Chapter 5

Ryan

By the time we wrapped up the second site it was past lunchtime.

"I"m starving. How about we grab a bite to eat before we head over to the next one?"

"Um, that"s not necessary. I can just meet you later."

"Don"t be ridiculous. We"re right here."

"No, that"s okay."

"Is there some reason you don"t want to eat at The Diner?"

That was my sister Gia"s place, and it was by far the best restaurant in all of Ravenden, and I wasn"t even biased about that. Well, I was, but everyone agreed about it.

"There"s nothing wrong with The Diner. I eat there all the time."

"Then let"s go grab some lunch."

"No thank you."

"Why? I"m hungry."

"Then you should go eat and I"ll meet you later."

"Why?"

"What?"

"Tell me why you don"t want to go to lunch there?"

"It"s not there. I don"t want to go to lunch with you."

I scowled. "But why?"

As crazy as it sounded, I was having a good time working this case with her. I thought we were actually getting along, and it felt like there was even some sexual tension there. When she said we should keep our minds open to anything, I had gotten the feeling she wasn"t just talking about the case.

Was I really that off?

I felt like a perv. I"d been thinking about her all day, and as crazy as it was, I definitely wanted more than just to solve this case. Not like a relationship or anything, but a one-night stand would do us both some good.

"Because I don"t want to be seen with you," she blurted out.

"Wow. Okay."

"People talk, and I don"t want anyone saying that there"s anything between us. So it"s best if we not do the lunch thing together."

"Fine," I said, a little surprised by how pissed off that made me.

Before she could say another word, I turned and walked away, forcing myself not to look back even when I reached the diner and rounded the corner to enter through the front door.

"Hi Ryan. Grab a seat and I"ll be over to get your order in a sec," Kim said.

"Thanks," I muttered, glad for a moment"s reprieve because I didn"t think I could handle the scrutiny right now.

Kim would be fine. Even if she suspected something, she wouldn"t actually say it. Maybe she would ask me if everything was okay, but that would be about the extent of it.

I took a seat at my usual booth, but turned my back to the room, something I never did. My sister would know it meant that I wanted to be left alone. No one else would think anything of it, at least that"s what I thought until my oldest brother Elias slid into the booth across from me.

"Uh-oh. What"s wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Wrong answer. So I"ll ask again. What is wrong?"

"Nothing"s wrong, Eli. I"m just here to eat. I"m starting to get hangry."

"No, it"s more than that."

"Stop trying to psychoanalyze me and go away."

"You never sit with your back to the door. Never. Well, not unless you truly want to be left alone."

"Then if you know that already, why the hell are you bothering me?"

"You don"t have to be an ass."

I scowled at him. I knew I was in a bad mood. I was still trying to figure out what went wrong. Why didn"t Gracie want to be seen with me? Most females around here would love to be linked with me. I was a catch. And it wasn"t even like that. But dammit, why did she have to make it sound like I would embarrass her or something in public. Who cared what people thought?

Who cared?

I cared.

I"d always cared, so when did that stop?

I froze and quickly grabbed the drink Kim just set down as I was mid-mental monologue. Thankfully she was distracted by the presence of her mate. They were so in love. It was obvious to anyone unlucky enough to be in their presence. And right now, in my foul mood, they were absolutely disgusting.

But seeing them together also made me jealous. I wanted what my brother had.

Not Kim specifically. She was already like another sister to me. I wanted what they shared. I longed for that closeness between them.

Gracie Montgomery popped back into my head just as I took a long sip of my drink.

Inhaling part of it from shock, I started to sputter and spit out the remaining contents in my mouth, showering Eli and Kim just as she leaned down to steal a quick kiss.

They both jumped back, knocking over the table behind them. Everyone in the restaurant turned to see what the commotion was all about, and I was suddenly launched right into the center of attention.

Ed Pierce came over to talk with me as I glared at my brother.

"Don"t look at me, bro. This is all your fault."

He was probably right, but I wasn"t willing to admit that just yet. And fortunately, there was no one actually sitting at that table behind him.

"Hey Ryan. I was wondering if you got a chance to go over that proposal we sent over."

"No, I"m afraid not. At least not yet. I haven"t even made it into the office yet today."

It was the truth, and he didn"t need to know why. I wasn"t ready for the whole town to be put on high alert thinking we had an arsonist on the loose. We needed more concrete evidence on that first.

My mind shifted to Gracie, and I was pretty sure just thinking about her somehow conjured her up out of thin air.

"Hey Gracie. Take a seat anywhere you"d like. I"ll be over in a minute," Gia yelled out.

I couldn"t help it. I turned to see her for myself as she purposefully sat at the opposite end of the restaurant.

Our eyes caught and her chin lifted just slightly in utter defiance.

I scowled back at her.

"Okay then. Maybe I should check back tomorrow then?" Ed asked like everything was perfectly fine and the woman I"d been ogling all morning hadn't just blatantly shut down even my simplest of gestures.

I sighed. "Honestly, I"m working on something with Clarence this week, so I may not even get to it until Monday. But I promise you I will, and I"ll be in touch the second I do."

I gave him a reassuring smile.

"Oh, well, okay then. Thanks for letting me know that. I won"t keep you. The misses and I were just on our way out."

People around here were used to me being a yes man. I struggled with the boundaries between my job and my personal life. Hell, the lines were so blurred these days that I didn"t even have a personal life to speak of anymore.

I think a part of me feared that if I stopped being so accommodating that things would start to crumble or the people would lose faith in me, but Ed hadn"t been put out in the least. He just needed to know the expectations.

Maybe I didn"t always have to go out of my way to please people.

I was still irritated with Gracie, but this certainly gave me something new to consider. Though I would never admit to her that the only reason I"d just brushed Ed off was because I planned to be spending a lot more time with her this week, even if she wasn"t going to be happy about it—maybe even because she wasn"t going to be happy about it.

With a smirk, I turned back to Eli. He was eyeing me curiously, and Kim had disappeared into the kitchen to retrieve my order.

I took a moment to pull out my phone and send a note to Jennifer, letting her know to schedule me time to go over Ed"s proposal on Monday but also to have her wipe my calendar clear of anything not pressing for the remainder of the week.

There was something going on between me and Gracie. It felt like more than just an interest in the case with her being the one stuck working with me on it. I was excited about the case, that much was true, but this was something entirely different. Neither of us may like it or even want to acknowledge it, but it was something. And I'm damn well going to figure it out or do whatever it took to get her out of my system.

"What?" I asked, noticing him staring at me.

"Something"s up with you."

"Drop it. There"s nothing going on with me."

"You do know you just dismissed Ed. I"ve never seen you do that with anyone. At least not when it comes to work stuff."

"It"s just not pressing."

"So what"s up with Clarence? Or was that just bullshit?"

I shook my head and looked around the room again. I couldn"t help how my eyes lingered on Gracie. The fact that she didn"t want me only made me want her more. That seemed so opposite from my nature, yet I couldn"t deny it as truth.

"Not here. We"ll talk later."

His face changed into concern, but he nodded and didn"t press me for more.

When Kim brought my food out, she had Eli's regular order for him too.

"We"re a bit busier than usual, so just holler if you two need anything else."

With another quick kiss for her mate, she walked off to attend to her other customers.

"She really does love this place as much as Gia does, huh?"

"What about Gia?" our sister asked before he could answer.

She pulled up a chair and joined us.

"I thought Kim said you were busier than usual."

She shrugged. "There"s got to be some benefits to being the boss."

I looked around behind her. Wherever Gia was, her mate David wasn"t far behind.

"What are you looking for?" she asked.

"David."

She rolled her eyes. "We aren"t always together."

"Yes you are. Is he really not here?"

"Well, yeah, he"s just manning the kitchen today. Darin needed the day off."

I smirked, and she punched me.

"We do stuff apart too," she insisted.

I shot her a knowing look.

We really weren"t sure how the two of them met. She just came home one day bearing his mark with some ridiculous story no one believed. We all thought she was having a mental breakdown or something. It was hard not to fear the worst, like someone had taken advantage of her and tried to claim her. She kept insisting that wasn"t the case, but it was all very strange.

Then suddenly David showed up. We assume he was looking for her, but we don't really know for sure because he was in a bad car accident and suffered from amnesia.

As far as I knew, he"d never regained his memories. But they were clearly madly in love and almost as sickening to be around as Elias and Kim.

"Kim and I are going to have a girls' night at Mom and Dad"s tomorrow night. We do things without our guys."

I laughed. "Sore spot? Because you are very defensive right now."

"Why are you so annoying?"

"Isn"t that what big brothers are for?"

"I"m not annoying?" Elias insisted.

I stared at him like he was crazy, but Gia actually backed him up.

"Well, not as annoying as Ryan is," she muttered.

I loved all of my siblings, but I had never had the bond that Gia and Elias did with any of them. Being squashed in the middle of those two wasn"t always easy, especially when it was just the three of us. Adding Dean to the mix always helped a little, but he was the youngest of us in our family and just starting to grow up enough for me to relate to him. He certainly wasn"t the baby brother we all spoiled anymore.

I quietly ate my lunch while the two of them laughed and joked.

Some would call it middle child syndrome or something, but honestly, I didn"t begrudge their relationship in any way. They were good to include both me and Dean most of the time.

It was nice to know that, no matter what, they would always have my back, but I wasn"t the type that needed that day-to-day affirmation of affection from anyone, including my family.

And for some reason at that moment, Gracie Montgomery popped back into my mind.

The scowl on my face drew attention from my brother and sister both, but I certainly wasn"t about to share my inappropriate thoughts about Gracie with them. I wasn"t going to share them with anyone—especially not the dark-haired, dark-eyed beauty I"d just wiped my calendar to spend the week with.