Her idea of cooking was wheat germ wraps with hummus and sunflower seeds.
A thought popped into Ryan's head and the words were out before he could stop himself.
"Didn't your husband ever want a home-cooked meal?"
Shit. I need to learn to keep my big mouth shut.
Ryan had never met Mariah's ex-husband, but that didn't stop him from wondering about the guy. He didn't even know what he looked like. Liza had offered several times to show him pictures on her phone of the "happy couple" but he'd refused every damn time.
Instead of looking pissed off about his question, Mariah instead appeared confused.
"He was a Michelin star chef, Ryan, so...no. He never expected me to cook at all."
A fucking chef? Leave it Mariah, a food lover, to marry a chef.
"I didn't realize. I guess Liza never told me."
She may have tried but he had ignored her.
Mariah's expression was still quizzical.
"We're divorced now so it doesn't really matter. So how about this apology you promised me? I'm waiting anxiously, although I've been checking the sky carefully."
He followed her gaze out of the restaurant front window to the blue sky overhead. "Why are you checking the weather?"
"I'm not checking the weather. I'm checking for pigs flying."
"Are you referring to my apology?"
She was being more than a bit dramatic about it. He was going to apologize. She deserved one.
"The one I haven't received yet? Yes."
Smart ass.
"I was just waiting until I'd had my coffee but since you're so anxious I can do it now. I'm sorry. I apologize about the way I acted last night. I was a jerk."
She studied him for a long moment and then nodded. "I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have reacted the way I did. This whole thing with Brad has me off-kilter. And thank you for apologizing."
"You keep saying that I never have before."
"And you think that's wrong."
He frowned, his mind all the way back to when they were dating. "I'm sure that I have. I can't remember a particular instance, but I can't imagine that we went out for years and I never apologized for something in that time."
The waitress slipped his plate in front of him and then set down Mariah's muffin.
"I don't want to start another argument with you, Ryan. The past is the past. Digging it up and examining it won't change anything. But I am sorry for saying that you didn't change. Clearly, you have changed."
"For the better?"
Now, why did I ask that? Do I really want to know?
Laughing, she cut into her muffin. "Does your ego need a boost? Yes, for the better. So far, anyway. You could be a total dick, though, and I just haven't seen it yet."
"I'm not a dick. And I do want to be friends."
He'd thought about it all last night because he had insomnia and didn't sleep much. Mariah. The past. Their argument. And the future too. She was right that them being friends would be easier on Liza, and he wanted to make his sister's life easier if he could. She was the one person in his family that he was still close to.
Her gaze softened and she smiled, a real one. Perhaps the first real smile he'd seen from her since she'd opened her front door last night. He wasn't sure that he liked the way it made his heart lurch and his stomach twist in his gut. He shouldn't be reacting this way at all.
"I'd like that, too."
Clearing this throat, he dug into his breakfast, wanting to ignore the rush of emotion he'd felt. It was out of place. Inconvenient. Unwanted.
"Are you going to the memorial service later?" she asked. "We could split an Uber."
"That's a good idea," he heard himself saying. "We have to be there by three."
"I'll be ready. I won't make you wait."
He opened his mouth to remind her of all the times she had made him wait but then decided it was a bad idea. They were spending way too much time in the history of their relationship.
She believed that he'd changed. He could do the same.
He told himself that he wouldn't think about the past anymore but he knew it was a big lie. This case was dragging him back there whether he liked it or not.
10
They were going to give it a second try at being friends. Mariah wasn't sure what changed Ryan's tune this morning but she was happy about it. She hadn't liked that they could barely be around one another. It was hard on Liza and