From Lies to Promises (8 page)

  “Didn’t expect that, considering I haven’t been down here in a while. I guess I still got it!” Ryder exclaims walking over to me and winks.
“Your turn.” He points out.

  I
stand and grab for the ball I picked out. “Don’t expect anything like what you just did.”

  I do as Ryder done
, and place my fingers into the holes, but I use my thumb. Then I take the few steps to the line and roll the ball down the lane. I don’t back away until I see where the ball is headed. The gutter.
Gah
, I suck. I go back to sit down when Ryder ask me what I am doing.

  “Um, sitting down. Wha
t does it look like? I threw and missed.” I sigh out.

  “Your turn isn’t over. I only got one turn because I knocked them all down the first time
. It’s a called a strike and unless you pull off that kind of awesomeness each frame, you will go twice.” He laughs. Ryder comes to stand in front of me and helps me up. Then walks over, picks up my ball as soon as it comes back, and hands it to me. “You see those arrows out there in the lane. Aim for the middle one, keep your shoulders straight and you shouldn’t gutter this time.”

  I do as he says and watch the ball. It stays on the lane and knocks four of the pins down. I jump up while throwing my fist into the air. “Yes! I did it! I hit the pins!” When I turn around Ryder is looking at me with a big grin on his face. I don’t know what I am doing until I walk over to him and wrap my arms around his neck.
What the hell.
I let my arms fall to my sides and back away. “Thanks.”

  Ryder still has that smile on, but his eyes are smoldering.
Before I can think about what is going on in that mind of his he takes his turn. We are having such good time we end up finishing this game and playing another. I can tell by watching Ryder, he loves bowling, this bowling alley, and everyone here. He has had several people stop by and talk to him and ask how he has been, and he does the same. I learn throughout the conversations that Bethany doesn’t have any children, and her husband must have died some time ago. When the second game is over, Ryder ends up with a score of 230 and I have a measly 98. While I change back into my shoes and put the marble white ball back where I found it, Ryder takes his bag to the back.

  I wait towards the door for him.
He and Bethany come from the back room minutes later. They look like they are having a very serious conversation, and Ryder doesn’t seem to be happy with her. But he leans forward and gives her a big hug as she holds on to him saying something into his ear. Ryder pulls away looks at her, nods and walks over to where I stand waiting. I am taken back to see that his eyes aren’t their usual green, but a deep dark brown. He doesn’t say anything just grabs my hand and walks us out the door to his car. Again, he opens the door for me.

  “Thank you
, kind sir.” I say with a smirk and curtsey.

  “You’re welcome, my lady.” He bows with a half-smile.

  When he gets behind the wheel he turns to me and asks, “You hungry?” When I nod he cranks the car and drives off. Half an hour later we are walking into a small diner. It’s like taking a trip back to the 50’s. Black and white checkered floors, aluminum counter tops, and red leather booths. The walls are lined with vintage posters and record covers. Taking a seat I see there is even a jukebox that still plays off of vinyl, Twist and Shout is coming through the speakers. Ryder grabs the menu from the napkin holder and hands me one.

  “
You are going to want to save room for dessert. They have the best peach cobbler, and homemade ice cream
ever
.” He drawls out the same time the waitress comes to take our drink order. “I want a sweet tea, and the burger combo with fries.”

  “I’ll take the same thing. I want onion rings not
fries though, please.” I say to the waitress as she writes down our order and walks away.

  “There is no way you are going to have room for that cobbler if you eat all of that.” He balks.

  “I can damn sure try!” I assure him.

  “That you can.” He situated his elbows onto the table and put
s his hands together. “Are you originally from around here?”

  I was wondering how long it would take him to start asking questions. You know the ones. First dates are always accompanied by them, the get to know you questions. I hate when that part of the date comes, because my answers become vague and the guy can never understand why I would rather just not talk about it. Girls like to talk, especially about themselves, so if I don’t they don’t know how to go about the rest of the date.

  “Nope. From Georgia actually.” I inform and wait for the ‘Where at in Georgia’. I won’t say because then he could know someone there. That happened to me once and I learned my lesson.

  “A Georgia Peach. I knew it. Ok, I bet you were a middle child too. You kind of stay to yourself with the exception of Lexi and Skeigh.” Ryder places his finger on his chin and looks up at the ceiling, “You got used to not getting attention.”

  He doesn’t realize how wrong he is. “I don’t have any family. It’s just me.” When he brings his sight back to me I give him my most convincing smile. But, my eyes are begging him to just drop it. To not ask anymore, I just can’t answer him. We just sit there staring at each other for the longest time. Ryder has this fleeting look in his eyes that tells me that he understood what my eyes were telling his. That he sees the pain that has long been buried.

  “It’s not just you, or at least not anymore. You have those three girls waiting for you back at your house. You also have me. If you want me.” He states it so nonchalant
, like he goes around offering to be there for random people all the time.

  “I didn’t mean that I was alone. I just don’t have any relatives. Besides the girls, Lexi, Skeigh, and Jamie.” I sit
there and twiddle my thumbs until our food is placed in front of us.

  “Enjoy.”
The waitress mumbles and walks away.

  “Are you not going to take me up on my offer?” Ryder ask
s as he takes his silverware out of his napkin.

  I observe him before I speak, he is serious. “Ryder, why would
you offer to be in my life? We just met. You don’t even know anything about me.”

  “That’s what I am doing now, is getting to know you. Should I not want to be a part of your life? Are you a serial killer or something?” He jokes.
“Ah, she does smile.”

  I do
n’t even know that I am smiling until he says something, which only causes me to smile bigger. “What are you talking about, I smile all the time.”

  “Yea, but that one was real.” He doesn’t say anything more, just starts digging into his food. I don’t press him on what he means because I know. The question is, how does he?

  I nearly finish off my hamburger and fries while listening to the oldies coming from the jukebox. I sit back against the booth and Ryder says amazed, “I have never seen a woman eat that much.” He shakes his head and continues, “Don’t take that the wrong way. It’s just most girls are more concerned about their weight to eat like that. I think it’s sexy as hell that you eat what you want. But I need to ask, where does it go? Do you have a hollow leg or somethin’?”

  “No hollow leg here. But
food and I have an understanding, it’s yummy and I eat it. The end.” I laugh. Ryder throws his head back on the seat and belts out a laugh of his own. The sound of it hits me directly in the chest. It’s hypnotizing and I realize I want to be someone that can make him laugh like that all the time. He calms down to just a chuckle as he waves for the waitress. When she appears at the side of the booth he orders a peach cobbler with the homemade ice cream he swears by. He only orders one saying that he can’t eat a whole one now either, so we can just share. When she heads to give the order to the cook, my mouth is moving before my brain can react.

 
“How’d you lose your mom?” Ryder’s eyes jerk to mine, “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have asked. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “You didn’t, wasn’t expecting it was all. I’m just so used to everyone around me already knowing.” He runs his hand through his dark hair and continues, “
It was a car accident. She and dad were coming back from the movies, and it was late. When dad came around a curve there was a deer and he couldn’t avoid it.”

  “He hit the deer?” I ask confused.

  “Yea, that’s not what killed her though. She had a weak blood vessel in her head, the impact caused an aneurysm. She died before the ambulance got to them.”

  “
Wow.” I am shocked.

  “They did
the autopsy per my father’s request because he couldn’t understand why she died. The doctor said that it would have ruptured soon, but the impact forced it sooner. Dad accepted it wasn’t his fault after that. He loved her so much though he hasn’t handled her loss well.” He sighs, “to be honest he became a drunk.”

  “I’
m sorry.” I reach across the table and place my hand on top of his. “It must be horrible to have your mother taken from your life, and it must feel like your father was taken too.”

  “Actually, not really he is still great dad. Raised us
and kept us both out of trouble. That itself was a hard task.” Ryder turns his hand over and holds mine tightly. Silence enfolds us. It bonds us together, me comforting him, somehow comforts me. Puts me at ease.

  I don’t know how long that cobbler sat there before we finally took our eyes off each other to find it sitting on the table. Without saying a word we both pick up our spoon
s and take our first bite. Devastatingly amazing is the only thing that can describe such a thing. When Ryder goes in for another bite, I watch him close his lips around the spoon and pull it out slowly. Licking it clean. A low moan escapes his throat, and if I had a lustometer I am sure it would have exploded past the limit any woman could contain. This is torture in its sweetest form, foreplay.

  Ryder’s tongue peaks out and runs along his upper lip. When he brings his tongue back into his mouth, his lips start moving.
Shit.
He is talking and again I didn’t hear what it was he said. I shake my head to regain some sense, and hear a deep snicker coming from across the table. When I raise my head Ryder’s hand that was trying to hold back the laugh falls and he goes into hysterics. By the time he has calmed enough to talk his eyes are watery.

  With the scowl now on my face deepening I ask, “What the hell do you find so funny?”

  “Oh, maybe the fact that I so just caught you checking me out.” Ryder’s laugh is gone but his beautiful grin refuses to leave. “At first I thought you had just zoned out again, but the way your eyes were focused on my lips and then you started biting on yours, it became obvious.”

  Too be honest, I don’t re
member the last time someone made me blush. I don’t normally get embarrassed. Being caught by Ryder while I am pretty much fantasizing about taking him right here on this table, well that was enough to cause my face to heat all the way down to my neck. I turn towards the window so that he can’t notice.

  “
Don’t turn away.” He reaches over the table and pulls me to face him with my chin. “You do know it’s ok to be embarrassed every now and then, right? It’s healthy. We are humans.”

 
Still blushing, I smile. He is right, it’s normal. “Did you have something else planned for us, or is this the end of our date?”

  “Oh, no my dear Kat, this is definitely not the end of our night.” He takes his wallet out of his back pocket, lays down a few twenties. “Are you ready for the highlight of the night?”

              I don’t know what I was thinking he had planned for us, but I don’t believe I could have thought of this. We end up at the city park. They have a huge blow up screen set up on one side. Movies In The Park. Ryder tells me this is something that the city does every fall. They have vendors set up all around the park that carry anything from popcorn and cotton candy, to coffee and hot chocolate. Before we head into the park Ryder reaches in the backseat and retrieves an old quilt. We walk through the crowd of people till he finds a spot that he thinks is suitable and lays the blanket out, then we lay down on it.

  “I cannot believe I didn’t know they did this.
What type of movies do they show?” I question.

  “It’s a theme
and they change it every year. Like last year it was feel good movies like,
Forrest Gump
and
It’s a Wonderful Life
. Apparently this year they are paying tribute to Tim Burton.” He reaches in his shirt pocket and hands me a flyer with all the movies playing this month and the dates they will be played on.

  “You’re shitting me right. Who told you?” I twist my body to face him as I ask.

  He scrunches his face before he says anything, “Who told me what?”

  “Ryder, there is no
way in hell you coincidentally brought me here on the night they show
The Corpse Bride
.” Sadly I love it because I see myself as the corpse bride, dead and lonely just wanting to be loved and normal.