The Boy Who Has No Hope (Soulless #6) - Victoria Quinn Page 0,87
time.”
“About women who don’t matter. But she does matter, so I’m not going to answer that.”
“Daaaaaaamn.” He set down his beer. “You’ve got it bad, man.”
“I do.” I wasn’t ashamed of it. I was happy to finally be in a relationship I truly wanted to be in.
“Then your days of going out are over, huh?”
“They’ve been over for a long time.” I’d tried to force myself to be the man I used to be, but once Emerson was in my heart, I just couldn’t do it. That was my past. Now she was my future.
“Sounds like you’re going to marry this woman.”
I shrugged, thinking about the daughter she had in the background.
“Do I sense hesitation?”
I took a deep drink of my beer before I addressed the biggest problem we had. “She has a daughter.”
Ryan stilled at the announcement. “Shit, really?” He shook his head, as if he were grossed out by the idea. “Man, that’s…rough. I don’t think I could be with a woman who had a kid with another guy. That’s just…too much for me.”
“The guy isn’t in the picture.”
“But still. Is that something you really want to get caught up in? You don’t know anything about kids.”
“She’s not really a kid—she’s twelve.”
“Damn. That would mean…” He rubbed the back of his neck as he did the math. “Shit, she had her young, like high school young.”
“Yeah.” I didn’t judge her for it. Shit happened. I admired her for not taking the easy way out and for raising that baby entirely on her own, while still getting an education and becoming a professional adult and role model to her daughter. That took guts—and she had a lot of them.
Ryan cringed. “Dude, that’s heavy.”
“I know.”
“What’s the kid like?”
“Haven’t met her. We’re taking it slow right now.”
“But do you want to meet the kid?”
“I said I would try…eventually.”
Ryan leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table. “I know you’re happy and everything, but you really want to get wrapped up in that? I guess she’ll be out of the house in a couple years, but you’re going to be with a woman who always has a kid… You’ll be a stepfather.”
“I haven’t gotten that far, Ryan. We’ve only been together for three weeks.”
“But maybe…you should get out while you can.”
I couldn’t do that. “She’s the woman I want to be with. The only one.”
His eyes softened. “That’s deep.”
“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. But for now, it’s just the two of us.”
Ryan was quiet for a long time. “You can think about it this way—the girl will be out of the house in a few years. And since this woman already has a daughter, she’s probably not going to want another one, so you don’t have to worry about having kids with her. So, maybe that’s a blessing in disguise?”
I shrugged. “Like I said, I haven’t thought that far ahead. For now, I’m happy, and I’ll worry about that stuff later.”
He nodded. “Fair enough.”
“So, what’s your news? Let’s stop talking about me.”
“It’s good news and bad news. But I have to deliver the good news first.” He put his beer aside. “So, I’m going to ask Camille to marry me.”
I smiled, knowing they were perfect for each other. “That’s awesome, man. I’m happy for you.”
“She’s been the one for a long time. Finally got my career locked down, got some money in the bank, saved up for this goddamn rock…” He fished into his pocket and pulled out his phone so he could show me a picture of it.
“Beautiful. She’ll love it, man.”
“Oh yeah, she’ll shit a brick.” He chuckled and set the phone down. “So, I want you to be my best man.”
“I better be, asshole.”
He chuckled. “I guess I shouldn’t have even asked.”
“You definitely didn’t need to.”
His smile slowly faded away, and he took a deep breath before he grabbed his beer again and took a drink. “So, now the bad news…”
“Who says they’re getting married and then delivers bad news?” I asked incredulously.
“Well, they’re related. So, my plan is to ask her to marry me, and then we transition right into the surprise engagement party.”
“Okay…” I still wasn’t following.
“You know I still talk to Kevin…and I want him to be one of my groomsmen.”
Kevin popped into my mind randomly here and there, but for the most part, he wasn’t on my radar at all. It was hard to believe we’d ever been so close that he had been my best man, when he was fucking