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She looked at Ryan and that made the anger climb higher.
“Mom.”
Her attention returned to me.
“I love you. Go fix your makeup before Dad sees you’ve been crying and starts asking questions you clearly don’t want to answer in front of me.”
She hesitated before nodding. As she was passing me, she touched my hand. “We’ll talk.”
“Yes, we will.”
She stopped in front of Ryan. “Thank you.”
Ryan nodded once and my mother returned to the ballroom as I waited for the door to close behind her.
Ryan reached for the drink resting on the stone railing and took a swallow before looking at me. The exhaustion in his face only sharpened my anger because he already looked like he had decided this conversation was something he could postpone.
“What did the two of you talk about?”
“Several things.”
“About me?”
“Most things eventually become about you.”
The affection buried beneath the answer only made me angrier. “What did you tell her?”
Ryan released a slow breath. “We’ll talk later, mami. There are two hundred people inside, we both have shit we’re supposed to be doing, your father is somewhere inside this castle, and I genuinely cannot take much more shit tonight.”
“I heard you.”
His brows pulled together. “Clearly. I’m standing three feet away.”
“No, asshole. I heard you out here with my mother. I heard you say you still do.”
Ryan stared at me for half a second before laughing. “Fuckin’ A. Call the press. She cracked the case.”
I rolled my eyes. “Can you be serious, please?”
“Sure. Can you tell me what the fuck the point is, or if you’re within a mile of getting to it?”
“You still love me. I think you told my mother you still love me.”
Ryan clapped his hands once. “And that’s worth this fit of rage?”
“It is not a fit of rage.”
“It has a strong resemblance.”
“Ryan.”
“I haven’t denied loving you, Charm. I have made that shit painfully clear. I’ve also made it clear that it changes nothing.”
“I know.”
“Then what are we doing?”
I stared at him, and suddenly the answer was so obvious it made my chest hurt. “You forgave her.”
