Undeniable Love - Journey of Love Book 2 (14 page)

“Tristan . . . I’m so . . .”

Tristan held up his hand and attempted to smile. “Hey, whatever happens with you and Dodge is your business.”

My eyes filled with tears. “Did you mean it?”

Tristan stared at me with a confused look. “Did I mean what?”

I let the tear fall and I could see what that single tear did to Tristan. He sucked in a breath of air and took one step closer to me. “You just answered my question by not knowing what I was asking.”

“Ryn, what in the fuck are you talking about? You’re talking in circles.”

Smiling weakly, I said, “Thank you for taking care of me. I loved spending time with you again.”

Tristan’s eyes lit up and he moved closer to me. “I enjoyed it too, Ryn.” My cell phone rang but I ignored it.

Taking another step closer to me, Tristan lifted his hand and placed it on the side of my face. Leaning my head into his hand, Tristan smiled. I wanted nothing more than for him to pull me into his arms and kiss the crap out of me.

Leaning in closer, Tristan’s lips hovered just above mine. My cell began ringing again and for some reason thinking it might be the office, I reached into my back pocket and swiped to answer it without looking.

“This is Ryn Webster.”

My eyes moved across Tristan’s face before they landed on his lips
. Kiss me damn it!

Tristan reached up and was about to take the cell phone from my ear.

“Hey babe, are you packing up?”

Dodge.

Taking a step away from Tristan, I spoke into the phone. “Hey. Yeah, I um, I’m getting ready to start packing now.”

In that moment I could see it on Tristan’s face. He knew it was Dodge.

Oh God. Why did I answer the phone? Why didn’t I just let him take my phone and hang up?

“When you get back, dinner’s on me if you get in early enough.”

“That sounds like a plan. Okay, I’ll let you know when I’m leaving and . . .”

Tristan turned and began heading to the front door. Panicking, I began to try and walk after him.

“Dodge, can I call you back in a few minutes?”

Tristan picked up his pace and made it to the front door. Pulling it open, I called out after him. “Tristan? Tristan, please wait!”

I stared at the door as I listened to him start up his truck and pull out of the driveway.

Dropping the cell phone from my hand, I wrapped my arms around myself to control my sobs.

“Why did I answer the phone? Oh God . . . why?”

SHUTTING THE DOOR BEHIND ME,
I walked away quickly. I knew Ryn couldn’t move fast enough to catch me before I got to my truck.

Opening the door, I jumped in, started my truck and backed out of the driveway. I didn’t bother to look back. It was clear to me that Ryn had moved on. Sierra was wrong; Dodge wasn’t Ryn’s fuck buddy. He was more.

I wanted to get back to the house, pack my shit, head back to Austin and put the last two weeks behind me.

Walking into Starbucks, I smiled when I saw her. Standing there talking away to some poor older woman was Sierra. The older lady would nod every now and then to be polite, but I could tell she just wanted Sierra to stop talking to her. Ordering my coffee, I made my way over to the table.

It was as if Sierra could tell I was there before she saw me. Looking over her shoulder, Sierra smiled when she saw me. Turning back to the older lady she said, “Excuse me, my fuck buddy is here. Gotta run.”

The older woman’s mouth dropped open and she said, “Oh my goodness,” as she watched Sierra walk up to me. Kissing me on the cheek, Sierra asked as she wiggled her eyebrows up and down, “So? Did y’all make up and end up having hot sex?”

Feeling my stomach drop, I looked away.

“Well? I’m waiting to hear all the juicy details.”

My expression was emotionless as I turned back to her. “Sorry, darlin.’ There are no juicy details to share.”

Sierra narrowed her eyes at me. “Tristan! You promised you were going to talk to her. You had her living in your house! What in the hell!”

Looking around, I grabbed Sierra and pulled her to the side of the room. “Jesus, Sierra, keep your voice down.”

Placing her hand on her hips, she rolled her eyes. “What happened?”

The barista called out Sierra’s name and then mine. Getting our coffee, we headed outside to sit. Letting out a deep breath, I started talking. “I wanted to show her I could take care of her, without sex and all that other shit. There were a few times I thought there was something brewing between us, but one of us would pull away.”

Blowing on her coffee, Sierra shook her head. “Okay, so y’all didn’t get it on, but how did you leave things? Did you make plans to take her to dinner or anything?”

Looking away, I mumbled, “Not really.”

Leaning closer to me, Sierra said, “Excuse me? I didn’t understand what you said.”

Remembering how I left Ryn was making me feel sick to my stomach.

“Oh. My. Gosh. You didn’t. You acted like a dick again, didn’t you? Pushed her away when things got to heated huh, Tristan?”

Giving Sierra a dirty look, I shook my head. “No. Not really. Well, kind of.”

Taking a drink of her coffee, Sierra gave me a look. “What does that mean? Kind of?”

“I tried a few times to talk to her, but I just couldn’t.”

“Pussy,” Sierra said as she sat back in her chair. The guy next to us turned and gave Sierra a look.

“I tried, I was about to kiss her the last day we were together. I brought her back to your place so she could pack up and her damn cell phone rang. She answered it and when she realized it was Dodge, she took a step away from me and kept talking to him while I fucking stood there like an idiot.”

Sierra made a face and whispered, “Ouch.”

Taking a sip of my coffee, I nodded my head. “Yeah. Ouch.”

Leaning forward, Sierra placed her elbows on the table. “Maybe she was just being polite.”

I shook my head and looked away. “Nope. Heard her talking to him before I brought her back to your place. She said she missed him. My guess was they were making plans to get together when she got back.”

Blowing out a breath of air, Sierra asked, “Why didn’t you offer to follow her home, Tristan? You know. Make sure she made it home okay with her sprained ankle and all.”

Shit. I hadn’t thought of that.

I fell back in the chair. “Sierra, guys don’t think like girls.”

Chuckling, Sierra said, “No shit. Life would be so much better if you did.”

Giving her a smirk, I asked, “How have you been?”

A look of sadness spread across her face as her eyes looked down. “My ex is taking me to court. He’s claiming I used money that belonged to him to buy my house.”

“What? Did you?”

Snapping her head up, she glared at me. “No! Why would you ask me that?”

“Guys don’t think like women.”

“Ugh. I hate him so much, Tristan. He is just trying to make my life miserable. He had the nerve to call and ask me if I’ve been dating. If not, maybe I’d like to . . . to . . .”

“To what? What did he want you to do?”

Shaking her head and smiling like she couldn’t believe what she was saying, she whispered, “He wanted me to come over and puff his peter.”

Pulling my head back in shock, my mouth dropped open. “What?”

Lifting her eyebrows. “Puff his peter, you know.”

Slowly shaking my head, I looked at her. “What?”

Dropping her shoulders and letting out a frustrated moan she said, “Suck his dick, Tristan. He wanted me to come over and suck his dick. Peter puffing. You know, give him a blow job, deep throat his ass.”

Holding up my hands, I started laughing as I looked around. The gentleman next to us got up and walked away. “Jesus, Sierra. Why do you talk so damn loud?” I asked as I continued to laugh.

“I’m glad to see this is giving you a good laugh.”

I was almost doubled over from laughing so hard. “Sorry . . . can’t . . . stop . . . laughing!”

Sierra rolled her eyes as she lifted her coffee and took another drink.

When I finally got my laughter under control, I asked, “What did you say when he asked you this?”

“I told him to go get his lover to do it. Then I hung up on him.”

Nodding my head, I said, “Good. You shouldn’t even be talking to him. Next time he calls, just send him to voice mail.”

“Okay, dad.”

Chuckling, I took in the light chatter of everyone sitting around us. There was something about a coffee shop that just seemed to put me at ease.

Taking a drink of my coffee, I casually looked around at everyone. Looking back over Sierra’s shoulder, I saw Ryn and Dodge walking up. Motherfucker.

Looking down quickly I acted like I hadn’t seen them. “So what are your plans for the holidays?”

“Oh gosh, I don’t even want to think about the holidays.”

“Why?” I asked, genuinely wanting to know.

Drooping her shoulders, she said, “I used to love the holidays. We would always go to my ex’s family’s. It was fun and I loved my mother-in-law. This will be my first Christmas in a long time I won’t see them.”

Tears formed in her eyes and I almost reached across the table to take her hand, but saw Ryn and Dodge walking up to our table.

“Fancy seeing y’all here,” Ryn said. Glancing up at her, I could tell she was pissed. She had no right to be pissed. She was standing next to her boy toy.

Sierra jumped up. “Ohmygosh! Ryn! Tristan told me you sprained your ankle. How are you feeling?”

Ryn gave Sierra a weak smile and then looked at me. “Appears y’all share a lot with each other.”

Sierra looked at Ryn with a surprised expression. “What does that mean?”

Ryn’s eyes showed she immediately regretted what she had said. I couldn’t help but notice Dodge staring at Sierra.

Ryn smiled. “Nothing. Sorry, pain meds are still making me loopy and kind of grumpy.”

Sierra smiled and looked at Dodge. It wasn’t lost on me the way her eyes moved up and down Dodge’s body before she quickly looked back up at his face. Flashing that smile of hers, Sierra stuck out her hand. “I don’t think we’ve really been introduced. I’m Sierra Jackson.”

Dodge took Sierra’s hand. “Dodge Walker.”

Lifting her eyebrow and tilting her head, Sierra said, “You don’t look like a Dodge. Nickname?”

Letting out a laugh, Dodge said, “Yeah. My first name is Aaron.”

Biting on her lip, Sierra looked him up and down as I rolled my eyes and looked away. Catching a glimpse of Ryn, I noticed she was staring at me.

“I like that. Suits you well.”

Turning back to the two fuck buddies, one a real one and the other a terrible fake, I cleared my throat. Sierra was pulled from her temporary trance and turned back to Ryn. “Would you like to catch a movie sometime? If I thought this one would hit up a chick flick with me I’d ask him, but I highly doubt that will happen.”

Ryn’s eyes bounced from me to Sierra. I knew she was trying to gage the relationship and having a hard time doing it.

Standing, I reached for my coffee. Hoping to let Ryn know there was nothing going on between me and Sierra, I looked at Sierra and said, “I need to leave and what you need, Sierra, is to get laid and soon.”

Spinning around, Sierra reached over and slapped the hell out of my arm. “Shut up, Tristan.” Turning back to Ryn and Dodge, Sierra said, “I’ve got to run to. Have to be to work in a few minutes and I’m going to be late. I hope we can get together soon, Ryn.”

Smiling weakly, Ryn nodded and said, “Yeah. Sure.” Then she looked at me. I lifted my hand and said, “Have a good day, Ryn . . . Dodge.”

Dodge gave me a head pop and said, “Um . . . yeah, you too.”

Walking away, I felt the jealousy and anger building. Didn’t take Ryn long to hook back up with Dodge. I was beginning to think there was a hell of a lot more going on than just fuck sessions between the two of them.

Getting in my BMW, I slammed the door shut and dropped my head back against the seat and whispered, “Fuck.”

I jumped when someone knocked on my window. Opening my eyes and lifting my head, I looked to see Ryn standing outside my car. My heart started beating loudly and for one second I was scared to death to roll down the window. My hand felt like it was covered in lead as I reached over and hit the button to roll the window down.