The Bad Break by Jill Orr

Author:Jill Orr
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781945551215
Publisher: Prospect Park Books
Published: 2017-12-16T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 24

On the drive over to Invigor8, I gave Ridley strict instructions that I was to do all the talking once we got there.

“We will be like Thelma and Louise,” she gushed.

“No. We will not. They died in a fiery crash after committing serious crimes. We are only going there to ask some questions and find out the nature of his relationship with Arthur Davenport, okay? I don’t want you bringing up David or, heaven forbid, making any kind of accusation about him being involved in murder or poisoning or anything like that, okay?”

I had visions of an angry Brandon Laytner calling the newspaper to complain about the baseless accusations from “the beautiful reporter and her shorter, plainer sidekick.” Kay Jackson would fire me faster than a jackrabbit on roller skates.

“I understand,” Ridley agreed. “I am there only to, uh, grease the wheels?”

As painful as it was, I had to give Ridley credit for unapologetically owning her beauty and being willing to exploit her sex appeal for the greater good. It seemed, at least in that moment, terribly modern to me.

“So . . .” I said, after a few silent minutes in the car. “I hear we’re going to be neighbors.”

“Yes,” she said, and at first I couldn’t tell if she thought that was a good or a bad thing. “We’ll see. Ryan thinks we will live all together as a family, but I’m not sure this is best.”

I knew it was probably crossing some sort of line, but my curiosity got the better of me. “How come?”

“He has made it clear that he isn’t in love with me.” She sounded both regretful and resolved at the same time, and I felt a little sorry for her for the first time since I’d met her. “He loves the baby, of course, and he wants to be close to us both.”

It was none of my business, and the right thing to do was to change the subject. I didn’t do the right thing. “But what do you want?”

She answered without pause. “To be happy, of course. I’d like us to be together—Ryan and the baby and me—but,” she shrugged, “I won’t sit around waiting for someone who is in love with someone else.”

My eyes were on the road, but I could feel Ridley looking at me. Was she talking about me? Was she seriously telling me that Ryan was still in love with me and that was the reason they couldn’t be together as a family? My stomach suddenly felt like it was churning cement. I didn’t say anything, hoping that would be the end of it.

It wasn’t.

“Riley,” Ridley said. “I can see this makes you uncomfortable, but I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.”

My cheeks felt like they were on fire. “Listen, Ryan probably just wants what he can’t have. He—”

“No,” she said, firmly but without any rancor. “Even in Colorado when he and I were dating, he loved you. I knew it then, and I should have stayed away.

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