I have no other choice.
I pull out my phone. I’m not sure why I even check. She’s not calling or texting, and she won’t respond when I do. My finger runs over her name on the screen. She insisted I change it from Mae Sheridan to something else. I’m Scooby-Doo in her phone, so I toyed with the idea of making her Shaggy. But while Mae is my best friend, she’s so much more than that.
I look down at her contact name on my phone, changing it to the only thing that makes sense. The only thing she will ever be to me.
The One.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Mae
Gigi walks to the curtains of her den and peers through. She does this every few hours or so, periodically checking to see if she needs to grab her bat, I guess—even though Knox’s security team is still posted out front. I came back to her place after Knox left, thinking the company would do us both some good.
She tilts her head. “Is that? It can’t be!” she says.
My back stiffens. “What now?” I ask, my nerves on edge from the past week’s events.
Gigi shakes her head, saying, “I think that’s Ryder Merrick.”
“Huh, Knox’s brother? What would he be doing here?” I ask, getting to my feet to take a look. Pulling back the curtain slightly, I peek outside. No reporters are lurking around, but a huge tour bus is parked down the street.
The only soul outside is Ryder, standing in the empty lot where his childhood home used to be—right across the street from Gigi’s house. He doesn’t look at it the same way Knox does. The house may be gone, but the ghosts that haunt Ryder are still very much present.
There are some men you can’t help but love. You know it’s a bad idea. You know they’ve got issues and it’s not healthy, but you get sucked in by how damn cute they are.
That is Knox’s brother, Ryder, in a nutshell.
Nothing about the man is runt-like—he’s actually pretty buff. It’s on the inside that’s he’s stunted. He’s so damn cute, though, you just can’t help but love him. Thank God, I don’t love him in a romantic way. He’s so closed off. I pray for the woman who falls in love with Ryder. She’ll have her hands full knocking down all his walls.
Without thinking, I walk to the front door, opening it. My guards immediately come to attention, but I hold my hand up, indicating that everything is okay. The sun feels good on my skin, the fresh air filling my lungs. Barefoot, I head across the street, the hot pavement making me walk faster. It’s a welcome relief when I reach the grass on the other side.
“Knox send you?” I ask.
“Knox doesn’t know I’m here,” Ryder says, turning to me and smiling. “I took a little detour on the way to his premiere.”
“Lots of memories,” I say, and he just nods. “You haven’t been back here since . . .”
He waves his hand, not wanting it all brought back up. “There’s nowhere I wouldn’t go for Knox.” He shakes his head, grinning at me. “Little Mae Sheridan!”
There’s no hesitation in his voice, no pity, no looking at me like I’m anything other than the little girl who used to visit her grandmother across the street, the girl his brother loves.
“Ryder,” I say as he wraps me in a hug. “I have all your albums on my phone.”
Ryder and Knox look a lot alike. They’re both tall, both have those killer blue eyes, but Ryder’s always looked a little more dangerous, rougher somehow than Knox. Maybe it’s because he’s older, so he understood more when their mother was dying. Maybe it’s because he had a very strained relationship with their father. Maybe it’s the other heartbreak he suffered, the one that sent him running from Haven’s Point. I can still see that Ryder has a big heart, no matter how guarded it is.
“Come inside,” I say.
He shakes his head again. “I just came to pick you up.”
I have no idea how he knew I was here, or whether he knew at all. Maybe he simply was visiting the spot of his childhood home, and I interrupted him. It doesn’t matter. He’s here now.
“I guess you haven’t talked to Knox. There was this whole thing with pictures and my friend’s daughter. We broke up. I’m not going.”
He sticks his hands in the back pockets of his jeans, his eyes boring into me, like he’s