She's the One: COunting on Love, Book 1 (22 page)

“Is it always just sex?” Olivia asked.

Amanda raised her hand to signal the waitress. She was going to need another drink here and she owed her little sis one for asking all the pertinent questions.

“Not
always
,” Emma said. “He takes them out too.”

“Where?” Olivia asked.

“Movies, games, concerts.” Emma shrugged again. “Regular stuff, I guess.”

Amanda didn’t know how to feel about any of this. Ryan was fine. He was happy. This was how he liked things. So why did she feel like there should be more for him? Like he was missing out?

The waitress set two mojitos down and Amanda smiled up at her, truly grateful.

She slid one to Olivia, then sipped from hers. “Ryan stays friends with the women after they stop seeing each other too, huh?”

Emma nodded. “Ryan’s awesome. It’s really easy to be friends with him. I know a lot of the girls wish they could keep seeing him, but no one ever gets mad or hates him or anything.”

Amanda nodded and sipped. Then she asked, “What’s his favorite color?”

Emma blinked at her. “I have no idea.”

“Favorite sport?”

“Football?” But it was obvious Emma was simply guessing.

“Favorite movie?”

“What are you doing?” Emma asked.

Amanda sighed. “I don’t know if any of these women really are his friends. I mean, sure, they
like
him. Ryan’s very likeable and lord knows they have a good time when they’re with him, but do they really know him?”

Emma leaned in to look at her closer. “Do
you
know his favorite color or sport or movie?”

“Nope.” She sipped from her drink. But she wanted to. She wanted to know that stuff about him. Even more, she wanted him to know that she wanted to know it.

It was easy for Ryan to walk away, but maybe that was because there was nothing to really walk away from.

“I’ll be back.” She slid from the booth before her sisters could say anything more—and before she could think any harder about what she was doing.

Yes, she’d said
huckleberry
and she’d been relieved that he’d kept his word and left her alone after. But she’d also been missing him. It had been just yesterday afternoon when he’d last kissed her. She should have barely had time to miss him, or even to think about him. Between finally getting a hold of Jill and counseling her and convincing her to give things another try, on top of all her usual daily responsibilities, she’d been swamped. But she had missed him and thought about him more than she should have.

And when she thought about going to Trudy’s and seeing him but not talking to him or flirting with him or touching him…it had made her stomach hurt. Ryan was distracting her. And tempting her. And—whether she liked it or had time or the energy for it—making her feel good. At least he did when she could talk to him and flirt with him and touch him.

And now there was something more. Now she was feeling protective. Of course, that was what she did. She protected the people she cared about.

She had the suspicion that Emma wasn’t the only one of Ryan’s ex-girlfriends who didn’t really know a damned thing about him.

That kind of pissed her off.

He was a good guy. He deserved to be with people who cared enough to know what his favorite color was.

She took an empty spot at the bar before someone else could slide onto the stool. It was not a coincidence that the seat put her right in the midst of three women she knew Ryan had dated at one time or another. Not that it was hard to find women Ryan had dated. She couldn’t spit in here without hitting one.

“Hi, girls.”

“Hi, Amanda,” Melanie greeted her. Mel was a nurse in the ER and knew Conner and Ryan well.

Amanda made small talk with the women for a few minutes, then casually confirmed that they’d all gone out with Ryan at one point. Of course. Then she asked if they knew when his birthday was. She lied about Conner not being able to remember and being too embarrassed to ask Ryan. None of them would confirm that story with her brother anyway.

None of them knew Ryan’s birthday.

Melanie asked a couple other women who were standing nearby and who, of course, had also dated Ryan.

They didn’t know either. They asked yet another woman. Who also didn’t know.

Amanda was ticked.

It only took her fifteen minutes to ascertain that none of the women really knew anything of substance about Ryan. One did know that his favorite pizza topping was sausage. One knew that he liked ham mixed into his scrambled eggs. One knew that he’d once won a burger-eating contest. But beyond miscellaneous facts about Ryan and meat, they didn’t know much.

Oh, they all liked him, thought he was great, were so glad they’d stayed friends, blah, blah, blah.

But none of them knew him.

And that made her mad.

She excused herself when talk turned to the new, hot doctor in general surgery at St. A’s. She headed straight for Ryan.

Or straight for where Ryan had been.

She did a quick scan of the room and still couldn’t find him. But she did see her sister Emma near the dartboards. When Emma caught her eye, she waved and gestured for Amanda to come over. Emma wasn’t smiling. What the hell?

Amanda started in that direction.

As she got close she heard Emma say, “Knock it off, Brent,” to the beefy guy blocking her from stepping around him.

“What’s going on?” Amanda asked.

“I was wondering if you speak asshole,” Emma said, regarding Brent with clear irritation. “Because I don’t seem to be getting through.”

Amanda frowned at the man. “What don’t you understand?”

“She said winner gets a kiss.” Brent was the brother, or something, of one of the doctors who hung out at Trudy’s. He reached out and grabbed Emma’s wrist. “I won the last game so I’m collecting my prize.”

Emma tugged against his hold. “I gave you your kiss.”

“A peck on the cheek? I don’t think so.” Brent tugged hard and brought her up against his chest, his other hand going straight to her ass. “I want a little bit of what I hear Matt Dawson’s getting from you.”

Amanda started to reply, but Emma picked up one foot and brought the heel of her shoe down hard on Brent’s foot. “I said no.”

Unfortunately, Brent was wearing boots and it barely registered.

In fact, he sneered as he said, “You didn’t say where the kiss would be. And I have a request.”

“She said no.” Amanda put her hand on top of Brent’s hand on Emma’s arm.

Brent scowled at her and pulled away. “It’s none of your business.”

Amanda sighed. “Well, see, that’s a stupid thing to say. She’s my sister and you’re harassing her. And that’s not only my business, but it also really pisses me off.”

She wanted to punch him, but instead kept her cool and reached for where Brent was holding Emma again. Instead of his hand, though, she took her sister’s, turned it and pulled against the weak point of Brent’s hold, like she’d been taught in her self-defense class. With Emma’s help, he lost his grip, and Amanda spun to move Emma out of his reach and put herself between them. Predictably, he grabbed for her as soon as she was loose, but instead of contact with Emma, somehow his elbow smacked into Amanda’s nose.

The pain was instantaneous and intense.

Her eyes started to water as her hands flew to her face. They came away wet and red.

Dammit, her nose was bleeding.

She tipped her head back, trying to ease the flow, but that made her dizzy and the pain in her face shot to the top of her head. She brought her head upright again but couldn’t focus on anything.

She heard a
son of a bitch
, a few gasps and a couple of
dammit
s, but other than Emma’s voice asking if she was okay, she couldn’t place any voices. Until one came through loud and clear.

“You’re a dead man.”

The voice was not laid-back, fun-loving, or joking. Ryan was completely serious when he addressed Brent.

She turned quickly, then wobbled as the motion made her dizzy again. Ryan had Brent’s shirt in both fists, the shorter man up on his tiptoes.

“I didn’t mean for it happen!” Brent was shouting, his hands on Ryan’s wrists.

But Ryan was moving him toward the door with little effort. That didn’t stop Shane from grabbing one of the man’s arms and helping Ryan haul him out of Trudy’s.

“Amanda? Amanda?”

She heard her brother’s voice but didn’t look at him, leaning to look around him to where Nate and another guy had the door to Trudy’s open for Ryan and Shane.

“Are you okay?” Conner grabbed her arms and shook her slightly.

“Ow.” She frowned at him. “My head’s killing me.”

“Jesus,” Conner said. “Sit down.”

Someone pushed a chair up behind her on the dance floor, someone else pushed wads of napkins into her hands and Conner knelt in front of her. Emma leaned in behind him and Isabelle and Olivia were gathered behind that.

Amanda held the napkins to her nose.

“Focus on my finger.” Conner held up a finger and moved it back and forth in front of her face.

“It’s my nose, not my eyes.” She pushed his hand out of the way.

“He hit you hard.”

“It was an accident. It’s not like he swung.”

Conner frowned. “Still…”

“I’m fine. My head hurts, my face feels like—someone hit me with his elbow.”

Conner didn’t smile.

Emma did, slightly. Then she opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, she was spun away from them.

Ryan had come back in and grabbed Emma. He barely spared Amanda a look.

“Come here.” He started away from the little crowd around Amanda.

He was worried about
Emma
? That really made Amanda frown. What the hell?

“I’m good,” she said firmly to her brother. “Get me some ice or something.”

“Here.” Shane handed her a homemade ice pack—a plastic sandwich bag with crushed ice in it. “Put in on the bridge of your nose. It’ll constrict the vessels and—”

“Yeah, fine.” She did what he said, peering over his shoulder to find Ryan and Emma. But Shane’s big body was in her way. She pushed Conner back and stood, leaning around Shane. “Then get me another mojito. A large.”

“You need to stay sitting and put pressure on the bridge of your nose,” Conner said. “Stay leaning forward or you might swallow some blood and—”

“
Conner
.” When he looked at her instead of her nose, she said, “I’m fine. I’m going to the bathroom to wash my face.”

He didn’t look happy but he stepped back. “If you’re not back out in five minutes I’m coming in after you.”

“Or you could, you know, send one of the
girls
in,” she said.

He rolled his eyes.

Everyone stepped back as she started for the restroom, except for Shane. “You sure you’re okay?” he asked. “Maybe you should take Isabelle with you.”

“I just need a minute,” she said. His concern was nice, but she couldn’t deal with anyone distracting her while she was trying to figure out what was going on with Ryan.

On her way to the ladies’ room, napkins still against her nose, Amanda scanned the room. Ryan had Emma to one side. He had one hand on her upper arm and they were standing close. Really close.

Thankfully, though, they were on the way to the bathroom.

As she drew near she heard Emma say, “I didn’t mean anything. It was a stupid dart game. And Brent sucks at darts. I had no idea he would win.”

Ryan frowned down at her. “But you’re always messing around. You push. All the time.”

“I don’t mean to.”

“Yes, you do,” he shot back. “You’re cocky. You think you can handle anything and usually you get lucky, but you also know that when your luck runs out, you’ll be fine because someone will be there for you. But this time your sister got
hurt
.”

So he had noticed that. Amanda tucked herself behind a guy so Ryan wouldn’t see her—though he seemed intent on Emma at the moment.

“And I feel terrible about that,” Emma said.

“She’d do anything for you, you know,” Ryan told her. “Amanda won’t even care that he almost broke her nose as long as you’re okay.”

Amanda drew up taller. He was championing
her
? She hadn’t been expecting that.

“I know.” Emma pulled her arm out of Ryan’s hold. “You don’t have to tell me that.”

“Someone does. Someone needs to remind you that when you’re screwing around, it
does
affect someone else—Amanda. Every time.”

“She doesn’t need to worry about me all the time. But I can’t change that she does.”

“You can quit pushing.” Ryan shoved his hand through his hair, clearly frustrated. With Emma. His good-time gal, his pal, his swimming buddy.

Amanda felt a little lighter suddenly. Maybe he did get it. At least a little.

“It’s like you’re always pushing the limits, seeing how far you can go, testing,” he said to Emma. “Do you really need to constantly reassure yourself that people will be there for you? Because she will be. This is Amanda. She’ll be there, even if you don’t deserve it.” He finally sighed. “She’s got this mama-bear protective thing going and…it’s one of the things I like best about her. Don’t mess it up.”