"Yikes," she replied quietly. She got up and gently squeezed Ryan's shoulder. "I'm glad you're OK, McCloud. Call me if you need anything."
"I will," he replied. "And really, I know I'm just the dumb jock who lives next door, but my mom is going to be here for a few more days so we can be helpful if you need anything."
"Don't sell yourself short, rookie. Every girl needs a dumb jock sometimes."
"You let me know where I can find those girls."
"No way," Sydney said as she headed for the door. "You're all mine for now. We're only on season two of The X-Files."
Ryan moaned in pain from his spot on the sofa. "I don't have an appendix. I don't have girls. It really sucks."
Sydney couldn't help but smile as she opened the door. "Don't give your mom too much crap."
She said another passing goodbye to Amelia and walked the few feet down the hall back to her apartment. Her front door opened with ease and then clicked close behind her. The place was quiet, eerily so. It wasn't like Ryan's place. There was no one there to tease her about dating one of Ryan's trainers. No one to give her oatmeal cookies. No one to joke around with about their pathetic dating lives — or lack thereof. It was all just quiet.
Sydney dropped on her sofa with a thud. Home alone again with only her dirty yoga pants and messed up hair. Now that she was going to be alone all day for the foreseeable future, maybe she should get a cat. You know, so at least she had someone to get cleaned up for or someone who could wallow in her filth with her or something like that.
The box of books Lucy had left her was still sitting open on her coffee table. She remembered what those books looked like as they sat on her desk at her office. She could see them in her memory all lined up.
"Hey, can I check a book out of your finance library?" John had asked her a few months ago at the office.
"Sure. Anything in particular?" she replied.
"I need to know if pork belly is one word or two."
Sydney grabbed her well-worn finance dictionary off her desk and handed it to John.
"You know, if you want bacon, they have that in stores now," she said. "You don't have to buy pork bellies on the futures market anymore."
He smiled and grabbed the book from her, taking a seat in her office and flipping through until he found the right entry.
"It's actually for a client," he had explained.
"A client?"
Sydney tried to hide her surprise. They almost always dealt with stocks and mutual funds so it was very rare to have any sort of futures in their clients' portfolios. John must have noticed her change in tone, but he simply waved it off.
"I know. It's just a new potential client who thinks he's smarter than me. You know how those guys are," he said. "But he's got a good chunk of change he's bringing over, so the client is always right!" John slammed the book closed with a bit of dramatic flair and handed it back to her. "Thanks for the loan."
"No problem. Just remember your library card next time."
Sydney smiled bitterly at the memory. There wasn't going to be a next time since her now former boss had stolen money from their clients. Looking back at that moment in her office, Sydney wondered what happened to the client who wanted the pork bellies. Hell, she wondered if that client even existed or was just some fabrication that John had created to try and cover up more of his mess. She would probably find out eventually, but it was going to take awhile for the S.E.C. to unwind this case.
Sydney groaned loudly and rubbed her hands over her face. She was lucky she had friends like Lucy and Ryan to help her get through this. Even though she prided herself on being independent and self-assured, it was a time like this that she wished she had a man in her life to pull her close and tell her it was going to be alright.
It was just too bad there weren't any men for her to trust.
Chapter 6
Sydney needed to find some sort of distraction to keep her mind off of what was going on with her former job. Some guy from the S.E.C. had called her earlier in the day, asking about client files that John had. Luckily, Lucy had taught her well.
"You'll have to talk to my lawyer about that," she said.
But that call led to her watching two hours of mindless television before taking an afternoon nap. She had to get out of there, she just didn't know where.
My mom wants you to come over for food
For once, the rookie next door had perfect timing. Dinner gave her the perfect excuse to get out of her apartment without leaving her comfortable, protected bubble.
Tell your mom that I would love to come over for food. What time?
He quickly replied, 7 p.m., she said to not wear yoga pants because Andy is coming
Sydney rolled her eyes. All she wanted was a free home-cooked meal with a low-maintenance friend and his mom. Ugh, his mom. Sydney knew Amelia was well intentioned, but she couldn't handle the whole matchmaking thing right now. The last man she put her full faith and trust in turned out to be a crook who stole money from little old ladies. Literally. There was no way she wanted to even think about putting her trust in any man of any kind right now, personally or professionally.
And yet, there she was pulling herself off her sofa, feeling cruddy and gross and in desperate need of a shower. Without thinking about what she was doing, she headed for her bathroom, turned the shower on and let the water heat up. And after the shower, she did as she was told and put on some tight dark blue jeans that accentuated her curves in a more subtle and nice way than her yoga pants. She topped it off with a green sweater that she knew brought out the green in her eyes, and finished the look with a pair of black boots.
Then she waited. Apparently, she was in such desperate need of a change that she was ready way too early. After a half hour of more mind-numbing television, she decided she needed to get out of the house and away from her own thoughts. Bad TV shows could only help her so much before she started overthinking her job, or rather the lack thereof. She needed to get out and be around other people to distract her.
With a bottle of wine in hand, she ditched the trashy reality show she was watching and headed for Ryan's apartment.
"Sydney!" Amelia exclaimed cheerfully when she opened the door. "Oh, you brought wine."
Sydney smiled. "So that's why you invited me over?" she asked as Amelia let her in.
"Well, yes, that. I also made my famous chili, and Andy is here too."
What? She thought she would have time to adjust to seeing him since she was really early. She didn't expect him to also be early. Not that she cared about seeing him, of course. She didn't care at all.
Sydney turned to see Andy give her a sheepish smile from his spot on his knees in front of Ryan.
"What are you doing?" she asked as her eyes narrowed. "I mean, not that you're doing something wrong or whatever. But I'm just confused."
"Um." Andy looked at Sydney and then Ryan, too stunned to have a good explanation.
"He's looking at my stitches," Ryan said matter-of-factly. "Wanna see them?"
"No!" Sydney took a breath and a step back. "I mean, no, thank you," she said in a calmer tone. "I'm sure Andy is doing fine with whatever he is doing."
Andy just ducked his head and went to work, which Sydney took as a sign to head to the kitchen and pour herself a drink. By the time she got back to the men with her wine glass in hand, Andy was done with whatever it was he was doing. The latex gloves on his hands seemed to be holding a gross-looking bandage and some medical tape. He quietly gave her a sweet apologetic nod as he tried to discreetly get past her and head to Ryan's bathroom with his trash.
Ryan sat up a little straighter as she got closer. "My abs still look great though, right, Syd?" he asked, pausing a bit before pulling down his shirt.
"I don't really care."
"You should," he replied, flashing her a big smile. "I have great abs."
Sydney just sat down and took a sip of her wine, once again wondering exactly how she had become friends with him. Po
or kid needed someone to smooth his frat-boy edges.
"You need to turn the cockiness down a bit," she told him.
"Really? I thought I was doing OK, like maybe a six or a seven."
"You were at an 11 there, buddy."
"Spinal Tap reference," Andy said as he walked back in the room. "Nice."
He gave Sydney a smile that made her feel happy, or at least that's what she thought that feeling was. It had been several days of dreariness so she wasn't sure.
"What's Spinal Tap?" Ryan asked.
"What do you mean, 'What's Spinal Tap?'"
"Oh, let me fill you in," Sydney told Andy. "Ryan here spent his youth playing hockey and thinking about hockey and watching hockey. He's still learning about awesome pop culture stuff that isn't Star Wars or internet porn."
"I don't watch that much internet porn," Ryan said incredulously.
"Anyway, we've been working our way through The X-Files and some Alfred Hitchcock on occasion."
Andy's eyes lit up with excitement. "Have you watched The Birds yet?"
"Not yet. I've been saving it for a special occasion."
"You should watch it with us one night!" Ryan said.
Sydney cringed silently. Sure, invite Andy over. The guy who saw her cry over a goldfish. The attractive man who stopped by her place to check in on her a few days ago because her life is such a mess.
"You know, you don't have a boyfriend, and Andy doesn't have a girlfriend," Amelia said as she walked in with a glass of wine. "You could make it a date night."
Sydney turned to find Amelia with a big smile plastered on her face, as if she was so proud of her supposed matchmaking. Sydney just ducked her head to stare at the red wine swishing around in her glass.
"That's because I'm not really into dating right now," she said quietly.
But Amelia just pressed on. "Oh, you just need a cute boy to get you out of your funk."
"Maybe," she muttered.
Or maybe not. Or probably not. Or most definitely not.
"Maybe sounds like a yes, eh?" Amelia said cheerily with her Canadian accent sneaking through. "And on that note, dinner is ready if you're hungry."
Sydney helped Amelia set the table and serve the chili while Andy kept a watchful eye on Ryan as he got off the sofa and headed to the table. He still seemed to be little shaky on his feet as he walked across the floor. Apparently, removing his appendix threw off all the rest of his internal organs plus the abdominal muscles that kept him upright.
Amelia served everyone and the chili was amazing. And while Sydney wasn't really in the mood to talk, she was more than happy to listen to everyone else tell stories around the table. Ryan may complain about his mom sometimes, but the two of them were the best partners when it came to telling stories. Amelia would start talking about the time Ryan wanted to dress as a Zamboni driver for Halloween, and then Ryan would jump in to explain.
"Everyone loves the Zamboni driver!" he exclaimed. "He makes the ice better and he doesn't yell at you like a coach does."
"Plus, Ryan adored the driver at our local rink," Amelia added. "Bill was this nice old man who always gave him a high five when he walked into the rink. Do you remember Bill's wife?"
"Mrs. Bill made the most amazing cookies!"
Andy laughed from his spot besides Sydney. "Mrs. Bill?"
"I met her after I knew Bill and the name just stuck," Ryan said.
Amelia gave her son a warm smile and continued on with her story. "Mrs. Bill thought it was adorable that Ryan loved Bill's job, and I told her about how Ryan wanted to be a Zamboni driver for Halloween."
"Because Bill was cool," Ryan explained.
"And so three weeks before Halloween, Mrs. Bill came to the arena with a Zamboni costume for Ryan. She made it herself!"
"I won the best costume contest at school!" Even now, all these years later, Ryan looked so proud of himself for having that Zamboni driver costume for Halloween. But then his smile faded a little and he turned to look at his mom. "Have you seen Mrs. Bill lately?"
"I saw her a few weeks ago at church," she said. "She was there with some other widows from the nursing home a few miles away. She seemed happy but still looks a little lonely without Bill."
Ryan looked down and aimlessly started pushing some chili around his bowl. "Remind me to send you home with some things for her."
Sydney stared at her friend for a second before quickly turning back to her food as Amelia started another story about her son. Sometimes the immature rookie next door would surprise Sydney. For every nameless woman she would run out of his apartment, there would be a little moment when she would be reminded he was barely an adult who hadn't been completely beaten down yet by the world. Not like Sydney, who had been beaten down plenty lately. She would have to make it a point to try and at least get over to see Ryan more often in the next few weeks as they both struggled with their stupid extenuating circumstances.
But in the meantime, she decided to enjoy the food and the people around her. It would be enough for now, especially when she needed so much to find a way to distract herself from her current life.
After clearing off the table after dinner, Ryan seemed to be dragging a bit — something that Andy seemed to have noticed first.
"Perhaps it's time to get our rookie to bed, Amelia," he gently said as Ryan yawned loudly from his spot at the table.
"I should actually head out too."
Sydney knew she needed to go, knew it was the right thing to do, but she still dreaded walking back into that quiet apartment alone. Although taking Andy with her wouldn't be a better solution.
She watched as Andy checked in with Amelia on their plan for the next few days. Then he grabbed his coat from its spot on a kitchen chair.
"Remember to take your painkillers and let me know if the incision starts to give you any extra pain," he told Ryan.
"Yes, mom."
"Don't you start joking while your mother is right here!" Amelia said.
Ryan gave her a sheepish look. "Sorry, mom."
"Have a good night," Amelia said. "And Sydney, come visit anytime you need some company."
She gave Sydney a big mom hug and gently nudged her guests out the door. As soon as it locked behind them, Sydney started to feel nervous in the silent hallway. She headed for her apartment, hoping her movement somewhere would make things a little less awkward between her and Andy. All he had to do was say good night and she could curl up in front of her television again. Awkward problem solved.
"So good night," she said casually to Andy.
"Listen, about all the dating hints from Ryan's mom."
Sydney took a deep breath and turned to Andy, hoping he would make this quick. The look on his face, however, made her realize it probably wouldn't be easy to shoo him away. Although to be fair, he actually looked a bit humble standing in front of her, and it kind of made her not want him to leave just yet.
"I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I hope she didn't make you too uncomfortable."
Sydney gave him a slight smile. "You don't have to be sorry. I mean, you didn't ask her to do that, did you?"
"Oh, no no," Andy said quickly. "No, I didn't ask her to do that."
"I figured as much."
"But what you said about not being into dating right now. I'm assuming it's maybe because of what happened with your job."
Sydney looked down at her black boots. "Lack of a job."
"Right, sorry about that," Andy said quietly.
"It's OK." Sydney turned around to look at her front door. "I'm going to get going."
"Oh yeah, sure. Well, if you need anything, I mean, not that I could really help since you barely know me." He took a deep breath and nervously ran his fingers through his hair before looking up at her with his piercing blue eyes. "If you need anything and I can help, let me know."
Sydney smiled. "Thank you. I mean that."
Andy gave her a friendly nod. "Have a good night, Sydney," he said before walking away.
> He was almost at the elevator, well out of range of her voice, before Sydney finally found the effort to reply. "Good night," she quietly said before heading into her apartment to spend the rest of her night alone.
He heard her. He figured she thought he hadn't heard her, but he did. He was just about to press the button for the elevator to leave when he softly heard her respond behind him with a quiet "Good night."
As the elevator doors closed on him, he could see the door to her apartment slowly close on her. She was gone — for now.
Andy took a deep breath and leaned against the elevator rail. He liked Ryan's mom, he really did. She was kind and had been very thankful to him for helping Ryan. She was making sure Ryan was following all the instructions now that he was home. She gave him tea and told him when to take his painkillers. And for a petite woman, she had some muscle on her. Andy had no concern about whether she could help her son get off the sofa or walk around the apartment.
But holy crap was she a nag when it came to his love life. His own mother was worse, of course, but Amelia wasn't doing him any favors at dinner tonight. Yes, he was alone, and yes, he wished he had someone. But blatantly trying to push him on Sydney was a little much.
Not that he would mind ever being on Sydney with her brown hair flared out on the pillow underneath her as his lips found that small spot above her collarbone while his eyes drifted to… a man who was standing in the elevator lobby staring at him.
"Are you going to get out or what, dude?"
Andy blinked, realizing he was so lost in the idea of Sydney's body that he hadn't realized he had reached the parking lot. He nodded in embarrassment and stepped out, making his way as quickly to his car as he could with the zipper of his pants a little tighter than usual.
As he drove out on the streets of Detroit to the freeway home, he had to remind himself that even if he did find Sydney attractive, even if he did want to date her, there was just no way he could actually try being in a relationship with her. He had seen the way she interacted with Ryan, and they were probably nothing more than friends. But he had been down that road before. He knew how women reacted to hockey players in this city.
Buried Treasure (The Detroit Pirates Book 2) Page 5
