I give the young girl behind the counter the name on the bowling lane I’ve pre-paid for. Violet has been making a good show of insisting that she was going to be treating me to this date but there was no way I was going to let her hand over a cent.
It’s not that I’m stuck in the dark ages, but in my mind, when a man is courting a woman, he should pay for the privilege.
That’s how my grandfather courted my grandmother and how my father courted my mother.
It’s the way I want to do it too.
Violet pouts at me when she realises what I’ve done. “Rylan! I told you I was paying today.”
“You’re going to have to be faster than that then.” I wink at her and she scrunches up her nose in frustration.
She hurriedly hands her credit card to the girl. “I’m paying for the snacks then.”
The girl, ‘Kate’ according to her name badge, grimaces. “Ummm… he’s kind of already ordered and paid for all of that too…”
I watch Violet’s jaw drop as she turns back to me. “You’re impossible… we had a deal.”
I shrug and grin. “You might have thought we had a deal… I never agreed to let you pay, Violet. Call me old fashioned, but I want to take you out – so I pay, okay?”
“Girl, you should just let him… I mean hell, I wouldn’t say no if some cute guy wanted to spoil me.”
I shoot Violet a ‘see’ look.
Violet blushes as she looks between me and Kate, who is now setting our bowling shoes down on the counter.
“Well I can see I’m outnumbered.” She sighs. “Fine, thank you, it’s very sweet – albeit totally unnecessary,” she adds in a grumble.
There’s a small smile playing on the corner of her lips and I know she can’t hold this grudge for long.
“C’mon…” I grab both pairs of shoes before slinging my arm around her. “I’ve got a real deal for you.”
“And what would that be?”
We approach our lane and I look at her, unable to keep the huge smile off my face. “If I win, you have to tell me where we’re going tomorrow.”
She laughs. “And if I win?”
I think about it for a moment. “If you win… I’ll let you pay for our next date.”
She blushes again, and her lips turn up in a coy smile – I know she’s thinking about the fact that I’ve just committed to another date, and while she seems pretty damn happy about it, this deal is still very clearly stacked in my favour.
She holds out her hand for me to shake. “Alright then, deal.”
***
“You could have told me you were a pro,” I grumble. “I got hustled.”
She giggles gleefully – I think she’s still pretty pleased with herself about her win.
Actually, win doesn’t quite cut it, she whipped my butt good and proper.
“A deal’s a deal, Dr. Wilder. I get to pay for the next date.”
It’s me who’s pouting now.
That’ll teach me for underestimating her – I’d been so sure I was going to win the game and our little bet.
She’s walking backwards so that she’s facing me, as we stroll through the park.
I want so badly to find out about her heart; she’s so radiant and filled with life, I almost wonder if I looked at the wrong patient’s file. If it weren’t for the fact that I’ve seen her, frail and extremely unwell with my very own eyes, I’d probably have decided by now that I had made a mistake.
I won’t ask her though. I can’t. Not without revealing I violated hospital policy or that I somehow know her from a hospital corridor years ago.
Neither of those things are something I want to share at the moment, or perhaps ever, so I just have to wait… wait and hope that she’ll trust me enough to tell me when she’s ready. There’s so much more to her than just her heart, and I can’t blame her for wanting to share who she really is as a person before she’s forced to confess the thing that’s probably defined her for her whole life.
Maybe it’s better this way – that I’ll learn about her first and her heart later.
I want to know everything about her – the real her… and this is probably the best chance I’m going to get.
“Hey… do you want to come and have dinner with me?” she asks unexpectedly, breaking me from my thoughts.
“You mean at your house?”
I’m yet to set foot inside Violet’s house, but I want to so badly I have to stop myself from yelling the word ‘yes’ at her.
“Yeah… I’ve got a heap of food; it’s kinda hard to cook the right amount for just me… I mean if you’re not busy…”
She’s rambling, and as soon as I recognise it’s because she’s nervous I’ll say no, I almost do yell the word at her.
“That sounds perfect, Violet,” I interrupt her chatter.
“Yeah?” She looks up at me, her crystal blue eyes filled with hope.
“Yeah.”
Chapter Forty-One
Violet
I might be a person who tries my hardest not to lie, but I sure was talking complete and utter bullshit when I told him I had ‘heaps of food’ at home. My cupboards have never looked so bare.
Inviting him over for dinner was not the best plan I’ve ever had. I just wasn’t ready for our time together to end, so I panicked and threw out the first idea I thought of.
Rylan’s sitting in my living room, and he’s undoubtedly the best-looking thing that’s ever walked through my front door – so even though I have nothing but baked beans to feed him, I still have to admit it was definitely worth the little white lie.
He’s made himself at home in here. His shoes are off and his jacket is draped over the back of my couch.
I like it – I like it so much I’m actually having trouble focusing on the problem at hand… the fact that it’ll be time to start dinner within an hour, and I have next to nothing here to cook for him.
“What are you planning to have for dinner?” he calls out to me, like he can somehow sense my distress from across the room.
I grimace and glance around, hoping for some type of suggestion to jump out at me.
“Well I know how much you like surprises,” I reply coyly as I stall for time.
He laughs and the knot in my stomach eases.
“Do you want some help, Vi?”
He’s never called me ‘Vi’ before, and even though most of the people in my inner circle call me either ‘Vi’ or ‘Letty’, it’s different when it’s coming from him.
It feels like a sign of us growing closer – growing together.
It’s enough of a sign for me to take a deep breath and let go of some of my nerves.
This isn’t a big deal.
He won’t care that I have nothing to feed him – I’m yet to meet a male that has an objection to eating takeout and I doubt he’ll be any different.
I just need to relax, stop stressing about things that don’t matter and enjoy having him here with me while it lasts.
I’m about to admit my predicament and suggest we order Chinese food when I hear my front door open.
“Knock, knock!” calls the familiar voice from inside my house. “We’re early.”
I bring my hand up to my forehead in disbelief. I can’t believe I forgot what day of the week it is.
It’s pizza night tonight.
Lucy and Emmett, along with my entire family come over here for pizza every Sunday night.
“Oh crap,” I mutter under my breath.
I’m not sure if I’m ready for Rylan to meet my family, or more to the point, for my family to subject him to the rounds of interrogation that they’re bound to, but at the same time, I can think of nothing worse than him walking back out of my door so soon after arriving.
Rylan obviously hears the unexpected visitor too because he appears in front of me in the kitchen.
He must see the expression on my face because he chuckles. “You forget you were expecting company?”
I groan. “I’m so
sorry. It’s Lucy and Emmett… we have dinner every Sunday with my whole family… I guess it slipped my mind.”
He smiles and steps forward to take my hands in his. He intertwines his fingers with mine and looks down at me with the sweetest expression on his face.
“It’s okay… we can do this another night. It’s no big deal.”
All I can think about is stretching up to kiss him – so I do.
My lips meet his in the way I’ve been craving all day long. He sighs in satisfaction against my mouth and my legs turn to jelly.
“Ooh la la… hello there, good doctor.” Lucy’s voice comes from behind me, and the intrusion is enough to break our lips apart, but not our eyes.
The brief yet passionate contact tells me everything I need to know – he’s right where he should be and there’s no way I’m letting him leave now.
“Stay,” I whisper to him.
***
I can’t recall what I was worried about.
It’s almost as though he’s been part of Sunday night dinner forever. He fits in so effortlessly that I’m waiting for the moment where the penny drops and it all goes wrong.
Sadly, that’s what the circumstance surrounding my life has taught me to expect. But for now, at least, everything seems to be going better than I could have hoped for.
My mum loves him. Even if she hadn’t cornered me in the kitchen earlier to tell me exactly that, I would have known anyway – it’s obvious to see that she’s absolutely smitten with him.
Charlie’s looking at him with total admiration – like he wants to be him when he grows up. Even Auggie is a fan. She told me, and I quote, that ‘he really is cute… and a doctor too’, so as far as August goes, that’s praise of the highest kind.
My dad hasn’t threatened to shoot him if he hurts me like he did to August’s first boyfriend, so that too is a win in my book.
Lucy is sitting in her usual spot, watching the whole thing play out like she’s some type of cupid genius. She might be awfully smug that things are working out well so far, but I can also see how genuinely thrilled she is that there’s finally a man in my life. I know she’s been worried; we probably all have – that I’d never find someone to share myself with.
Sure, it’s early days yet, and he might run a mile when I tell him the truth, but this is still so much more promising than any other relationship I’ve had. It’s progress. And regardless of the result, it’s going to be a good learning curve for me.
There’s a chance that meeting my family could even work in my favour – maybe it’ll help him to separate me from my condition.
Even Lucy’s mum is a little bit in love with him.
I should have realised that they would know each other – Linda has been a nurse in the paediatric ward at Royal West since before I was born.
She, Emmett and Rylan all work in the same place so it’s like a little hospital reunion in here.
Linda doesn’t join us every Sunday, but I can tell she’s awfully chuffed that she decided to attend tonight.
I can’t even blame her really, Rylan is more than worth looking at, and when he opens his mouth, he only gets more attractive. He’s smart and funny and I can’t speak for everyone in the room, but I can’t help but be drawn into his presence.
Much to my relief, no one has mentioned my heart – not that they often do on these nights, but still, the worry was there.
Considering this evening was entirely forgotten by me, I couldn’t have planned it better if I’d tried.
Lucy’s mum and my parents have just left, and my brother and sister are about to follow suit.
Everyone seems a little more reluctant than usual to go and I’m under no illusion that there’s a reason other than Rylan that’s responsible for their hesitation. He’s been a hot commodity at this little get together – he’s captured the attention of all of us.
Charlie is chewing his ear off about some surf spot down the coast, and to be honest I don’t even know if the man I’m dating knows how to surf or not, but if he doesn’t, he’s making a really good show of seeming interested in what my younger brother is telling him.
It warms my heart to watch.
August has been quiet tonight, and considering she usually talks more than anybody I’ve ever met, I’m slightly concerned that she’s unwell.
“Auggie.”
She’s watching our brother and Rylan talking with an inquisitive expression on her face – she doesn’t appear to be aware that I’ve even spoken.
“Auggie.”
I break her focus and she looks around, almost as though she’s forgotten where she is.
“Huh?”
“Are you alright? You’ve barely said a word all night.”
She shrugs and her gaze flickers back over to Rylan and Charlie before meeting mine. “I’m fine. I guess I’m just curious.”
“About Rylan?”
She nods. “He’s the man who saved your life…”
Technically it was Dr. White and her team who saved my life that day, but I know what she means – if it weren’t for his voice and his eyes, I’m not sure I would have had the strength to hold on and stay.
I hope I get the chance to tell him about it someday – to make him see all that he’s done for me before we ever even met.
I hope I get to make sense of it at some point too.
There’s no logical explanation as to why it was him I saw, but maybe one day it’ll all click into place.
I don’t know how it could, but since he came into my life for real, I feel like I don’t know anything for certain anymore, other than the fact that he’s here… and because of him, so am I.
Chapter Forty-Two
Rylan
“Stay,” she whispers for the second time this evening.
Blush stains her cheeks as she asks her unspoken question.
“I mean it seems silly… I’m picking you up tomorrow anyway...”
I sweep a strand of hair off her forehead.
I’ve found myself at her front door once again, the two of us alone under the stars.
Her arms are wrapped around my waist, tugging me tight against her, while one of my hands is resting on the back of her neck, the other cupping her jaw.
I’m not sure I’ll ever tire of the feel of her mouth on mine. Even now, we’ve been apart only thirty seconds or so, and I’m already yearning for more.
“It does seem silly,” I murmur before brushing my lips ever so softly against hers again.
She sighs, a soft, breathy sound that I’m beginning to really love.
I want to stay, God do I want to stay here with her all night, but I won’t – that much I already know.
Not yet.
“Oh wow, I’ve just realised what I’ve implied…” Her face somehow manages to go a deeper shade of red. “I’m not talking about sex… I just thought we could sleep next to one another…”
I’m biting back a smile as she stumbles over her words, her nerves blindingly obvious.
“I’m digging myself a hole here; can you say something please?”
“Breathe, Violet.”
She nibbles on the corner of her lip and forces her eyes to meet mine.
She’s so beautiful it pains me – she appeals to me in a way no woman ever has.
I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is about her that I find so intriguing, it’s not just her eyes, but the stories that they tell and the secrets they keep, it’s not just her lips, but the way they move and the seduction they exude. Every feature on her face is not only pretty, but filled with depth, knowledge and power too.
To top it all off, she’s got absolutely no comprehension of how stunning she is and that only adds to the appeal of her.
“I know you didn’t mean sex.” I grin at her, both because I’m amused and because I want her to relax.
I never considered for a second that she would be inviting me up to spend the night with her in that way – things might be moving fast, and I mig
ht already like her more than any woman I’ve ever dated, but neither of us is ready for that yet.
When that time does finally come, I’m going to make sure I do it the right way. I’ve got a pretty strong hunch that Violet isn’t equipped with a whole lot of knowledge on this particular topic, so I want to take things slow.
“And even though I can think of nothing more satisfying than having you fall asleep next to me, I think we should take a rain check, okay?”
“You’re such a gentleman,” she teases.
I might not have been this way my whole life, but she brings the chivalrous side out in me… she makes me want to say and do things that will sweep her off her feet.
“Can I make a confession?” I ask her.
She nods at me and smiles. Those gorgeous little dimples appear in her cheeks and for a second I can’t remember what it was I was planning to confess.
She raises her brows in question.
“These past few days, every moment I’m not with you… I’m wishing I was.”
She doesn’t say anything, but the huge smile on her face is enough of a reply for me.
She’s happy, really happy, and that’s when it hits me – If I never achieve another thing in this lifetime, then I would still die a satisfied man.
***
Leaving her just now was the hardest thing I’ve done in a long time.
Especially after meeting her family – they’re what a family should be… loving, warm and welcoming.
I’ve not been part of a family like that in a long time, but I truly felt as though I was tonight. They welcomed me with open arms and made me feel like I belonged there.
I hope I do belong there – right there with her.
Hanging out with her, Emmett and Lucy had been as easy as breathing. I can picture us as two couples, off in the distant future. We’re friends – we’re in each other’s lives constantly. The minute the image hits my mind I realise just how badly I want exactly that.
Every Last Beat Page 19