Free Better for Us by Vanessa Miller Page B

off too soon? If so, that was one more thing Ryla would blame on her father. She must have inherited her running gene from him. “You’re right, Noel. I left as soon as she kissed you. I thought she was doing what you wanted her to do.” Ryla shook her head. She no longer felt butterflies fluttering in her stomach. She felt plain ill. “I have wished a thousand times that I could go back and make all of this right.”
    “It’s too late now.”
    “It’s never too late, Noel. Not if we’re willing to give it a try.”
    “Some things are too hard to forgive, Ryla.”
    Ryla saw the look of sorrow in Noel’s eye as he admitted that he hadn’t yet forgiven her for what she’d done. But she was also encouraged by the fact that Noel had just admitted that he had been in love with her in college. Sure, she had messed up. But Ryla wasn’t ready to throw in the towel so easily this time. Noel wanted her to pretend to marry him, and now that she knew for sure that Noel wasn’t a cheater, she wanted nothing more than to marry him. Maybe this was her chance to make things right between them.
    She leaned over a bit and took Noel’s hand in hers. “Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll marry you.”
    He removed his hand. “You mean, you’ll pretend to marry me, right?”
    She smiled. Noel wanted a runaway bride, but little did he know Ryla’s running days were over. “I just have one question,” she said, ignoring his question.
    “What’s that?”
    “Where’s my engagement ring?”
    He popped himself on the forehead with the palm of his hand. “I’m so sorry, Ryla. I didn’t even think to pick up a ring.”
    She frowned. “Well, I’ll tell you right now, Noel Carter, I’m not about to get engaged to anyone who doesn’t even bother to buy me a ring.”
    “You got it, Ryla. I’ll take care of it first thing in the morning.”
    She looked him square in the face and said, “I don’t want you to delegate this to one of your staff members. I’m not marrying any man who won’t even take the time to find his fiancé an engagement ring.”
    “I’ll get the ring. But don’t you think you need to calm down a bit? I mean, we’re only pretending, remember?”
    “I don’t care. I’ve never been engaged before, so if you want me to walk away at the altar, then I want you to treat me like a fiancé throughout the entire engagement. Got it?”
    “Got it,” Noel said as he lifted a hand to the waiter to get the check.
    * * *
    Ryla had a hard time getting to sleep that night. She didn’t feel good about her decision to trick Noel into marrying her. She just hoped that by the end of the engagement, he would be in love with her again and would want to marry her for real, just as much as she wanted to marry him.
    Whenever Ryla had a dilemma that she just couldn’t see her way through, she called on her girls, Danetta Windham and Surry McDaniel. Jaylen was spending the day with her aunt, going to museums, lunch and then a movie. So Ryla picked up the phone and called Danetta. When Danetta answered, Ryla said, “I know it’s early and I apologize if you’re not up yet.”
    Yawning, Danetta said, “I’m getting up. Why are you calling so early on a Saturday morning?”
    “I tossed and turned all night long. I really need to talk to you and Surry today. Do you think you can meet me for a late breakfast or early lunch?”
    “This sounds serious. Let me get Surry on the phone,” Danetta said and then clicked to her other line. When she came back on the line with Ryla, she said, “Okay, Surry is on the line with us.”
    “What’s going on, girl? Why are you up at this ungodly hour?” Surry asked.
    “It’s seven in the morning. You two are acting like I called at four in the morning. Where is the sisterhood here? I really need your help.”
    After razzing her for a few more minutes, Danetta and Surry agreed to meet up with Ryla in Fort Hood, a military town that was just about the halfway point between Houston and