The two women were already inside waiting at the hostess stand with a woman who looked a bit cross with them.
"The reservation is for Ryan McCloud, and I can't let you in here without him."
"I told you, he's right here."
Sydney pointed to Ryan, who was just walking up, and the woman's eyes took him in. She looked a bit star-struck, and then plastered a huge smile on her face.
"Mr. McCloud, it's so nice for you to join us tonight."
He smiled back just as Lucy was rolling her eyes at the whole production from the hostess. That was one thing he definitely liked about Lucy. She never let him take himself seriously. There were women all over town who knew Ryan, or at least thought they knew Ryan. But LucyknewRyan, even more so after this summer, and it didn't bother him. Their relationship was weird and awkward now, but he could still count on her, no matter what, to keep him grounded.
The hostess sat them at a table near the large doors at the front of the restaurant that were open to let the air come in from the street outside. It also meant people walking by would see him sitting there, which would give the Apparatus Room some extra attention. Not like they needed it considering Sydney made him call and get the reservation in his name so they could actually get a table.
Because Sydney and Andy were together, they sat on one side of their table, leaving Ryan to sit next to Lucy. Because tonight wasn't weird enough already.
"Do you want to order a bottle of wine?" Sydney asked as she stared down at the drink menu.
Ryan was going to order some sort of mixed drink — maybe a gin and tonic or a Jack and Coke. Something manly. Instead, what came out of his mouth was "Yeah, wine sounds good."
"Really?" Lucy asked. "You were drinking beer this summer."
"I was sitting on my porch in shorts and flip flops," he teased back.
Sydney looked up from her menu. "Were you at least wearing a shirt?"
Well, he wasn't wearing a shirt when he answered the door because Lucy needed him to move his truck. And he definitely wasn't wearing a shirt when she caught him skinny dipping in the lake or after he finished his coffee and moved on to more enjoyable activities.
"I was wearing a shirt," he muttered without looking up from his menu.
"Just checking," Sydney said. "You OK with red wine?"
"Yeah, but make sure it's like a manly red wine," he replied. "Not that pink stuff."
"You mean rosé?"
Crap, that made him sound stupid. So much for trying to impress Lucy tonight with his maturity and intelligence.
"Yeah, that."
Lucy crossed her legs, the edge of her high heel brushing up against his pant leg. "I'm with Ryan."
"Alright, no rosé."
Sydney started talking to the waiter about which wine to order while Ryan kept his head down. He thought he messed something up there, but Lucy went along with it and threw her support behind him. Sure, it was casual support, just like all the other casual interactions she had with him tonight, but it was something.
That's how the night went for awhile. The wine showed up and Lucy made a toast to the newly engaged couple. The appetizers showed up and she started to casually talk about their summers. It was probably more for Ryan's benefit than anything else since he was the only one of them who had actually been out of Detroit for most of it. But it didn't matter. He liked hearing about all of it. He liked hearing about Andy picking out Sydney's engagement ring and the proposal on Belle Isle, even though Sydney had already told him that story twice. And he liked hearing about one of Lucy's other trips up to the cabin with her family.
"My dad got Mike Monroe arrested by the lake police a few weeks ago," she told them. "It was amazing!"
"Was he speeding in that stupid boat?" Ryan asked in between bites of his steak.
"Yep, and past curfew too."
Andy gave him a quizzical look from the other side of the table. "How exactly do you know about Mike Monroe's boat?"
"Lucy pointed it out to me when I was up there."
He cut off a piece of his steak and started eating, suddenly realizing the table had gone silent. He looked up to see Andy and Sydney staring at him from the other side.
