Knight in Shining Suit (29 page)

He shrugged. “My dad is
not exactly a saint,” he said. “He… well, he’s been through
marriages and divorces. Some are with younger women, who left him
too soon… taking some fortune with them.”

“
Oh… you mean your parents
are not together anymore?”

He shook his head. “They
divorced when I was younger. Then they got together again and had
Paris. Then they divorced again when Paris was about five. Now,
they’re just business partners. My mom tolerates my dad’s marriages
as long as he just spends his share of the family money and he
leaves my mom’s, mine, and Paris’s alone.”

“
And so he’s been through
a series of failed marriages with… gold-diggers?”

He chuckled humorlessly.
“All six of them.”

“
S-six?!” I asked,
astounded.

He nodded. “All loveless.
All failures. All for the money.”

“
Whew! That’s… tough. You
know to not even have a successful marriage out of all those
six.”

“
Yeah. He’s a player
anyway. I don’t think he’s heartbroken when the marriage is over.
Some of those divorces, he initiated.”

“
Wow! I should meet your
father,” I said.

He raised an eyebrow at
me.

“
He sounds like a great
potential customer. You know… lots of repeat business,” I said,
laughing.

Ryder laughed. “Yeah. You
should. By the time he’s seventy, he’ll probably give you at least
five successful transactions.”

“
How old is he
now?”

“
Sixty.”

“
And he’s been married
seven times?”

Ryder nodded. “Actually,
eight times if you count my mother twice.”

“
But he and your mother
are still on good terms?”

Ryder nodded. “They’re
business partners who used to be married to each other and have two
kids.”

Ryder took me to a famous
Japanese restaurant close to the beach.

We talked more about each
other’s families. I told him about Adam and how he grew up with
Geena and me. I told him how Geena had been like a sister to me,
and how Uncle Jack had been like my second father.

When the bill came, I took
out my wallet. Ryder handed the waiter his platinum
card.

“
How much was mine?” I
asked.

“
Nothing,” he
replied.

I raised a brow at him.
“That’s not fair! This is not…”

“
I know,” he replied
cutting me off mid-sentence. “But I dragged you out of the house so
I could have the pleasure of your company. I owe you. It’s only
fair that I pay for your dinner.”

“
I was gonna go out to
dinner, too, Ryder.”

“
Yeah and you could be
with your friends. Instead, you accompanied me.”

“
You’re not convincing
me.”

He chuckled. “Alright,
then you owe me. I’m going to have to ask you for a favor
someday.”

“
You have a habit of
hanging a bomb over my head, you know,” I groaned.

He laughed. “I promise
this payback will not have you boarding a plane.”

“
Yeah, right!” I rolled my
eyes.

When we drove around my
block, it was eleven in the evening.

“
Where do you stay here? A
hotel?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I have
a house here.”

“
Oh. That’s good. You’ve
got business here. Only makes sense for you to own a property here
too.”

“
Yeah, but then sometimes
I don’t come here for more than a week. The house is left alone
with no one maintaining it or overseeing it.”

“
You’re rich, hire a
maid.”

“
I have one. She cleans
when I’m here. But it’s not the same, you know. I want things to be
spic and span all the time, and when I’m not here, I want to make
sure that… my furniture is tended to, my plants are watered
regularly… you know those things.”

“
Get a
roommate.”

“
I don’t know many people
in this city,” he said.

“
I can tell. Otherwise,
you’d have better company for dinner tonight. I guess I was your
only choice, huh.”

“
Well, what do you know?
Sometimes it’s good to pull your hair out or hit your head with a
sledgehammer,” he teased.

I reached out and pinched
him on the arm.

“
Ouch!” he complained,
laughing.

“
Where do you live
here?”

He stared at me for a
while and then he gave me that crooked smile. “Actually, a few
blocks from you.”

I raised a brow at
him.

“
Come, I’ll take you to my
place,” he said. “I’ve been coming and going in this city for a
year now and that house never had a visitor.”

“
Seriously?
Never?”

He shook his
head.

He parked in front of that
huge house a couple of blocks away from where I live.

I stared at the gate for a
while and then I laughed. “It
is
your house.”

“
What?”

“
Remember that day at the
wedding… We agreed to tell people that you lived in this house and
I was afraid that one of the guests would actually be the owner of
the house and we would be caught. You… must have been laughing at
me a lot that night.”

He smiled. “I admit that
part amused me. But I was not laughing at you. For all it’s worth,
I was… happy that night. For a change, I figured someone
likes
me
even
though I was just a poor bartender.”

I blushed and looked away
from him. I didn’t say anything.

Ryder whispered, “Funny
how all that changed the minute she realized who I really
was.”

I stared up at him,
thinking that he was teasing me, but the look on his face was
sober. He was serious. Somehow, something in his eyes told me that
he was hurt or insulted or somehow annoyed that I liked him better
when I thought he was poor, and I liked him less now.

I smiled at him. “At least
we both know we could never be… more than friends. You can’t marry
beneath your rank in the society, Ryder. You’ve gotten too cynical
for that. You need to find an heiress. Then you’ll know she wants
you for you. Not for your financial status.”

He narrowed his eyes at
me, as if he wanted to say something, but chose not to. Instead, he
turned to open the front door.

When I stepped into his
house, I felt a sense of coziness. His living room was huge. He had
a massive set of couches. There was a fireplace and a huge serenity
fountain. His LCD was at least sixty inches, and beside it was a
wall containing a huge DVD and Blu-ray collection. The whole living
room had hues of beige, brown, yellow, and green. It opened into a
huge deck facing the ocean. He had a bar on his deck with a
separate fridge for liquors and drinks. His house spelled luxury
and comfort at the same time. And I thought Adam’s house was
already too luxurious!

“
What do you think?” he
asked.

“
Wow!” I said. “And you
almost don’t live here?”

He shrugged. Then he led
me to the deck. We sat on the chairs and he handed me a beer from
the fridge.

“
It’s just a shame that I
don’t get to visit and check up on this house at least once a week.
Just to make sure that the maid has done her job. Restocking the
fridge with food is a problem, too.”

“
Why?”

He shrugged. “Because my
schedule has been erratic, I can’t stock up much on milk, veggies,
or fruits. They’ll just go bad and it’s not nice if they spoil in
the fridge.”

“
Can’t your maids throw
out spoiled foods?”

He shook his head. “They
can’t always judge which ones need to go.”

“
Well then just stock up
on liquids and go for long-life milks,” I suggested.

He nodded. “Believe me,
I’m trying.”

We stayed there on his
deck, chatting. He took out a blanket so I could wrap it around me
to keep me warm. We were laughing and talking about almost anything
under the sun.

When I glanced at my
watch, it was already four in the morning.

“
Oh my God!” I breathed.
“It’s already four!”

Ryder smiled. “Time
flies.”

I stood up from my seat.
“Well, I have to go.”

“
I’ll take you
home.”

“
No worries. It’s only a
few houses away, Ryder. No point taking your car out from the
garage.”

“
I’ll be damned if I let
you go home alone, love,” he said, and somehow, I knew that I would
not be able to change his mind no matter how much I argued with
him.

“
It’s just a short walk,
Ryder.” I tried one last time.

“
Then I’ll walk you,” he
said.

I admitted defeat. We took
our coats and then we went out of his house.

“
When are you going back
to New York?” I asked him.

“
At nine in the
morning.”

“
That soon? How long have
you been here?”

“
One day.”

“
Wow!” I breathed. “Your
life must be quite toxic.”

He shook his head. “Not
really. I’ve just started Rig Style Malibu. I check on it once in a
while. Once it’s established, I can conduct my business over the
phone. On the other hand, my family is opening a new restaurant in
Manhattan. That’s my project, too. It’s like taking care of two
babies in two different cities, but once they can stand on their
own, I’ll have air to breathe. A lot of it.”

We reached my house. I
took out my keys and then I looked up at him. He smiled
slowly.

“
Thank you for your
company,” he said. “It’s been a pleasure.”

I smiled back at him.
“Likewise.”

“
Well, I’ll be off now,”
he said. “I’ll see you when I get back.”

“
See you when I see
you.”

He smiled again and then
he took a step back.

“
You know my number,” he
said. “Call me… when you need me. Any more events in your life that
I can be of service with… or if you just feel like a chat. It would
really be nice to have
you
calling me for a change,” he said with a
chuckle.

I giggled. “Okay. I’ll
remember that.”

He nodded. “Good night,
Astrid. Sweet dreams.”

Then it was over. I felt a
sense of loneliness as soon as he was gone. Like I’d been so used
to the cold, then he came and I felt warm and I was hoping it would
not end, but it was over too soon.

I thought about Ryder when
I went to bed. His smile. His handsome face. When we’re together it
was hard to believe that he was
the
Ryder Van Woodsen… rising tycoon… heir of the
rich Van Woodsen clan.

15.

HEIRLOOM:

Something of special value
handed on from one generation to another.

T
he next Friday, I had a surprise visit from my mother. She
was with Uncle Reynolds and his wife.

“
We won’t be long. We just
want you and Adam to come with us to Manhattan,” my mother
said.

“
What? Why didn’t you tell
me immediately?” I protested.

“
It was a spur of the
moment thing for us. Your uncle has a meeting in Manhattan. We
decided to come with him,” Aunt Betty said. But there’s a look on
her face that I cannot decipher.

“
Where’s Dad?”

There was silence. Then
Uncle Reynolds said, “He’s busy. He’s meeting up with some of his
associates for the weekend.”

I was not convinced by my
uncle’s reply. I immediately felt that something was up. The look
on Aunt Betty’s face is far too intriguing. I didn’t ask, though…
not yet.

“
Alright. I’ll pack a few
clothes,” I said.

Adam wouldn’t be able to
make it. He had a court hearing in the afternoon. He promised to
follow if he could, but I seriously doubted that.

At the airport, I was
watching Aunt Betty carefully. I thought she was whispering too
many things to my mother that they both did not want me to
hear.

“
Which hotel are we going
to stay in?” I turned to Uncle Reynolds.

“
Where does Ryder live? We
figured we’d stay at a hotel close to his apartment. You might want
to stay with him while we’re there.”

Shit! Ryder! I didn’t see
this one coming!

“
Oh, I’m not really sure
if he’s available on such short notice. He’s busy putting up
another branch of his family’s… restaurant.”

“
What? He’s too busy to
see you? Is that what you mean?” my mother asked. And somehow, I
know that question was loaded.

I shook my head. “No, no.
He was just here last week. One day. You know… because he… misses
me.”