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A pleasant shiver tickles up my spine and tingles all around my body. “That wasn’t reallyasking,” I say, and I can’t help but smile despite the fact he just finished speaking to my ex. I smile widely. “But my answer’s yes.”
He grins, seeming almost boyish for a moment. “Then let’s exchange numbers. Here, put yours in.”
When he hands me his phone, I almost push it back into his hands so I don’t have to look at the well-known dating app on his homepage. There’s a notification at the top of the screen, too, from the same app. He’s probably matched with someone.
I try to harden myself and remind myself this is all about revenge, not true romance. If this is just another notch for him—if he was lying when he said he doesn’t do this—then fine. I’ll go back to Plan A: date him, get revenge, and piss Ryan off.
Or maybe I’m justthatkeen to see Duke again. I open his contacts, enter my number, and hand him his phone. Our fingers brush, sending another warm shiver through me, another tempting tingle.
He stands. “Wait, I forgot your drink.”
I wave a hand. “It’s okay… raincheck?”
He smirks. It’s what he said about picking me up. “Raincheck sounds good,” he replies. “I’ll call you soon.”
He leaves the bar, drawing the gazes of all the women again. He walks with the casual confidence of a man who knows what he wants. Ryan never mentioned his dad was an ex-MMA fighter. Now that I think about it, he never mentioned much—mostly little digs at me. That’s all.
Rachael sits next to me. “That looked like it wentverywell.”
“He’s…” I have to pause, hardly believing it. “He’s going to call me. We’re going to go on a date.”
Rachael claps her hands together. “That’sexcellent.”
In my mind, I don’t want it to be for revenge. I don’t say that part. Instead, I remember the dating app I saw. I remember every single time Ryan made me feel small and pathetic. Anyway, once Duke learns who I really am, he won’t want to take this any further. He will probably be pissed at me for not being upfront unless Ikeeplying, claiming I had no idea who he was when I approached him.
My head swims. I feel wrong, like I’m breaking a rule and betraying Duke.
“Yeah,” I say. “It’s crazy, isn’t it?”
Rachael nudges me playfully. She never takes things as seriously as I do. Maybe I take themtooseriously sometimes. “So, how are we going to serve it then, huh? Ryan’s revenge? Ice-cold or boiling hot?”
She laughs. I laugh, but I secretly wish Duke wasn’t Ryan’s dad. I wish we didn’t have to date. I wish we could go straight to the wedding bells part, which pretty much makes me as crazy as a person can be.
CHAPTERFOUR
Duke
I park outside the frat house. Music pumps from it so loudly it’s a miracle it doesn’t come crashing down. It’s a bad thing, being pissed at my own son, but I can’t ignore the aching in my gut throughout my whole body. It’s like some deep instinct is trying to drag me back to the bar, to Molly.
She became withdrawn toward the end when she saw my phone. I hope she didn’t see that stupid dating app. It doesn’t mean anything. Other men might think,She doesn’t have the right to be pissed about that, but not me. I want her to feel like she has a claim on me, just like I have on her.
Taking out my cell phone, I text Ryan again,Get your ass out here, or I’m going to embarrass you by coming in there and dragging you out.
I didn’t want to get into it with Molly about Susan’s reasons for keeping my own goddamn son away from me and how she twisted it all to her advantage. People hear a man was kept away from his child, and they assume the worst. I learned a long time ago to let people make their assumptions.
Still, I’m doing my best now to undo all Susan’s bullshit, her overindulgence, never telling him no. Now, Ryan thinks the world owes him. I love him. It breaks my heart to see him so lost.
Finally, he stumbles from the house. He’s got glowing ink all over his face and neck, and his shirt is torn. He laughs annoyingly as he climbs into the passenger seat, drops down, and takes out his phone without saying hello.
I grab his phone out of his hand and stuff it into my pocket. “You’re pissing me off tonight, kid.”
“Jesus, Dad, don’t be so serious all the time.”
“First, you say you’re going to Vegas tonight. Then, when I tell you no, you ask for a ride. I drive over here, and you leave me waiting for almost thirty goddamn minutes.”
He laughs again, and it drives me nuts. This could’ve been corrected years ago when he was a kid, the first time he pushed too far. A stern warning, an easy lesson, but Susan and Joel would rather baby him, create a little monster, or a not-so-little monster now since he’s pushing six feet.
“What do you want me to do, just throw away the game?”
