Chapter 6
"So you were bidding against a fan to win a doll of yourself off eBay?"
Ryan looked a little dejected as he scooped up another bite of lasagna from his plate. "It wasn't a doll. It was a limited edition bobblehead."
Lucy couldn't help but laugh as she grabbed her glass of Vernors off the table, the extra carbonation tickling her nose as she drank. It was another one of those lake things that she loved. Eating outside on the porch with some sort of pop her dad picked up. Sometimes it was Faygo, but lately it's been Vernors, and Lucy had no qualms sharing it with Ryan.
Just like she had no problem sitting out here sharing dinner with him. There was something weird about this whole situation, but she wasn't sure she wanted to fight it. Yesterday morning, she was bugging him to move his truck so she could go to the grocery store. Tonight, she was having dinner with him on his porch, the breeze gently blowing through the trees around them. But it was different now. Maybe it was his brooding or the way he furrowed his brow when he was reading a book. Yeah, she noticed that today while the two of them sat outside working. He didn't seem to catch her glances his way, which was probably for the best considering how often she caught herself taking a quick look at him over the edge of her laptop.
Or maybe it was the fact that it was just the two of them. Ryan and Lucy, eating and drinking and relaxing up north. No hockey, no intense work projects. It was laid back and made her let down her guard a little bit. That wasn't a bad thing, right?
Lucy watched as Ryan scraped the last bits of leftover lasagna off his plate with his huge hockey hands, his eyes closing slightly as he took that last bite, a small moan escaping his lips that made Lucy think naughty thoughts that she quickly pushed away in her mind.
"That was amazing, Evans."
She gave him a sarcastic smile. "It was frozen and came in a box."
"Don't care."
Ryan leaned back and looked out towards the open sky over the lake, which was now turning pink and orange as the sun set behind the trees. He was quiet but not as brooding as he was the day before. Lucy started pushing around the last of the lasagna on her plate. She was in her head and wanted to talk about what this weirdness was between her and Ryan. It just sucked that the only person she could talk to about it right now was the man sitting next to her.
She heard Ryan clear his throat and her head snapped up, her eyes matching his, which seemed to be playfully staring back at her. He gave her a teasing smile and for a moment, she thought he was flirting with her.
"Are you going to finish that?" he asked, nodding down at her dinner plate.
Yep, things were getting weird. What she had sort of perceived as flirting was nothing more than Ryan being a hungry hockey player. She wordlessly pushed her plate towards him, and Ryan responded with the first genuine actual big smile she had seen from him since maybe even before the playoffs started.
When the regular season ended, the Pirates organization seemed to get super serious. Lucy and Sydney had both noticed it the past few seasons. Ryan would walk by them in the hallway of Sydney's building without noticing them. Andy started carrying a "team emergency bag," ready to leave at a moment's notice to help a player out on the rare occasion that Andy actually stayed at Sydney's place during the playoffs. The team would get so focused on playing games and getting through a series that there was this intensity that lingered over them night and day.
Then it was gone. They were eliminated from the playoffs and the intensity turned into brooding. Lucy just didn't expect Ryan to carry it around for so long.
Tonight though, Ryan was happy and actually eating real food instead of moping around, poking at a donut or two.
And he just caught her staring at him. Brilliant. But instead of looking creeped out or returning her stare, he gave her a sheepish grin instead.
"I ate all of your lasagna," he said as he quietly put his fork down on the now empty plate.
"Well, I made it for you." She gave him a warm smile. "There was no way I was going to finish that on my own."
"So you just let me eat the whole thing."
She shrugged. "Like I said, there was no way I was going to finish that by myself."
He smiled and leaned back again, his drink in his hand as it rested on the armrest of his chair. "Thanks, Lucy. I mean it. This is one of the nicest nights I've had in awhile."
Lucy could only nod and avert her eyes, turning to her drink to distract herself. She was pretty sure that was the best compliment Ryan McCloud had ever given her. Even better than the time he told her that her legs looked "banging" in a pair of boots that she had splurged on after winning a huge case.
But this time, it wasn't about her legs looking good. It was about her, and that made it even sweeter. But it didn't change the fact that he was still a friend of hers, in whatever weird way they were friends now.
She leaned back in her chair, following his lead, and looked out over the calm water.
"So are you doing OK?" she asked him.
"Yeah. That lasagna was exactly what I needed."
"No, I mean…"
Her voice trailed off, and she wondered why she thought this was something for them to talk about. She shouldn't have pressed him on this. It may have been a step too far and now she wasn't sure how to get out of it.
