I looked back through the window and watched as the woman leaned forward. She picked up her hand and placed it on top of Ryan’s and I felt my heart shatter. It was happening again. But this time, I was watching it. The man I’d let my guard down with. The man I started to attach myself to emotionally.
He was with another woman.
I tried to convince myself it was an innocent lunch. After all, they looked to be dressed for business. I’m sure Ryan did plenty of lunch meetings with high-end clients. But the way she put her hand on top of his and the way he didn’t pull back.
It made it sick to my stomach.
“Come on! Let’s go!” Zoey said.
“Zoey, wait!”
She pulled the door to the restaurant open and everyone was looking at me with an odd reaction. I was on display. Being judged. Mocked. Questioned. Like I had been in high school. I ushered everyone into the restaurant and we were quickly seated, but not before I caught Zoey running up to her uncle. Ryan looked shocked as his eyes lifted to mine, and I could see something there that I’d never seen before.
Hesitancy.
Damn it.
I let it happen again.
“Zoey, come here,” I said as I walked up to her. “You can’t just run off like that. I’m responsible for you during the day.”
“But it’s Uncle Ryan,” she said.
“Uncle Ryan?” the woman asked.
“Um. Yeah. Yes. Layla, this is my niece, Zoey,” Ryan said.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Layla said.
Layla with the red lips.
“And who is this?”
Her voice ripped me from my trance and I shook my head.
“Miss Emma. I’m Zoey’s teacher,” I said.
“Aren’t you going to say ‘hi’ to Uncle Ryan?” Zoey asked.
My eyes whipped over to Ryan and I could see him searching for an appropriate reaction.
“Hello, Mr. Aaron,” I said.
His brow ticked with confusion and the woman cleared her throat.
“Mr. Aaron. Well, that sounds innocent enough, doesn’t it?” Layla asked.
“Why wouldn’t it be innocent?” I asked.
“I figured with the way Ryan became so flustered in your presence that maybe you were a love interest.”
“No,” I said as my eyes fell to Zoey. “I’m not.”
“She’s just the teacher,” he said.
Wow. ‘Just the teacher’. Even my heartbreak from college wasn’t that cruel. I felt the breath being sucked from my lungs as I stood there beside the two of them. It was easy to look at Layla and see why he preferred her. Why he would take a chance with her and keep me as some sort of side woman. But I wasn’t sticking around to see how this played out. I knew what was going on and the last thing I needed was to be caught in the middle of another college memory. I gathered Zoey in my arms and carried her so she couldn’t get away again and quickly retreated from the moment.
I whipped around the corner to where everyone else was sitting before Ryan’s voice caught my ear.