The Academic Bride

by Lucy McConnell

  “Ryder?” she whispered loudly.

  Ryder sighed and stretched his T-shirt, lifting enough that she could see his trim stomach.

  Heaven help me!

  “Lunch.” She set a plate on his middle and went to sit on the floor across the coffee table.

  “No, sit here.” He swung his hurt leg over to the coffee table and patted the spot next to him.

  Mia shrugged and situated herself, careful to leave enough air between them that she didn’t brush against his arm. She had a tendency to enjoy being close to Ryder—enjoyed it enough that it blocked out her better sense. Plus, his skin had the ability to turn off her brain and make her do things like melt into him, hum in his kitchen, and daydream.

  Ryder took a bite and sighed. “This is the best comfort food.”

  It probably was, considering that the guy who made Ryder’s lunches his whole growing up was the one who taught her the recipe. “That’s a rather wonderful compliment. Thank you.”

  Ryder brushed her hair over her shoulder and pecked a kiss to her head. “I’m rather glad to have you.”

  Mia wasn’t sure what to say. Did he mean he was glad to have her help today, or that he was glad to have her in his life, or that he was glad to have her as in marry her? Dropping her gaze, she took a large bite of her pickle, thinking that the answer to her question, no matter which question it was, would be full of vinegar.

  If it was just for today, then tomorrow would stink!

  If it was in his life, it was progress but not quite perfect.

  If it was “have her” as in “engaged to her,” then something was wrong with him and all this kissing and pretending wasn’t cool at all.

  Setting the pickle aside, she tucked into her sandwich and Ryder did the same.

  When they’d finished, Ryder brushed his fingers off and asked, “Wanna play a game?”

  Mia took his plate. “What game?”

  “Speed,” he said without hesitation.

  “Okay.” Mia was a champ at the fast-moving card game. The Montgomerys had taught her to play the day they hired her. No one had been able to beat her in three years.

  “Really?” Ryder looked surprised, like he’d expected her to say no. Speed was the perfect way to pass the time. She could sit on the other side of the coffee table and not be in kissable distance, and maybe, if she worked hard enough, she’d be able to make some sense of this whole situation.

  “Really.” She nodded. “But no crying when I beat you.” She hurried to the kitchen, rinsed the dishes, and placed them in the dishwasher. One thing was for sure: if she and Ryder really were engaged, he’d be doing dishes. Well, maybe not three days after falling off a ski lift, but if she cooked he was going to clean up. From the tidy state of his house and the way he’d eyed the ravioli bag, she surmised that he wouldn’t have a problem with that arrangement.

  When she came back, he had his leg angled to the side and had dealt the cards. Mia put a pillow on the floor to kneel on and took her place. From left to right there was a pile of five cards, then one card—that was Ryder’s to flip over—then another card for Mia to flip, and then Mia’s pile of five. The rest of the cards had been divided between the two of them. Those were the cards Mia would need to get rid of in order to win. She picked up the first five. “Ready?”

  Ryder placed his hand over the card he was supposed to flip. “One, two, three.” They flipped their cards over. Ryder had a king and Mia had a four. She laid the five, six, and seven in her hand down in quick succession.

  “A pro, eh?” Ryder leaned forward, a competitive gleam in his eye,

  “Consider yourself warned.” Mia picked up three cards from her pile to replace the ones she laid down and threw a queen and a jack on Ryder’s card. Ryder unloaded his ten, nine, eight, and seven before refilling his hand. The game stalled. They each flipped a new one over from the outside stacks. Mia dropped an ace, two, three, and the game exploded, moving too fast for them to brag or gloat. Mia slapped down a five and threw her hands in the air. “Out.”

  “Rematch.” Ryder scooted the cards together and shuffled.

  “Fine. You deal, I’ll go let Jasper in.” She ran to the back door and called for the dog. He trotted behind her and settled at her side, having run enough circles to tire himself out.

  Ryder lifted an eyebrow. “He really likes you, ya know.”

  Mia scratched Jasper’s side. “He’s not hard to please. I fed him and he fell in love.”

  “I know how that feels.” Ryder winked.

  Mia’s spine melted and she sank into the pillow. He didn’t have to feed her and she was eating out of his hand. Shaking her head, she cleared her mind for the next game. There was no mercy in Speed—no room for distraction.

  Mia won again, leaving Ryder with five cards in his hand.

  “Best three out of five,” Ryder challenged.

  Mia grinned as she gathered the cards. The game started off as quick as the others. Ryder shuffled his cards around while Mia reloaded her hand.

  “I can see us doing this on our thirtieth anniversary, can’t you?” he asked.

  Mia took her eyes off the cards and stared at him.

  Ryder cleaned out his hand and picked up five more cards. “We’ll have turtle cheesecake with the kids, dance in the living room, and end the night with a Speed tournament.”

  He unloaded his hand again. Mia had been caught up in the image he painted. She could see it all. See him stealing a bite of her cheesecake, just to tease her. Feel his arms around her as they danced. The kids’ laughter. And she wanted it—every single second. Would it be so bad to go along with this?

  “Done!” Ryder held up his hands.

  Blinking, Mia looked down at her stack of cards. “You cheated.”

  “How?” Ryder looked offended.

  “By distracting me.”

  “So you admit that I’m a distraction.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

  “Yes.”

  Ryder grabbed her hand. “I like being a distraction.” His gaze implied that he had many more ways he’d like to distract her.

  This is the trouble with playing along. I start to believe him and it means so much more to me than it does to him. Unless he really thinks he’s in love with me …

  “Ryder,” she began. Her voice sounded weak and lost—just like she felt. She had to say something; her poor heart couldn’t handle the back and forth. “Do you realize—”

  “That you’re still ahead by one game? Yes. But it won’t last long.”

  Mia eyed Ryder as she slowly shuffled and dealt the cards. Maybe he knew their engagement wasn’t real, but for some reason he needed whatever this was between them as much as she wanted it. Maybe, being without family had been hard on Ryder too.

  “One, two …” This time, Mia was ready for the flip and she had twelve cards down before Ryder had five.

  “I was thinking Mexico for the honeymoon.” Ryder picked up three cards.

  “Sounds great.” Despite the image of Ryder in board shorts, shirtless and tanned, that popped into her head, Mia was able to unload three more cards.

  Ryder scowled. “Who shuffled this deck?”

  “I did—play.” She picked up another card.

  “We can take long walks on the beach, romantic dinners …”

  “Burying you in the sand.” Mia dropped five cards with her right hand and picked up three more with her left.

  “Moonlight kisses.”

  The air suddenly got heavy as the thought of a kiss, longer, slower, and implying a whole lot more filled her every fiber. “Just by moonlight,” she croaked. Dropping two more cards, her vision blurred as she stared at the table without really seeing anything except moonlight reflecting in Ryder’s dark brown eyes.

  “Moonlight, sunlight, candlelight.” He laid a card down with each word, winning the game.

  They were all tied up now. He had her weakness all figured out—him, and he was taking full advantage of it. If she had even half the influence
over him that he had over her, she’d be able to turn things around pretty quickly. The gloves were off. Grinning wickedly, she shuffled and set up the cards. She made eye contact with Ryder, bit her lower lip, and winked. “Go,” she whispered breathlessly.

  They flipped the cards and she put her plan into play. “I’d like to start a family right away.” Six-five-four-three-two-three. Nothing like the threat of a baby to throw a guy off his game. She picked up cards as fast as she could, but Ryder kept pace.

  “If we’re lucky, we could have twins first,” he countered.

  King-Ace-King-Queen-Jack. They went back and forth for a moment, not speaking.

  Only low numbers were face up, and though she’d blown through her stack, Mia had three cards left. This was a precarious position. Depending on how Ryder played his little stack, she could be left out in the cold or she could drop the cards and win in seconds. “We could paint the spare bedroom in greens—it’s a neutral color. There’s room for a rocking chair and of course side-by-side cribs.”

  Unfazed, Ryder unloaded a bunch of cards. He paused when he ran out of moves. “You’re going to look adorable with a baby bump,” he said right as they flipped cards.

  “You don’t know that—I could gain three hundred pounds.” She played two cards and held her breath.

  “You’ll be stunning. I’ve seen it in my dreams.” Ryder laid down the two of hearts.

  Mia was left with the jack of hearts and a whole lot of confusion. How had this not fazed him?

  “Do you want two kids or can we have more?” Ryder asked in a completely serious tone.

  This conversation should have been awkward. It wasn’t. She’d counted on it flustering him, but he took the whole thing in stride. Because of his open expression, Mia found herself giving an honest answer. “I think we’d have to talk about that after the twins had grown a bit. They can be a lot of work.”

  Ryder began gathering the cards. “I think if we had one more after the twins, we should plan on two. That way she won’t feel left out.”

  Mia propped her elbow on the table and leaned her head against it. “See, as an only child I never would have thought about that.”

  Ryder shrugged. “The benefit of having half siblings.”

  Mia nodded. Amos told her that Ryder had often felt like the odd man out, since he was six years older than her and Carter and eight years older than his half sister, Isabelle.

  “Do you miss your dad?” Ryder asked.

  Mia’s jaw dropped. “How did you know about my dad?”

  “What kind of fiancé would I be if I didn’t know your dad had passed away?”

  She blinked. They were back to being engaged, but that wasn’t what threw her for a loop. His knowledge about her dad was what got her. She thought back to the time she’d spent at his bedside that first night when she was so scared he wouldn’t pull through and the trauma of the day caught up to her. In the dim hospital lights, she’d poured her heart out over her loss and begged Ryder to pull through. The nurse had said he could hear her …

  Except there was no way. He hadn’t even flinched.

  He had a phone and could have Googled her and found the obituary. There really wasn’t such a thing as privacy anymore. Actually, the idea that he’d looked her up, even if it was months ago, was kind of sweet. The flirty guy at the resort working up some courage to ask out the liftie. She smiled. No matter how he knew, she was glad he did without her having to bring it up.

  “Yeah, I miss him. A lot. But I’m okay. Things are good.” Thanks to your family—who you don’t want to speak to.

  Guilt stabbed at her side. She loved the Montgomerys. They’d taken her in and mothered and fathered and nurtured and encouraged her to finish her degree and move forward. Keeping Ryder’s accident from them was not showing them the respect they deserved after loving her. Her smile faded.

  “Just good?”

  “Yeah.” Mia shrugged.

  “Not great?”

  “No, but how often can you say life is really great?”

  Ryder’s hand covered hers. “My life is pretty great right now.”

  Mia dropped her dubious look to the cast on his right knee.

  He leaned over the table, and Mia found herself drawn closer. Like she couldn’t help herself. Like he was her favorite run on Ruby Mountain—the one she had to ski first on opening day. The one that called to her.

  “Sure, I’m kind of a mess, but I get to spend the day with you and that’s my favorite.”

  “Wait—the day!” She checked the clock above the entertainment center. It was twelve-thirty. “Shoot!” Hopping up, she ran to the kitchen and grabbed her phone, then ran to the front entryway to find her purse. “I’m supposed to be to work by one.” She reached for the door and then turned back to Ryder. “I had a great time.” She flushed at using the word great—implying that she … whatever.

  Ryder struggled to his feet, looking for all intents and purposes as if he would chase after her. “When will I see you again?”

  Tonight? Nope, Amos had invited her to dinner at the B&B. “Tomorrow.” She groped for the door handle. “Are you going to be okay until then? Do you need me to get you anything?”

  “I’ll probably sleep a lot—and dream.”

  Mia flushed, thinking of his comment about dreaming of her with a baby bump. “Okay, bye.” She hurried out, shutting the door behind her.

  Having to rip her fingers off the handle to keep herself from charging back inside and saying, “Best five out of seven,” Mia dove into her car and headed to the resort. Hopefully she could salvage some of this day—and her job. She really needed to settle into the office. So far, she’d acted like a flake. Which she wasn’t. She was a reliable person. But Ryder … Ryder had thrown her into a cyclone. Even so, she couldn’t help but think that tomorrow was too far away.

  Chapter 10

  Turned out that Mia’s anxiety about being late was unfounded as Sandra had left for a personal emergency at lunch. Disappointed that she could have spent the afternoon regaining her status as Speed champion, flirting with Ryder, and maybe finding out if leaning on the couch was as good as leaning in the front entryway, she hurried through her work only to leave forty-five minutes late. Instead of taking time to go home and change for her dinner at the B&B, she drove straight there.

  Amos walked out the back kitchen door as she pulled into the employee and family parking behind the house. “Mia.” He said her name like a warning, pointing at his watch. “What gives?”

  “I know I’m late, Amos, but work was a bear.” Which was true. She just left out the part about spending half the day playing card games. As she’d driven to the resort that afternoon, she was happy to discover that her two worlds were once again maintaining their orbits. Ryder’s world, all flirty and fun and now including knee-melting kisses, circled at a safe distance from the B&B world. Now that Ryder was on the mend, the burden of telling his dad about the incident lay on his shoulders, not hers.

  Pecking a kiss to Amos’s cheek, she hurried past him and hung her raincoat on a peg.

  “Dinner’s in the private dining room tonight.” Amos nudged her in that direction. “Carter should be waiting.”

  “Great.” The family usually ate around the kitchen island and saved the dining room for holidays and special occasions, so she was clued into the fact that there was more to this dinner than just eating Amos’s fantastic cooking.

  Pushing open the swinging door, Mia found low burning candles and fine China set for two. Carter was nowhere to be found. Obviously, Amos had gone to a lot of work for this matchmaking attempt and she’d arrived late. “I’m sorry, Amos.”

  “Mia, romance shouldn’t be this difficult. Maybe seven years down the road when there’s two small kids and a mortgage, but not for young love.”

  Mia blushed, thinking of her conversation with Ryder about having twins and him saying she’d be beautiful preggers. Suddenly, she realized Amos was talking about her and Carter.
r />   That just wasn’t going to work out. She couldn’t imagine kissing Carter as she’d kissed Ryder. There was just no way.

  “Amos, I’m flattered—”

  Carter took that moment to come in, wearing cut-off sweatpants and a muscle shirt. He looked like he’d just gotten back from the gym. “Just give me a minute to shower, Amos.” He didn’t even notice Mia.

  Amos threw his hands in the air. “I give up!”

  Mia giggled. So far Amos was the only one trying to make this relationship work. Funny, she wasn’t offended at all that Carter was as oblivious to the two of them getting together as she was. Honestly, they were fantastic friends. They probably could have made a go of a marriage and had a good life together. A good life. A year ago, Mia would have been fine with good. Now, she had this feeling that good would never be good enough again. She wanted great. Had tasted great.

  Bonnie, Carter’s mom, came through the family room door. “Oh, Mia! I didn’t know you were coming over tonight.”

  Mia accepted Bonnie’s hug. “Amos invited me for dinner.” She smirked at Amos.

  “Don’t know why I even bother.” Amos stalked from the room.

  “Sit down,” Bonnie insisted as she took the seat meant for Carter. “Tell me all about your new job.”

  “There’s not much to tell, really.” And to her embarrassment, there wasn’t. She hadn’t spent enough time there to give a fair report.

  “I’ll bet you’re taking the place by storm.”

  Roy came through. “Mia—what are you doing?”

  “Amos invited her for dinner,” replied Bonnie.

  “We’ve already had dinner,” said Roy as he pulled a chair over from where they’d been lined up against the wall.

  “Mia hasn’t.”

  “It’s because she works too hard. She was one of the best guest relations representatives we’ve ever had. Remember the summer she had us booked for a solid eighteen weeks?”

  “I do! Mia, you’re a wonder.”

  “If you ever decide to leave that stuffy resort, you always have a place here.”