Ryan's Love - C.A. Harms Page 0,19

A red, fitted T-shirt hugged her body and left my heart racing.

She was gorgeous.

“What are you doing here?” she whispered.

I chuckled. She looked adorable standing there, fidgeting as she looked up at me. “I came to pick you up. We have a date, remember?”

“You were serious about that?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I wouldn’t have said it if I wasn’t.”

“I honestly thought you were just trying to save me from Booker. I never thought you actually meant it.” Amber looked back over her shoulder before quickly turning her gaze back to me. “I’m not ready for a date.” She looked down at herself. “I’m a mess.”

“No, you’re not. You look perfect.”

She blushed, and I heard a noise from behind her. I slouched just enough to see up the steep stairway and found Bailey perched there, waiting with interest.

She waved and smiled. “Hey there, Cowboy. Did you come to steal my girl?” she asked, and the annoyed look Amber shot her best friend only made me chuckle.

“Yeah, but she’s being stubborn.”

“Don’t you worry, she’ll go. She’d be a fool not to,” Bailey taunted her.

After what appeared to be some sort of battle between them, fought only with facial expressions, Amber agreed to go with me. She did, of course, swap those fuzzy slippers for a pair of sandals, though. Still, somehow she made silly pink house slippers appear sexy.

“So, where are we going?” she asked.

Grinning as I stared through the windshield, I said, “That’s a surprise.”

I took her down to my favorite lake, just outside of town. I had stopped off at my mother’s house before picking Amber up and convinced her to throw together a nice picnic dinner. My mother had a knack for creating something great out of only a few simple ingredients. Yeah, telling her I had a date was interesting, but she was more than pleased about my move forward and offered the words of encouragement I needed.

When I parked and pulled the basket out of the backseat, Amber smiled over at me. Apparently a picnic by the lake was a good choice.

After tucking a blanket under my arm, I held my other hand out for her. The moment she placed her hand in mine, my stomach did some crazy-ass flip. I hadn’t felt a connection like that with anyone since Claire. That thought I just had scared the shit out of me.

Chapter Ten

Amber

I moved here to start over. I wanted to surround myself with things that made me feel accomplished. So many times back in Chicago, I felt as if I was drifting through life, doing what everyone expected me to, never truly satisfying myself in the end.

Ryan was different than the guys I had grown accustomed to dating. Even though Kevin and I had been together for years, he never once did anything remotely sweet or romantic for me. I guess I never thought about a picnic near a lake as something that would appeal to me. But being here with Ryan made all the other dates in my life seem mediocre and redundant.

We sat near the lake for over an hour as I listened to him talk about growing up in Livingston. He clearly loved Montana, and he was a country boy at heart. He’d grown up on a ranch, where he and his two brothers spent all their time fishing, camping, and horseback riding, and he loved all things rugged and outdoors. He made the ranch sound like a dream world, and even though nothing outdoorsy had ever appealed to me before, I wanted to try it all now.

“My daughter, Olivia, can out fish me and her uncles, Jackson and Noah. She’s got the touch.”

His statement surprised me. We had avoided talking about anything too personal until now. “You have a daughter?” I asked.

“Yeah, she’s fifteen.”

“A teenage daughter.” I smiled. I remembered being that age.

“Oh yes, teenage girls are quite a treat.” He rolled his eyes and chuckled. “It’s just her and me. My wife, Claire, passed away a few years ago. It was sudden.”

My heart sank at his words. “I’m so sorry.” What else do you say when someone blindsides you with something like that? Words had escaped me. I couldn’t imagine being in his shoes. Losing the person you thought you’d spend your life with, having to raise a child grieving for her mother. “That really must have been hard on the both of you.”

He looked out over the lake and nodded. “Yeah, but it’s gotten easier. I know that life carries on.”

I