Sullivans 06 - Let Me Be the One

*
     
    “I’m so glad you could come to Summer’s party,” Mary Sullivan said when Vicki joined her on the patio.
    “You know how much I love spending time with your family. And Emma is positively gorgeous.” Zach and Heather’s dogs had clearly adopted the baby as they flanked her pink and purple vibrating baby seat. A moment later, Jake helped Sophie up from the nearby couch, her belly looking even bigger than it had just a day ago. “And I’m so glad things worked out so well for Sophie and Jake.”
    Summer’s grandmother, who had flown out from Minneapolis for Summer’s birthday party, smiled and said, “Congratulations on your engagement.”
    Vicki worked to smile back and say, “Thank you,” without faltering. Thank God Mary already knew the truth, or she would have felt even worse about the situation than she already did.
    The other woman turned to Mary. “You must be so thrilled to know that another one of your children has found the one. ”
    Mary put her arm around Vicki and didn’t miss a beat in the game of pretend they were playing. “I couldn’t be happier for Vicki and Ryan. He had such a crush on her when they were in school together. It was amazing for me to see him be so serious about a girl when he’d always been so relaxed about it all before.”
    Wow, Vicki thought, now I know where Smith gets his acting chops.
    Mary turned to her and added, “The night he went over to ask you to the prom and found out you had already agreed to go with someone else...well, it just about broke my heart to see him like that.”
    Forgetting they were supposed to be pretending, Vicki blurted, “He was going to ask me to the Sophomore Prom?”
    Summer’s grandmother cut in to ask, “He never told you?”
    Vicki shook her head, wondering if Mary could have made that up. “No. He never told me.”
    At her unspoken question, Ryan’s mother patted her arm and nodded. “It’s true, Vicki. He really did go to ask you to the prom. I know how worried he was about doing something that might ruin your friendship. Asking you to that dance was going to be his big risk. Unfortunately, he never got to take it.” Mary’s eyes held hers. “Until now.”
    Summer’s grandmother was saying something about romantic love stories and long-lost high school sweethearts, but Vicki could barely keep track of it. Fortunately, Mary seemed to understand that she needed to be left alone with her thoughts.
    Vicki had been so careful to keep herself from getting hurt every step of the way with Ryan this past week. But as she watched Ryan pick up Emma and give her kisses all over her face that had the baby nuzzling even closer to him, Vicki suddenly wondered if what she’d thought was so smart had actually been blindingly stupid, instead.
     
    * * *
     
    As they drove through the city back to Ryan’s house, Vicki was as nervous as she’d ever been. Ryan was strangely silent, which was okay, since she couldn’t have made small talk for the life of her.
    Oh God, she couldn’t believe what she was thinking of doing—that she was actually toying with the idea of confessing her feelings to him after all these years. Because even after her body had given away far more than she’d ever planned while in his arms the previous evening, it was still possible to write that off as “just sex.”
    Whereas, once she crossed the “I like you as more than a friend” line with actual words, there was no taking them back...or trying to attribute them to one crazy night.
    At the outset of this week, she’d made a vow to be calm and rational rather than too passionate for her own good. Okay, so she’d blown it last night, and clearly if she wanted it, there was tons more ridiculously good blowing it on her horizon.
    But was the greatest sex in the world worth risking her heart—and her friendship with Ryan—over?
    When they arrived home, they walked inside and she put their things down on his kitchen counter, the same way she had so many nights before that week. Only, tonight, everything felt different.
    Different enough that she suddenly blurted, “You were going to ask me to the prom?”
    “I had it bad for you even then.”
    Slowly, she turned to face him. He stared at her and she stared back. Time stood still as she tried to read what was in his eyes.
    “Ryan?” His name on her lips made them tingle. Made her want. Desperately.
    “It won’t be weird this time.”
    Vicki’s heart was pounding so hard she could barely