Game On (15 page)

“What do you mean?”

“Obviously, you think you guys are too
different to make a relationship work, right?”

“We are.”

“How many times have you told me how much
you admire Ryan’s impulsiveness?”

“Several,” she admitted reluctantly.

“And how many times have you said you love
the fact that he doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him? He just says and does
what he wants, regardless of what people think.”

“Yeah, but-”

“I’m not finished,” Alisa said, holding her
hand up. “You’ve also said you wish you could be more like him, impulsive,
free-spirited…”

“Yeah, but I’m not,” she said, sighing.
“I’m not any of those things. I’m just me and being with Ryan isn’t going to
change that.”

“Honey,” Alisa said, reaching for her hand.
“You underestimate the power of love. Being in love makes you do things you
never thought you could or would.”

Brianna smiled. “You mean like that time
Ryan talked me in to going bungee jumping with him on my twenty-first
birthday?” She shivered. “I was so scared I almost wet my pants.”

Alisa laughed. “Yeah, but you did it
because he was there to hold your hand. And afterwards you told me you’d never
felt more alive.”

“That’s true,” Brianna said, biting her
bottom lip.

“That’s what life with a guy like Ryan
would be like, one adventure after another.” Alisa smiled. “Come on, how cool
would that be?”

“Yeah, but I’m not the adventurous type.
You know me. I like to play it safe.”

“Who says you can’t change?”

Brianna hugged a fringed cushion close to
her chest. “Who says I want to change?”

“You love Ryan, don’t you?”

“Yes, but…”

“Then you’ll want to do whatever it takes
to make him happy because that’s what people do when they’re in love, Bri. Just
like he’ll want to slow down because that’s what you need sometimes.”

Brianna considered her cousin’s words.
She’d always assumed changing to accommodate someone else or expecting them to
make changes to accommodate you would be a bad thing, but maybe Alisa was right.
Maybe the kind of compromises she described were merely part of a healthy
relationship.

“I don’t know, Ali…”

“Listen to me, do you think Ryan enjoys going
out to bars and clubs every night? You think he likes being
on
all the
time?”  She made air quotations. “Believe me, he does it because he doesn’t
want to go home to an empty house. He’s just like everyone else, Bri. He gets
lonely, and the only way he knows how to fill that void is with the next party.
Trust me, I know. I’ve been where he is.”

Ryan was always at the center of a group.
People naturally gravitated to him. It was hard to imagine him getting lonely.
“You really think so?”

“I know so. In fact, he was here just last
week visiting Trey and he told me how much he’d love to have a baby of his own someday.”

Brianna’s mouth dropped open. “Shut up! He
did not say that.” Ryan had never talked to her about settling down before. He
always claimed he was too busy planning the weekend to plan for the rest of his
life.

“He did.” Alisa smiled. “You should have
seen him holding the baby. I’m telling you, he was a natural.” She laughed as
she set her arm on the back of the sofa. “Come on, tell me you couldn’t picture
Ryan as a dad.”

Brianna’s imagination started to run away
with the visual. “Actually, I could.”

“Of course you could. You know he’d be the
cool dad. The guy who coached his son’s football games and bought them beer
before they were legal.”

“Brianna groaned when she thought about
Ryan giving beer to the kids she’d lectured about breaking the law. She was
stunned to realize she just assumed she would be the one sharing that life with
Ryan. When she tried to imagine another woman as his wife, she couldn’t. More
importantly, she didn’t want to.

Before Alisa could question her about what
she was thinking, the phone at her elbow rang. “It’s Lena.”

“Get it,” Brianna said, getting up to
stretch. She walked to the front door and pulled her cell phone out of her
purse. Ryan had texted her to let her know he had to deal with an issue out of
town. He said he’d be back on Friday and hoped they could talk about what
happened yesterday.

“Hey,” Alisa said, beckoning her over
before she could respond to Ryan’s text.

“What is it?” Brianna asked, slipping her
phone into the pocket of her tailored dress pants.

“Lena wants us all to go out on Friday
night. How does a girls’ night sound to you?”

“Great. Who’s going?”

“You, me, Lena, Erika, and Anna.”

Anna was J.T. and Avery’s daughter and
someone Brianna had always counted among her close friends. “That sounds like
fun. Where are we going?”

“Jimmy’s.” Alisa propped the phone between
her chin and shoulder as she shifted on the couch. “I’m sure Liam won’t mind
watching the baby. He’s been after me to get out of the house for weeks.”

“Hold on a second,” Brianna said, holding
her hand up. “Did you say Erika was going to be there?”

“Yeah, why?” Alisa asked, feigning
innocence.

“You know why. Evan is going to be there
with Ryan, Nick, and Dom.” She wagged a finger at her cousin. “If you guys are
trying to thrust Evan and Erika together, hoping they’ll be able to work out
their differences, I want to go on record right now. I think it’s a bad idea.
We shouldn’t get involved.”

“You love Evan, don’t you?” Alisa asked,
tapping her manicured fingernails on the arm of the sofa.

“Of course I do.”

“And you love Erika?”

“You know I do.”

“You want them to happy?”

“What kind of question is that?” Brianna
asked, folding her arms.

“Then you’ll come with us and do whatever
it takes to get those two back together before they throw away five of the best
years of their lives.”

Brianna sighed. “Fine, but if this
backfires, I’m not taking responsibility for the fall-out.”

“Wanna bet?” Alisa asked, giggling. “If we
go down, we’re bringing you down with us.”

By the time Friday night rolled around,
Ryan was more than ready to get his drink on at Jimmy’s with his brother and
their buddies. He hadn’t spoken to Brianna since their conversation in the
lobby, and he had no idea what she was thinking. They rarely went more than a
day or two without talking, and he missed her already.

“Hey, there he is,” Nick said, lifting a
hand to draw Ryan’s attention to the corner booth where they were seated.

“Boys,” Ryan said, approaching the table.
He took his leather jacket off and hung it on the wrought iron hook affixed to
the pine booth. Glancing at the pitcher of beer between them, he snickered as
he slid in next to Dominic. “You’re gonna have to do better than that.”

Evan raised his beer mug. “You drive here?”

“No, I just came from the airport. I had a
limo drop me off. Told the driver I’d call when I was ready for a ride home.”

Evan glanced at his brother’s faded blue
jeans and cowboy boots. “Please tell me you didn’t go to a meeting dressed like
that.”

“No, I changed on the plane.” Ryan nudged
Dominic. “That’s one of the advantages of havin’ a private plane.”

“It’s not your plane,” Evan said, tightly.
“It’s the company’s plane and it’s not intended for joy-ridin’.” He reached for
the pitcher to re-fill his glass. “Don’t think I didn’t hear about that
pit-stop you made in Vegas on the way down there.”

Ryan shrugged. He didn’t feel the need to
run every move he made past his brother. “Don Daniels moved down there with his
wife and baby girl last year.” He was referring to a guy who went to school
with him and Evan. “Remember him?”

“Of course I remember him,” Evan said,
scowling. “We all played on the same football team, dumbass.”

Ryan was used to his brother’s moods, but
his disposition had gone from bad to worse since the break-up. “Yeah well, I
wanted to stop in and see him. You should see his little girl…” Ryan pulled his
phone out of his pocket and scrolled through his pictures. It was disturbing to
realize how many were of him and Brianna. “Check her out. Is she gonna break
some hearts, or what?” Ryan asked, turning the screen toward the other men so
they could admire the chubby cheeks, wide blue eyes, and blond ringlets that
had drawn him in.

“Yeah, real cute,” Evan said, pushing the
phone away.

“What the hell’s your problem, man?” Ryan
asked, slipping his phone back into his pocket.

Dom and Nick glanced at each before Dom
said quietly, “I get the feelin’ your brother doesn’t wanna talk about babies
or weddin’s tonight, Ry.”

“Well, I’ve got news for you,” Ryan said,
looking his brother in the eye. “Life goes on. Just ‘cause you’re miserable
doesn’t mean the rest of us have to be. I’m tired of feelin’ sorry for you. If
you wanna blame someone for what happened between you and Erika, try lookin’ in
the mirror.”

“Let’s not do this,” Nick said, holding his
hand up. “Come on, guys, we came here to have a good time.”

“You think I don’t wake up every goddamn
day regrettin’ the choices I made, asshole?” Evan said, raising his voice as he
leaned forward.

Never one to back down from a fight, Ryan
met him half-way. “Yet you’re still at work from sun-up ‘til sundown. Are you
too stupid to learn from your mistakes or too stubborn to admit the great Evan
Spencer could make any mistakes?”

“What the hell do you suggest I do?” Evan
shouted, grabbing the front of his brother’s shirt and drawing him in until
they were nose-to-nose. “I’m not a man-whore like you. I’m not gonna jump into
bed with the next available woman who throws herself at me, just ‘cause I can’t
stand my own company.”

“Watch it,” Ryan growled, grabbing his
brother’s wrists as he tried to pry his hands off him. “I don’t give a shit if
you’re messed up over this. You wanna piece of me, let’s take this outside.”

“Gladly,” Evan said, dropping his hands and
preparing to step out of the booth.

“You guys can’t be serious,” Dom muttered.

“They’re not,” J.T. said, putting a hand on
Ryan and Evan’s shoulders as he coaxed them to re-claim their seats. “They’re
blowin’ smoke, just like they did when they were kids.”

“Don’t get involved in this, J.T.,” Evan
said.

“Too late. I’m family, and this is my bar.
That means I’m involved whether I wanna be or not.”

Ryan drew a deep breath, but it did little
to diffuse his anger. “Sorry, J.T. We shouldn’t have started anything here.”

“I didn’t start anything,” Evan said,
glaring at him. “You did, as usual. You just don’t know when to keep your big
mouth shut, do you?”

“Listen to me,” Ryan said, pointing at him.

“I’d rather not,” Evan said, standing up
and pushing past J.T. on his way to the restrooms.

“I’m gettin’ sick of his attitude. So he’s
messed up over Erika, I get that. We all get that, but how is bein’ an asshole
to the rest of us gonna help make the situation better?”

“He wasn’t bein’ an asshole to everyone,”
J.T. said, sliding into the seat Evan vacated. “He was just bein’ an asshole to
you, ‘cause you’re his brother and that’s what brothers do.” He grinned. “Man,
you think that was bad, you shoulda seen the way me and your old man used to
mix it up sometimes, Nick,” he said, putting his arm around his nephew’s
shoulders. “I’m talkin’ trips to the hospital for broken ribs and stitches.”

Nick laughed. “Yeah, Dad told me about some
of those scraps. It almost makes me wish I had a brother.” He cracked his
knuckles. “Someone to take my frustrations out on.”

“Yeah, even your cousins are girls,” Ryan
said, raising his beer. “That’s gotta suck.”

The men laughed and J.T. said, “You think
havin’ a sister is bad? Just wait ‘til you have a daughter and then come back
and talk to me about grief. Hell, I’ve started collectin’ shotguns just to keep
all those horny cowboys away from my baby girl.”

Ryan laughed. “Last I heard, your little
girl was datin’ a bull rider. Ouch,” he said, sucking air between his teeth.
“You know first-hand what those guys are like. That’s gotta be rough on you.”

“I don’t wanna talk about that,” J.T. said,
reaching for a clean glass. “And if you were smart, you’d keep your mouth shut
about it.”

“Come on now,” Ryan said, laughing. “My niece
is a smart girl. I’ve taught her well.”

J.T. paused, his full glass in mid-air.
“What do you mean you’ve taught her well?”

“Told her all the reasons she needs to
steer clear of guys like me and her old man.”

J.T. set his glass down. “Kid, if you said
anything to her about what I was like back in the day, I’m gonna finish off
what your brother started.”