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Ryder passes by me in the hallway and groans. “Is that lasagna?”
“Yep. If you help me carry out the food, you can dig in first.” I know which carrot to dangle in front of him.
“Fuck yeah,” he readily agrees.
Between the two of us and his newfound motivation, we get everything set out in a matter of minutes. And true to my word, Ryder is dishing his own food out before anyone else realizes it’s there. Once he sits down at a table and begins to moan with each bite, the rest of the guests quickly catch on.
Waiting until everyone else has their food, I make up a plate for myself and join my teammates at their table. Rori is sitting nearby with her family, and I don’t want to intrude on that. She seems content. I can hear her telling them about how she’s filling in while Margot is on maternity leave and then she’ll have an internship for her dream job. When Serena drops into a chair next to her, my focus shifts to my plate. I know she’ll look out for Rori damn near as well as I would.
I’m not paying attention to what Ryder is saying until laughter breaks out around our table.
“What?” I ask.
Ryder points his chin up to the third floor where a sign hangs from one side of the deck to the other. I’m so busy wondering how they got up there without me realizing, I don’t read the words printed on it right away. And when I do, I don’t know whether to laugh or strangle him.
WELCOME TO RORI’S GETTING OFF PARTY!
I settle on laughter, joining everyone else at the table. Rori looks over questioningly and I point upward. Her eyes become comically large as she reads the words and then they swing down, landing on Ryder. Pushing her chair backward, she marches over to him.
He smirks at her. “Murphy and I thought you needed to celebrate getting your cast off as well as the new job. But I forgot to include the wordit.Anyhow, it makes a bigger statement this way.”
Rori rolls her eyes. “It also gives it a totally different meaning, but I’m sure you couldn’t have possibly done this on purpose.”
Ryder places his hand on his chest, affecting the most innocent expression he can manage. But his eyes perpetually hint at mischief and mayhem, so it’s not convincing at all. “Do you think so little of me?” he asks her.
“Ryder, I’m not one of your puck bunnies that falls for your bullshit,” she says, poking him in his chest. “Own your prank.”
He grins. “I like you, Rori. I like you a lot. You’re more fun than your boyfriend.”
“That’s not saying much. Cap has lost his sense of humor in his old age,” Murphy adds.
Rori hooks her arm through mine. “Don’t pick on the man I love.”
“Don’t worry, baby. I’ll get my revenge at hockey practice this week.”
CHAPTER23
RORI
“You pushthe marshmallow onto the stick, but not too far. You don’t want the stick to go all the way through.” Kaiden is teaching the kids the right way to roast a marshmallow so they can make s’mores.
He hands marshmallows and sticks out to Claudia and Dominic before moving on to Tillie, who’s the daughter of Darius’s girlfriend Evie. They also brought Three, who’s a friend of Tillie’s. Apparently, his dad plays football for the Charleston Pirates and Three’s spending the weekend with them.
“Once the marshmallow is on the stick, you hold it over the flames, but don’t get too close to them or it’ll catch on fire. Slowly turn the stick so every side of the marshmallow gets browned up. Once it’s done, you can put all the ingredients together. I’ve got a few different types of candy bars, so you get to choose which one you want. There’s milk chocolate, milk chocolate with caramel, and mint chocolate.”
The kids all get their marshmallows safely on the stick, then carefully toast them over the flames. Evie steps in to help the younger kids put their s’mores together.
“Three, what kind of s’more are you going to make?” Tillie asks.
“Caramel. What about you?”
“I want caramel too.”
“What about you two?” I ask Claudia and Dominic. “What kind do you want?”
“I think I’m going with the mint one,” Claudia says.
“And you, Dom?” I ask.
