Resisting Ryder(32)

The guilt from the kiss the night before still lingered and she spent the entire morning telling herself that she did the right thing by ending it. She reminded herself that Jett had only been gone for a few weeks. It was impossible to move on that quickly. She needed more time for herself, and Ryder’s stark resemblance to Jett was the reason she felt so confused. As the morning went on, she talked herself more and more out of her feelings for Ryder.

She emerged from his bathroom and began packing her things. It was already six in the morning, and they’d need to leave very soon.

“Knock, knock,” Ryder called as he opened the door a crack. “I need to jump in the shower real quick and then we can go.”

He flashed a charming, Ryder-esque smile as he skipped into the bathroom. Much to Stormy’s relief, he acted like nothing happened. He was back to his old self again, and Stormy vowed to do the same.

Twenty minutes later, they were packed and loaded and heading down towards the freeway towards LAX. Ryder was cracking jokes in the car as per usual and Stormy was laughing at each and every one of them.

They pulled up to the drop off area and Ryder placed his car in park. He hesitated for a brief moment before getting out and pulling her bags from the trunk. She met him at the curb side as he sat her things down.

She didn’t know whether to hug him or give him a friendly peck on the cheek. As if he could read her mind, he opened his arms wide and gave her the biggest bear hug.

“Thanks for coming out to visit,” he said. “I hope you’ll come out again. Soon.”

“Thanks for having me,” she replied as she wrapped her arms around his Greek God physique. “I’ll definitely be back.”

He squeezed her tight before letting her go and slowly made his way back to his car. As soon as he climbed into the driver’s seat, he gave her a friendly wave and watched her as she walked away.

She felt her heart sink a little as she made her way to the check in area. She didn’t want to go back to Coleville, but she knew she had some thinking to do and some things to figure out. She thought about that kiss the night before and reminded herself yet again that it meant nothing. She couldn’t possibly love Ryder the way she loved Jett. He was just a secondhand replacement. He was just something to fill the huge black hole in her heart. She imagined that Jett would be seriously hurt if he knew she was moving on so quickly, and that she had thought she had feelings for his estranged older brother. She couldn’t do that to him.





CHAPTER 12




Back home, Stormy settled in to her normal routine. Her quiet house, hot tea, random crying spells routine that she had abandoned while she was in California, came back to her like second nature the moment she walked in the door to her trailer.

Brooklyn stopped by for a bit Sunday afternoon, as she was anxious to hear all about her trip.

“So what was it like out there?” she asked, eyes wide open.

“Beautiful,” Stormy sighed. “Palm trees. The ocean. Gorgeous people. Amazing restaurants. Fancy cars everywhere you look. It’s a whole ‘nother world, Brooklyn.”

“So should we move there?” Brooklyn asked, only she appeared to be completely serious.

“I don’t know how we could,” she said. “It sounds good in theory.”

“You’re such a fraidy-cat,” Brooklyn huffed. “Live a little.”

“You know, Ryder’s roommate, Zander, would be perfect for you,” Stormy piped up. “He is like the guy version of you. And he’s Ryder’s right hand man. And he doesn’t have an old lady yet.”

“Oh, geez,” Brooklyn laughed. “A California biker? Let me guess, he has sandy blonde hair and a ripped body and is super chill.”

“Exactly!” Stormy laughed. “I think you’d really meet your match with Zander.”

“Well, I’ll probably never meet him because someone’s too scared to step outside of Coleville for more than a weekend,” Brooklyn teased. “If you go back, let me know. I’ll go with you.”

“Really?” Stormy entertained the idea. “I don’t know when I’ll be going back.”

“And why is that?”

She wasn’t quite sure how to phrase it, so she just came out and said, “Ryder kissed me.”

“What?!”

“And I kissed him back.”

Brooklyn leaned over and grabbed her arm in disbelief. “That’s Jett’s brother!”

“I know, I know,” Stormy lamented. “Which is why I stopped it after a few seconds. It just felt wrong.”

“So how did this happen? I don’t think he would just randomly kiss you. You had to have been giving him signals or something,” Brooklyn analyzed.