How was he supposed to tell her that he had fallen in love with her? That he had started falling for her when he met her at the hotel bar and she had set him free. How was he supposed to explain how he felt for her as a woman not just as the mother of his children? Somehow, someday he would find the right words, but now wasn’t the time.
“How is Riley today?” Ryan wasn’t giving up, but he knew when to pause.
“The nausea finally let up. He finished his lunch. I think he’s ready for the transplant.”
“Tomorrow, after the game, the doctor is going to admit us both. You’ll have to make sure he doesn’t get too tired at the stadium.”
“We aren’t going.”
Ryan was disappointed, but he had expected her to say that. It would have shocked him if she had agreed to go. There was nothing left for him to say. He went upstairs to his son’s room and just lay next to him, letting his breathing sync to his boy’s light rhythms. Before long, he was fast asleep.
Chapter Eleven
“Not now!” Ryan groaned in response to his shrilling phone. It had to be Matt. He turned away from it, but no matter what he did he couldn’t tune it out. The ringtone was then followed by the soft thuds of little feet. He was in Riley’s room and he was going to let the five-year-old answer the phone for him. Let Matt contend with Riley’s twenty-one questions for once.
“Hello, yeeeessss.” Ryan laughed at Riley’s end of conversation. He wondered what Matt must have been saying just then. “Uh-huh, Uhmmm, No, you are not.”
Just then Kennedy walked into the room, Riley’s pajamas over her shoulder. “He’s on your phone.”
“I know,” he said, with a forced smile. “I thought I’d let him torture Matt for a little while.”
“What if isn’t Matt?”
Ryan hadn’t thought about that. “Buddy, who’s on the phone?”
“Some woman who says her name is Mrs. Carville. But I’m telling her that the only Mrs. Carville I know is my mom, and she’s right here with me,” he said innocently.
Ryan jumped off the bed in a panic. Why, would his mother be calling him? He slapped his hand on his forehead. “I was supposed to pick them up at the airport.”
“Pick who up?”
“My parents. They’re coming in for the Super Bowl.” He looked around the room for a full minute before he realized he was in Riley’s room. “I need shoes, my keys! Is your mother here?”
“She arrived almost three hours ago.”
“Oh, great!” He swore. Their house wasn’t as big as he would have liked it to be at that moment. They had four rooms and Rebecca had just taken the last one. “My parents wanted to stay here with me, since they’ve never seen the new house.”
“Go brush your teeth, buddy,” Kennedy instructed Riley. Once he was out of the room she closed the distance between them in three furious steps. “You want me to ask my mother to leave?”
“No, but we are going to have to do something about the sleeping arrangement.” Ryan sighed. He certainly wouldn’t mind sharing a room with Kennedy. It would definitely be preferable to a conversation with his parents about why his wife was sleeping in a separate room.
Although he hadn’t even told them he was married. Whoops.
“Kennedy, the thing is—”
“Your parents don’t know you are married?” she cut him off, her voice tight with tension. “Let me guess, they also don’t know you have a five-year-old son who has leukemia or that you have a baby on the way.”
“Yes, I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to overload you with my family when we have so much on our plate.” He hoped she would understand.
“Right,” she said. “It’s not that you’re embarrassed by us or anything.”
“Of course not,” he almost barked. He took a deep breath. It seemed like ever since he married Kennedy he had been using his breathing exercises a lot. The only reason he got so mad and so hurt was because he loved her. “Time out. Let’s not fight. Let’s just talk.”
“Hummph!”
He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. “I need my phone. Riley!”
• • •
“Mama, you need to help me out.”
Kennedy had come up with the big idea of letting Ryan’s parents have her room, while she secretly shared with Riley. She didn’t want Ryan to have to explain that the reason why they’d married was just so that she would have access to his money. She wasn’t a gold digger; she was just a single—well, formerly single—mother who needed help for her son. But they wouldn’t necessarily see it that way.