And how did that go?”

“Fine.”

“You stayed with him alone that weekend, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” I answered evenly, and without detail. I knew she was trying to bait me somehow, or get a rise out of me, but I wasn’t going to let her.

“You know, I’ve seen him around,” she said, slightly arching her eyebrow. “He’s very attractive.”

I smiled, closed mouthed. “I’ll tell him you think so.” I raised my glass and thanked her for the wine before walking away.

Thankfully, John announced it was time to sit down for dinner before I had to figure out what to do while waiting for Ryan and avoiding further contact with Valerie. Ryan and Ben appeared, still trash talking about “next time.”

“I skunked his ass,” Ben said casually as he breezed past me.

“Football’s not my game,” Ryan admitted, shaking his head before taking my hand and leading me to a different dining room than the one I had been in before. This one seated thirty and each chair was taken.

John stood at the head of the table while Valerie sat at the opposite end watching as he said a few words about being grat
eful to have everyone together. As he began to raise his glass for the toast, Valerie interrupted him. “One moment, John dear,” she said and then looked at me.

“Annie, darling, I don’t know what you’re allowed to do at home, but we do not condone underage drinking in this house.” She turned to one of six women standing on either side of her, ready to serve our dinner. “Lydia, would you get something more appropriate for A
nnie to drink?”

My face reddened. She’d just embarrassed me in a room full of Ryan’s relatives. They were all watching me, making me feel like a dirty, under aged lawbreaker.

“Can I see you in private, Mother?” Ryan asked. I felt like we were at a tennis match, everyone’s heads moving from Ryan to Valerie and back again.

“This is hardly the time sweetheart—after dinner,” she instruc
ted, strictly, but still managed to somehow sound sweet and proper. Her tone carried a certain something that made her requests seem reasonable even when they weren’t.

“Thank you,” I mumbled to Lydia as sat a glass of tea in front of me, taking the wine glass away.

“Continue, dearest,” Valerie smiled at John.

“I’m not letting it go,” Ryan said to me, through clenched teeth.

“Everyone raise a glass, dinner is getting cold,” Valerie instructed. Ryan’s chair scooted away from the table. I grabbed his arm. “Please, just wait until after dinner—for your dad,” I whispered. He sat back down, even though he didn’t want to.

I took the heat because I wasn’t going to make a scene in front of his family and I didn’t want Ryan to either. I wasn’t going to allow V
alerie’s antics to cause me to make an ass out of myself, which was all she really wanted in the first place.

When dinner was finished, I went to the living room to wait for Ryan. I was dying to get out of there, but he refused to leave until telling Valerie to back off.

“You know, I saw her pour that glass of wine and hand it to you,” I heard someone say from behind me. It was Ryan’s aunt Betty. I grimaced and slightly nodded my head.

“She’s evil—that one.
The type to smile at your face while waiting for you to turn your back so she can whip out her knife and stab you with it.” She shook her head. “Never could figure out what John saw in her—besides the obvious, that is.”

“I don’t have to be around her much, but she has made it abu
ndantly clear that she doesn’t want me involved with Ryan.”

“Seems he disagrees with her.”

“He does, but I still don’t like that she hates me for no good re
ason. I mean, I love Ryan, but it’s daunting to think that if we…she could be…” I got cold chills.

Betty laughed. “That’s understandable, honey. You’re right to be concerned. In all the years that I’ve known that woman, she’s always been up to no good. Ryan’s a great kid. He’ll push back when she starts up—always has.” She winked at me. 

Ryan rounded the corner. Seeing him eased me, even though he was still angry. The look on his face told me that Valerie hadn’t been very receptive to his request.

“Watch your back,” Betty mumbled to me before grabbing Ryan
.“Bye, sweetie. It was so good to see you,” she said as they hugged. Then she whispered something to him. It made him smile. I was happy to see it again.

“I know, and I will,” he said back to her.

Ryan put his arm around my neck as we walked to the car. “She told me that I have a great girl on my hands and that I should take special care of you,” Ryan told me. I stopped, forcing him to as well, and looked at him.

“I really love you,” I said. “Thank you for sticking up for me.”

“I don’t know how much good it did, but I’ll always stick up for you. I really love you, too,” he whispered, and then kissed me. 

I was too busy staring at him in the car to pay attention to where we were going, until we stopped.

“What are we doing here?”

“I know you usually spend Thanksgiving here. Pam said I could come, too.”

I started laughing. “She’s relentless.”

“I called her,” he said. “Believe it or not, I do listen when you talk, and I know how important being here tonight is for you, and I kind of owe you for making you spend the afternoon with my mother.”

“Thank you,” I breathed. I almost teared up because of how sweet he was being.

“Stay put, I’ll get your door.”

Ryan helped me out of the car and walked me to the porch. As I was reaching for the front door handle, he put his hand over mine, keeping me from opening the door. He kissed me when I turned to ask him what he was doing.

“I’ll be back for you in the morning,” he said.

“What—you’re not staying?”

He shook his head no.

“Why not?”

“Because if I were Justin, I wouldn’t want me here.”

“Uh,” I whined. “I wanted to stay with you tonight.”

“No,” he said quietly.

I frowned. He ignored my pouting and kissed me again.

“Have fun. I’ll be here by noon tomorrow.”

I was sad that he wasn’t staying
, until I was inside Justin’s house. Ryan was right, being here was important to me and his understanding of that only made me love him more.