Hot Finish (Fast Track #3)(57)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Suzanne ignored the squeeze her heart gave. “It’s a bachelor party, of course he’s drinking.” Probably hitting on women, too, finding his next weekend date to the Wynn.

“Elec says he’s not handling your break-up well.”

“With all due respect to Elec, how the hell does he know?” Suzanne winced as the cold winter wind hit her in the face when Imogen pushed the door open. “And I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay, fine. Just ignore the problem indefinitely.”

“I love you, Tammy, but don’t piss me off.”

“You called me out when you didn’t agree with my choices when I was dating Geoffrey. And when I broke things off with Elec. So I have the right to call you out when I think you’re making a mistake. And not talking to Ryder is a mistake.”

They stared each other down in the parking lot, Tammy’s eyes full of sympathy. Suzanne felt the tears starting to form. Damn hormones. “Maybe it’s a mistake. But the thing is, I cannot deal with it right now. I can’t handle the drama or the hurt or any of it. I’m just putting one foot in front of the other and trying to ignore that my heart is broken, okay? So just give me a little while to get a handle on things and accept that Ryder doesn’t love me. Then I’ll talk to him.”

“Sweetheart, that man does so love you. It’s there in the way he looks at you, like he thinks you’re the most amazing woman who has ever walked the earth.” Tammy squeezed her hand. “I would bet on my children’s health that he loves you.”

Yep, here were the tears. “Do not bet Pete and Hunter’s health on that, honey. If Ryder loved me he would want to be married to me, not offer out of obligation.”

Three hours later Suzanne was woken up from a restless sleep by her phone ringing. Before she could scramble around and find it, the ringing stopped. Squinting her left eye, Suzanne picked up the phone and glared at the screen. It was two in the morning and it had been Ryder who had called. The chime rang, indicating he’d left a voice mail.

Sitting up, Suzanne pressed the buttons to listen to the voice mail. At first she couldn’t understand anything Ryder was saying, given that he was mumbling and his words were slurred. It seemed Elec had been telling the truth about Ryder’s hitting the bottle a little too hard.

Rubbing her eyes, she sighed. “Oh, Ryder, we’re a disaster, aren’t we?”

And then he said it. Warbled and drunk, but heartfelt and unmistakable. “I love you, Suz. I want to be married to you. That’s all I want—for you to be my wife. All I’ve ever wanted.”

With trembling fingers, Suzanne saved the message and held the phone in her hand for a second, heart thumping. Then she dialed Ryder back, wanting to hear him say it straight to her, drunk or not. The phone rang and rang but he didn’t pick up.

Of course not. With a sigh, Suzanne threw her phone on the pillow next to her and closed her eyes.

If there was one good thing to say about the soul-sucking exhaustion of a first trimester of pregnancy, it was that it would pull her into sleep even when her mind was whirling and her heart was aching.

RYDER woke up with a start, a sudden weight on his back and a chattering voice slicing through his pounding head.

Oh. My. God. He wanted to die. His eyes were paste, his mouth was thick, and every muscle in his body ached like he’d been racked. As some living creature bounced on his back, his stomach gave an anxious flip, bile rising in his throat.

“Uncle Ryder, what are you doing here?” Hunter asked.

The sad thing was, he had no freaking idea what he was doing there. The last thing he remembered was dancing in a way he should never be allowed to do. Then . . . nothing.

Apparently his friends had deemed him too drunk to leave alone.

“Morning, Hunter,” he managed, his voice hoarse.

“Baby girl, you need to get off of Ryder, he has a headache,” Elec said, coming into the room, two mugs of coffee in his hands.

“How do you know he has a headache?” Hunter asked, but she did obey her stepfather and climbed off him, much to Ryder’s relief.

“Just look at his face, you can tell.”

Hunter’s head popped up in front of him, making Ryder dizzy and causing a sharp pain behind his eyes.

“You’re right, Elec, he looks like cat crap,” Hunter declared.

Great. “Thanks, kid.”

“Watch your language, young lady,” Elec said. “Now go on in and eat your breakfast. Your mama’s made eggs and pancakes.”

The thought of runny eggs made Ryder’s stomach flip. “Oh, God, I’m going to hurl,” he muttered, rolling onto his back and putting his hand on his head.

“Please don’t. You’ll turn me off my breakfast.” Elec stuck a mug in his face. “Drink some coffee, you’ll feel better.”

Ryder forced himself to sit up and take the coffee. After a sip he did feel better and he started to worry. “Did I do anything stupid last night?”

“Besides drinking your weight in rum and dancing with a parade of hot women? No.”

Shit. Ryder groaned. “Damn, that was so stupid to drink that much. Where’s my wallet and my phone?”

He felt in his pocket, pulled out his wallet, and checked to make sure his credit card was still in there. Alcohol made it quite possible he could have opened a tab and left it at the bar without closing it. Everything was there, and his phone was lying on the floor next to the couch. He sighed in relief. There was nothing worse than losing your cell phone. Okay, there were a lot of things that were way worse, like the current state of his life, but it still was damn annoying.

A thought occurred to him. Worse than losing his phone would have been using it to drunk dial or text. He hit the screen to light it up and groaned when he saw he’d missed a call from Suzanne at two in the morning. Of all the nights for her to call him. He’d been drunk as a skunk and hadn’t even heard the phone ring. She hadn’t left a voice mail.

Then Ryder thought about it. Would Suzanne really have called him that late? He’d sent her texts since their argument trying to talk to her and she had given him nothing more than clipped responses. Last night had been Nikki’s bachelorette party and Suzanne couldn’t drink, so odds were if she had called that late, it was because she had needed to vent or because he had called her first. Or sent a stupid text.

Ryder checked his dialed calls and sure enough, he’d called Suzanne two minutes before she’d called him. Great. “Hey, Elec, were you with me when I called Suzanne? Do you, uh, happen to know what I might have said to her?”