Ryley's Revenge (Gloves Off #2)(20)

“His maybe,” I said, pointing to Ryley.

He chuckled and wrapped his arm around my waist, kissing the side of my head. “What can I say? I’m a quirky son of a bitch, it’s part of my charm. I’ll be right back.”

Gabriella stopped him before he could walk out the door. “Oh, and just so you know, Megan and I are riding back to California together. That way you and Ash can catch up. Judging by the level of your disheveled appearance, I don’t think you got much talking done last night.”

Ryley winked and smiled before closing the door, leaving me to Gabriella’s teasing. Except now that Ryley was gone, her smile faded and she handed me my phone.

“Colin has been calling you nonstop, Ash. He’s starting to get on my nerves.”

“What did you tell him?” I asked, dialing his number.

“I told him you were sleeping. Are you sure you can’t move up the doctor’s appointment? Until you find out for sure he’s not the father, he’s going to be hounding your ass. Not to mention he’ll probably cause problems between you and Ryley once he finds out that you two are back together. It’s going to be a shit storm.”

Groaning, I hit the send button and waited on him to pick up. I loved him, but Gabriella was right. He wasn’t going to leave me alone until I could prove that my child was Ryley’s. I had no doubt the baby was Ryley’s. I could feel it in my blood.

“Ash, thank God. Where the f*ck have you been? I tried calling you last night and all morning,” he snapped worriedly.

“Colin, I’m fine. I just got up and we’re about to leave Sacramento and head home. How’s camp going?”

“Actually, it’s going pretty good. They say I’m one of the best pitchers they’ve seen in years. Which will be good for when the pro teams start looking for new players.”

“That’s great. You’ll be able to travel and see new places. I think I’m jealous,” I teased, hoping to break the tension.

“You’ll be coming with me too, Ash. You and the baby. We can see it all together.”

Hello tension. Back so soon? Sighing, I sat down on the couch while Gabriella stared at me, biting her lip. She knew the shit was about to hit the fan. “Colin, that’s not going to happen,” I murmured regretfully.

The line went silent, but then his angry voice came back over the line. “You’re there with him, aren’t you? That’s why you went with Gabriella. It wasn’t to see her, it was to see him.”

“Why do you sound so shocked?” I countered. “I love him, Colin. The baby I’m carrying is his. I have no doubt about it.”

He scoffed. “But you love me too. And as far as the baby goes, you can’t determine that it’s Ryley’s because you think it is. Until your appointment, there’s still a chance. I’m not letting you go.”

“You don’t have a choice,” I replied sadly. “I choose him and it’ll always be him.”

“Things can change, Ash. I’ll see you tomorrow.” And with those last words, he hung up.

Throwing my phone on the couch, I hung my head and groaned. “What the f*ck am I going to do, Gabby? He’s not going to go down without a fight.”

“Yeah, I could hear him through the phone. But I guess it’s a good thing Ryley’s not going to let you go either. It looks like you have a lot of talking to do on your way home. Are you going to tell him about the baby?”

“I can’t. It’s too soon. I’ll tell him about Colin being in my life, but I can’t just get back with him and dump something else in his lap.”

Gabriella nodded. “I understand, but men don’t think like we do. He might see it as deceitful when you told Colin and not him.”

Throwing my hands in the air, I huffed and stalked into the bedroom. “Well, I was hoping Colin would see it as a sign that we weren’t meant to be together. But no! Now he has this false hope that the baby is his. It completely backfired.”

I had a few minutes to spare so I turned on the shower and waited for it to get warm while Gabriella came in and grabbed her toiletry bag. “It’ll all work out in the end. I think you and Ryley are strong enough to handle it.”

I hope so.





Now that we were on the road, we had a five hour drive ahead of us with just me, him, and the highway. There were so many questions I wanted to ask, I didn’t know where to start. Granted, there were a lot of questions I really didn’t want to know the answers to.

“How was it up in Aspen with your family? Did you get on your four wheeler a lot?”

The thought made me smile. It reminded me of the time we’d spent at his cabin, with all of the four wheeling and hiking. Alas, I didn’t get on it for safety reasons. “No, I didn’t. I mainly stayed at the hotel and worked. There wasn’t much else to do. What about you?” I braced myself. I can only imagine the kind of shit he’d gotten into, or on top of.

Reaching for my hand, he brought it up to his lips and kissed my palm before clasping our fingers together in his lap. “I trained, day and night. It was the only thing that kept me from thinking about you.”

“I’m sure there were other things that helped with that,” I mumbled, turning my attention to the window. Fucking a bunch of slutty hosebeasts came to mind.