My Spy 5: A Southern Girl in Paris

Innocent

The next morning I am wide awake as soon as the sunlight splashes all over Ryan's room. He is still breathing deeply when I look at him and I realize he's not going to look so precious when I demand answers from him soon.

As quietly as I can, I slip out of his bed and dart over to the door. I don't want Momma catching me in here so I slowly spin the glass doorknob and pull the door open. I stick my head out to check if the coast is clear but she catches me as she's coming out of her room.

We both stare at each other, frozen in place and I am the first to speak when I say, "Nothing happened. I just took care of him because he was drunk. Like, really drunk." Her head still looks like it's going to explode so I add, "Nothing happened. I promise." I quickly close his door behind me and she finally says, "For Sebastian's sake, I hope not Sawyer Mae. You told me there would be no funny business."

"There wasn't. I did nothing wrong," I tell her but her bulging eyes and pursed lips tell me she thinks otherwise. I shake my head and head straight for my room. I quickly shower and dress in comfortable clothes before I dart downstairs to see if Celia is around.

She smiles when she sees me and I cheerily say, "Mornin' Mrs. Celia! Do you think you could whip me up one of your hangover shakes?"

She puts her hand on her hip and with a frown replies, "I thought you ain't supposed to be drinkin."

I shake my head, "Oh, it's for Ryan, not me. Actually, Austin will probably want one too." She nods before spinning around and she walks toward the fridge to grab the ingredients. I notice there are no dirty coffee cups so Momma must not have lingered down here too long this morning.

I don't want to run into her again, so I sit on the patio enjoying the morning sunshine while Celia starts up the blender. Ryan isn't going to be thrilled when I wake him up in a few minutes and bombard him with questions. I was up off and on all night wondering how the hell Bash could know Rory.

When I hear the blender stop, I leap off the porch swing and whip the door back open. Celia smiles at me as she hands me the green smoothie in a large glass tumbler.

"Thanks, Mrs. Celia! You're the best you know." I tell her brightly and she goes back to getting breakfast ready. I carry the smoothie up the steps and loudly kick Ryan's door open. He rolls over to try and block out the noise but I say, "Here is your hangover cure." I drop the glass onto the nightstand but all he does is let out a whining noise in response.

I shake my head and snap, "I know you don't like to talk until you've showered and brushed your teeth, so I'll wait here while you go do that."

"Anyone ever tell you you're crazy woman?" Ryan snaps and I cross my arms over my chest.

"Almost every day. Now, you're the one that baited me with questions last night so now you have to provide me with answers." This gets him to pop an eye open and look at me. His bloodshot green eye is surrounded by puffiness but I can still see his wheels spinning.

"What?" He asks me plainly and I reply, "You promised me last night that you would tell me how Rory and Bash were connected." This gets him to open both eyes and from the look on his face, I don't think he remembers telling me anything about Rory last night.

I nod and add, "Oh yes, you told me lots of things last night that need further explaining." I catch the panic flicker across his face but he doesn't say anything. I still am standing with my arms folded when I say, "So you can tell me what you know about Rory and Sebastian or I can go call him right now and ask him myself." He rubs his hands down his face and I am sure this is the last thing he wanted to wake up to this morning.

"I think you need to ignore whatever I said when I was drunk," he says with his deep gravelly morning voice. I think to him saying his biggest regret was that we were forever done and I refuse to ignore that.