Sweet Caroline {Ryan Blaney} ✔️

twenty-seven

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"One more chapter, please." Caroline's puppy dog eyes settled on Ryan. "I like it when you read. Your voices are funnier than Momma's."

Ryan's heart swelled a little, not even caring that she was probably only telling him that to stall the inevitable going to bed. "I've already read five chapters." He smoothed her hair. "It's time for you to go to bed."

Caroline's lips plumped into a pout. "I don't want you to go. I missed you."

A flash of guilt hit Ryan -- a misunderstanding, a moment of rashness had caused him to lose a week of time with Caroline. "I missed you too. But I'll see you again really soon but you have to go to sleep."

Caroline nodded slowly. "Love you, Ryan." She murmured.

Ryan leaned forward and kissed her forehead, wondering if his heart could literally explode from the flood of happiness that was assaulting him. He wasn't sure he'd ever hear Caroline tell him that and certainly not unprompted.

All of the pain, the hurt, and broken parts that he was sifting through were worth it -- so worth it to hear those words. He ached to tell her the truth but he knew that Lydia was right, Caroline deserved him at his best and that was going to take time. But Caroline telling him that she loved him? That would power him through. 

"I love you too. Goodnight, Caroline." Ryan stood up, quickly shutting the door. He quickly bounded down the steps, eager to tell Lydia what had happened.

Lydia -- she had looked so damn angelic while sleeping that it had killed him to wake her up. The flustered look on her face, the way she had been avoiding eye contact with him had made him so nervous to the point he neared a panic attack. When she confessed -- or at least implied -- that she had had a sex dream about him, Ryan had nearly fallen on the floor.

Sure, he still had dreams about her -- about their night together -- but he had always chalked it off to a safe place for his mind to escape. It had never crossed his mind that she had those dreams too.

A tiny piece of Ryan hoped that maybe that meant she'd be open to a physical relationship with him. It was stupid, probably reckless but after their kiss, he craved her touch.

He was touch starved and it was starting to drive him crazy. That's all it was -- it had to be. If Ryan was thinking right, he would know that having sex with Lydia was probably a terrible idea and besides, she didn't want him. He'd just have to settle with whoever he met at the first bar he found to satisfy this sudden urge.

As Ryan descended the stairs, his eyes fell on Lydia. She was playing a game on her phone -- her dark bangs falling in her face, her brow furrowed in concentration. Ryan's heart rate sped up a little. Time had made Lydia even more beautiful.

"Somehow one chapter turned into five." Ryan broke the silence once he stepped off the last step.

Lydia looked up from her phone with a grin that nearly knocked Ryan over. "She is a master at that."

"She told me that she loved me." Ryan rocked on his heels. "That felt amazing."

"That's great." Lydia held her grin. "She really does love you. She was ecstatic when I told her you were coming for dinner."