She walked out to the living room where Ryder was sitting and fiddling around on his laptop again.
“Working hard as always, I see,” Stormy teased.
“Oh, Stormy, hey,” he said as he looked up at her then back at his laptop. He then glanced back at her again. “Wow, you look really nice today.”
“Thanks,” she said as she appreciated the double-take. “I think.”
“I just mean,” he started. “You look nice. That’s all.”
Ryder seemed a little flustered by Stormy’s innate beauty. The last two days he’d pretty much only seen her with puffy cheeks and swollen eyes, wearing dirty, rumpled sweats.
Ryder looked up at her again to sneak another peak. It was safe to say he was starting to look at her in a whole new light. He could barely keep his eyes off her, as if he was hypnotized.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Stormy asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious.
“I’m not,” he lied. Poorly.
Stormy plopped down next to him on the couch and grabbed a pillow to hug in her lap.
“What are we working on today?” she asked.
“Just checking in with my business partner,” he said.
“What’s his name?” Stormy asked, though she didn’t really care. She was just trying to make conversation.
“Veronica,” he said.
“Oh,” Stormy said, taken off guard. “I don’t know why I just assumed it was a guy.”
Ryder shrugged and thought nothing of her assumption.
“How did you two meet?” she asked. She felt a tiny twinge of inexplicable jealousy and had no idea where it was coming from.
“We met at a bar in California,” he said. “We were really drunk and scribbled a business plan on the back of a napkin. The next day we met again and realized we both had really good ideas. She had the money, I had the brains. She became my investor.”
“Oh, so you’re only partners then?” Stormy knew she was making herself seem super obvious, but she didn’t care.
“We dated,” he said. “She was a real spitfire. Bright red hair. Legs up to here. Crazy eyes. A personality to match. Almost married her. Didn’t work out. We saved our business though.”
Stormy couldn’t understand why Ryder talking about another woman made her jealous. Maybe it was the way he made her feel like she was the only person in the world when they were together. She had never even thought about the possibility of him having a girlfriend, let alone an ex-girlfriend that he damn near married.
“That’s good,” Stormy said as she tried to act casual. “I’m intrigued by this relationship. How do you keep things all business and nothing personal? Isn’t that hard?”
“It’s probably harder for her than for me,” he said. “I’m the one who broke things off. She just got too crazy. Too obsessed with me.”
“Do you still love her though?” Stormy was dying to know.
“We were together for a long time, and we’re still friends, of course I love her,” he said. “We had crazy chemistry. Still do. It’s just never going to work out for us.”
“Does she know that?” Stormy asked.
“Ha,” he laughed. “She still has hope I think.”
Stormy shamed herself for getting jealous of Ryder’s ex-girlfriend. She barely knew Ryder. She didn’t have feelings for him and yet she was drilling him about Veronica. She had no place to ask those questions, and she had to stop.
“Anyway,” Stormy said. “Sorry to pry. I know it’s none of my business.”
Ryder shrugged as he seemed to think nothing of it. “No worries.”
“So what’s your plan for today?”
“I was actually thinking about heading back to California,” he said.
Stormy’s face fell. She knew he wasn’t there to stay long, but she didn’t think he’d take off after just two days.
“Unless you want me to stay?” he said. “I don’t want to leave you hanging. If you need me to stay, to help you with anything, I will.”
Stormy wanted him to stay even if only for the company he gave her. She liked having a piece of Jett with her. She liked how he inadvertently distracted her and made her smile more than she’d smiled in a long time.
“Listen, you do what you need to do. Don’t worry about me,” she insisted. The last thing she wanted was for him to think she was needy and helpless.
Ryder took a deep breath and sat in silence as he thought for a bit. He rubbed his hand across his stubble-covered, square jawline and then turned to her and flashed his charming, signature Ryder smile.
“I think I can stick around one more day,” he said. “I’ll just leave first thing Saturday morning.”