Ryan pulled her hand to stop as they approached his bed. “I don’t want to go to bed. I want to talk to my mommy!”
“You don’t want to get me in trouble if he hangs up and sees you’re not in bed yet, do you?”
As Ryan debated, she pulled back the covers on his bed and then lifted him up, holding him at eye level to command his attention while scrambling for a diversion tactic. “Besides, I thought you said you wanted to be like Chester and eat your veggies and get lots of sleep from now on so you can be a big monkey too one day.” Ryan had loved the book so much, he made her read it three times to him before she’d had to get ready for her disastrous date.
His frown didn’t dim, but finally he said, “I do.”
“Well then, it’s way past time for you to hit the hay. I’ll see you tomorrow. Okay?”
“Promise?”
She nodded sharply. “Promise.”
“Okay.” Ryan wrapped his arms around her neck and gave her a hug. It didn’t look like he planned to let her go anytime soon.
Tears formed in her eyes, whether from the conversation she’d just had with Chad or at the desperate way Ryan clung to her or both, she wasn’t sure.
She searched for the ratty little brown bear she’d seen him carry sometimes, spotting its scruffy paw sticking out from under the bed. She scooped it up and then laid them both down. After she drew the covers over them, she said, “How about I bring you another Chester book tomorrow. Would you like that?”
Ryan tucked the well-loved, one-eyed bear under his chin and nodded.
“Then it’s a deal. I’ll even ask Shelby to autograph it for you.” She stood and turned out the lights. “Door open or closed?”
“Open. Night, Jo.”
“Sweet dreams, Ryan.”
Jo headed for the living room to gather her things and go. Chad sat on the couch with his head in his hands and an unopened beer bottle on the coffee table in front of him.
She scooped up the beer and twisted the top off. After a long pull, because God knew she could use a drink too, she sat beside him. “Was that Ryan’s mom?”
“Yes.” He lifted his head. “And please, just help yourself to my beer.”
Her gut told her it was more than just the pain upsetting him. “You can’t have this. Mixing meds with alcohol is a bad idea.”
“Oh . . . right. Linda’s call threw me off. I honestly forgot I’d taken anything.” He shook his head. “She said she wants to see Ryan tomorrow. She’ll only be in town for the day. I told her no, that we had plans at the ranch. She said she’d like to see my mom anyway and she’ll meet us there. Then she hung up. I should call her back and tell her to go to hell.”
And yet he hadn’t. “Are you afraid it’ll upset Ryan to see her, especially if he can’t go home with her?”
“Yeah. But she’s his mother. I don’t know what to do. She can’t just pop in and out of his life like this.”
“Have you guys talked about visitation rights?”
He shook his head. “All she said when she dropped him off was that it was my turn to be the parent for a while. That she needed a break. She handed me a bundle of his important papers, and then she left. My lawyer has tried to contact her multiple times, but she just ignores him.”
Jo took another long pull from the bottle, relishing the cool bubbles that ran down her throat. “Aren’t there some abandonment laws or something?”
“Yeah. My lawyer said something about that.” He stood to pace. “Maybe that’s why she’s here for just the day, to be sure she sees him just enough to dodge an abandonment charge. She gave me some line about how she’d been traveling overseas and hadn’t seen the emails. I don’t know how to deal with her manipulation and head games. If she were a guy, I’d just punch her in the face for how she’s treating Ryan and then talk some sense into her.”
Jo smiled. The Chad she knew had never hit anyone in his life off the football field. “Pacing around on your newly injured knee isn’t helping anything.” He still wore only a towel so she could finally see how swollen his knee was. The towel was damned distracting. “Go get dressed, and then let me check it, please.”
His settled next to her again, swung his legs onto her lap, and then laid his head on the arm of the couch. He closed his eyes and whispered, “You know I sleep in the buff. Why would I get dressed?”
Because she was having a hard time keeping her hands off more than just his knee. But that’d be a major mistake. At first chance, he’d go right back to his first love, football, and she’d never see him again, just like before. She needed to tamp down the temptation.