Hot Finish (Fast Track #3)(30)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Which didn’t explain why he kept flattening the top of his hair and wishing he’d given his pits one more swipe with the deodorant. He was sweating.

It just now hit him that Suzanne might not even be at the Monroe’s. He had assumed she would be, which was mostly why he’d said yes to the invitation. His own parents were in Hawaii for the holiday, and he was an only child, so it was either go to his cousin’s house, go to the Monroe’s, or fly solo. Seeing his godson Pete and Suzanne were what had tipped the scales to come here.

If Suzanne weren’t there, he’d have to be content with the company of good friends and Tammy’s kids, which was a hell of a lot to be thankful for, he had to say.

Pete opened the door. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Happy Thanksgiving, jerk,” Ryder told him with a grin and a hand out to ruffle his godson’s hair. Pete had shot up over the summer and Ryder felt himself on the verge of giving one of those stupid comments about growing that he’d always hated from adults when he was a kid, when he restrained himself.

He didn’t get to see Pete as much now that Tammy and Elec were married. In some ways, Elec had replaced Ryder in Pete’s life as a surrogate father. After Tammy’s husband and Ryder’s buddy Pete had died, Ryder had stepped into Pete Junior’s life as the token guy. He’d enjoyed that, and felt a pang as he followed Pete into the house that he was no longer needed in quite the same way.

It made him wish all over again for a child of his own.

“I’m getting a tarantula for Christmas,” Pete told him as he skidded down the front hallway in his socks, his khaki pants and button-up shirt already looking more than a little wrinkled.

“Oh, really? And your mom agreed to that?” That seemed a little too eight-legged and hairy for Tammy’s taste.

“Elec said he’ll talk her into it.”

Ryder felt a smirk coming on and he cleared his throat. “I guess we’ll see how persuasive your step-dad is, huh?”

They rounded the corner into the family room, which was bursting with people and the smell of cinnamon. He scanned the room, smiling and greeting everyone, wondering where in the hell Suzanne was, when she came in through the other doorway via the kitchen, a platter of cheese and crackers in her hands. She was wearing a black skirt with some kind of white pattern on it, a short-sleeve red turtleneck sweater, and boots that came to her knees and made him want to throw them up over his head.

Damn, she was gorgeous. He just couldn’t say it enough.

Ryder knew he was staring at her, but he wanted her to look at him, to acknowledge his presence, to meet his gaze and have the secret running between them that he had spent half of the other night inside her.

He was well aware she had said more than once that one night was just one night and that there wouldn’t be any more, and he respected that. He did. But that didn’t mean he wanted her to pretend nothing had happened between them.

Tammy’s parents, in visiting from Seattle, Elec’s parents, his brother Evan, and his sister Eve, had all greeted Ryder. Tammy’s daughter Hunter, a few years younger than Pete, was already climbing onto the tops of his feet with her patent leather shoes, her hot little hands gripped in his.

But Suzanne was ignoring him.

So he tamped down his disappointment and focused on the little girl in front of him, who was wearing a dress, shocking the hell out of Ryder. Hunter was the quintessential tomboy, with a burning love of stock car racing. “You’re mighty fancy today, squirt. You look beautiful.”

But Hunter made a face at his compliment. “Mom made me wear it.” She turned a little to the side. “But she let me add this.” There was an Elec Monroe button on the puffy sleeve of her velvet dress.

“Cool. That really makes the outfit.” It had probably made Tammy wince, too, but Ryder had to admire a compromise.

Hunter gave one final tug on his hands then darted off, flapping her arms in some interpretive dance move Ryder didn’t understand. Amused by her, he took a seat in an armchair next to Eve, who in addition to being their sibling, was Elec and Evan’s PR rep. “Hey Eve, what’s up?”

“Not much, how are you doing? Congrats on finishing second.”

“Don’t remind me,” he told her with a smile. “Thanks, but second is like being one number off from the winning lottery number.”

“Guess you’ll have to be number one next season.” Eve did a hair-flip thing, her head tilted, smile coy.

She was flirting with him. It had happened before and Ryder had flirted back, considering it harmless. He seriously doubted Eve actually wanted to date him, any more than he wanted to date her. She was attractive, a real shark in PR, and high energy, but he would have never considered getting involved with someone so closely tied to his team members, even if he hadn’t just crossed the border into Suzanne Land.

But part of him wanted to flirt right now, to poke Suzanne. It was childish, petty, stupid, and potentially dangerous, but he couldn’t help it. Suzanne hadn’t even bothered to say hello to him and how childish was that?

“I guess I will,” he said. “But shouldn’t you be rooting for your brothers instead?”

She shrugged and waved her hand. “They’ll be fine. As long as they finish above fifteen, we’re not at risk for losing sponsorship. And Evan can’t do much worse than last year; he needs a miracle more than my cheer-leading.”

Evan was close enough to hear their conversation and he rolled his eyes as he leaned forward to grab some cheese off the platter Suzanne had set on the coffee table. “Heartwarming as always, Eve. And don’t forget who funds your paycheck.”

“Elec, that’s who. The rookie made more than you did, little brother.” Eve smirked.

So much for flirtation. She had totally forgotten about Ryder. Instead Evan was insulting Eve’s intelligence and they were facing off for a sibling smack down.

“I swear I didn’t raise them to be this competitive,” their mother said, shaking her head from the couch. She turned to Suzanne. “Do you fight with your brothers and sisters like this? It’s embarrassing.”

“I don’t have any brothers and sisters.” For the first time since he’d entered the room Suzanne looked directly at Ryder. “Neither does Ryder.”

That had been something they had both understood about each other, what it was like to grow up solo. But even that had been disparate. Suzanne had grown up dirt poor with her grandparents after her mother ran off when Suzanne was a toddler. Ryder had grown up middle class with parents who were pretty sure he could do no wrong. Occasionally, it might have been nice to have someone offering him a little discipline and guidance, but it hadn’t harmed him beyond repair.