Wild Embrace (Wilder Irish #11) - Mari Carr Page 0,62

grandfather had been very impressed by that tidbit.

Ryder smiled. “Perk of the job. Would love it if you joined us there for the next home game.”

Pop Pop’s eyes widened, and Darcy’s heart skipped six full beats, knowing exactly how much that invitation would mean to her grandfather.

“I would like that very much indeed, son. Thank you so much. Well, how about that? Box seats. I need to go tell Paddy I won’t be at the pub for the next game.”

Pop Pop left quickly, and Darcy knew it wasn’t just Padraig her grandfather was going to tell. She was pretty sure it wouldn’t take him five minutes to tell the whole family he was going to be in box seats at a Ravens game.

“That was really nice of you,” Darcy said.

“So,” Bubbles said, eyeing the bag in Ryder’s hand. “Did you bring Darcy a present?”

Ryder shook his head and held it out to Bubbles. “No. It’s for you. I wasn’t sure,” he glanced back at Darcy, “if this was one of those occasions that called for a gift.”

Bubbles’s eyes lit up as he handed her the festive gift bag. “Damn, chica. This one is a keeper.” Even though there was an entire table of presents out in the dining room, Bubbles tossed the tissue paper out and reached into the bag, laughing loudly as she pulled out what looked like a coloring book and a pack of colored pencils.

Mom peered over Bubbles’s shoulder as she began flipping through the pages and started laughing as well. “I dibs the one that says, ‘We never talk anymore. I like that.’”

“Let me see.” Darcy grabbed the coloring book—and cracked up. Every coloring page contained an insult. “Oh my God. It’s perfect!”

Ryder shrugged. “Yvonne said you’d be laid up for a couple of days after your surgery. Thought that might help you pass the time.”

Darcy was speechless as Bubbles and then her mom hugged Ryder, proclaiming it a wonderful gift, before they walked out of the kitchen to rejoin the party.

Ryder glanced her direction and frowned. “What? What’s wrong?”

“I…”

Darcy stopped short, overthinking the fuck out of everything. It had been on the tip of her tongue to tell him she loved him, but…what if the timing was wrong? What if it was too soon? What if it pushed him away? She didn’t want to screw up one second of this day because everything was so damn perfect.

“I’m glad you came,” she said instead, too loudly, too stupidly.

He laughed. “I thought it sounded like fun, but now I’m not so fucking sure. What the hell did she mean by paper gown? And you knew your godmother was a hooker in Vegas?”

“She wanted to be a stripper,” Darcy said, as if that made a single bit of difference.

“Ooookay.”

“But she can’t dance. Now the joke is maybe she was just too top-heavy all along and after the reduction, she’ll become a Rockette.”

“Darcy,” he said.

“Yeah?”

“Your family is insane.”

“Tell me about it,” she joked. “You know…for someone who says they don’t like crowds and noise, you seem to keep putting yourself in the thick of it with my family.”

“Not sure why they seem to be the exception. There wasn’t a lot of laughter in my house when I was growing up, so I guess I told myself I preferred things that way. I was obviously wrong.” He paused for a moment, his face suddenly serious. “Your Pop Pop called me ‘son’.”

Darcy didn’t know how to reply to that. Didn’t even know how to think about that. Ryder had mentioned that his family wasn’t close, but he hadn’t gone into great detail or told her why. “Is that okay?” she asked.

Ryder nodded, and Darcy tried to read his expression. It looked like he was…touched. And his smile returned tenfold. “Yeah. Yeah, it is.”

“I think you might have just made his year with that invitation to the football game.”

Ryder’s grin faltered a bit. “I’m sorry I never issued it before. I knew he was a big Ravens fan. Not sure why I didn’t think of it.”

She gave him a kiss on the cheek. “It was very sweet of you.”

Ryder reached for her before she could pull away and gave her a much longer and less sweet kiss. There were times—like now—when Ryder kissed her with so much passion, she struggled to breathe.

“Damn. Get a room.”

Ryder and Darcy parted as Oliver peeked his head in.

“Sunnie told me to come get you two. We’re about to start playing Pin the B-Cup on Bubbles.”

“We’re on