Chapter 17 - A different perspective

Ryder's POV

Speeding along the freeway, I felt nothing but pure rage building inside of me, like a pressure cooker waiting to explode. This was not how I wanted my day to go. Before I received the call from Faith, it was going along nicely. I had woken up with Keegan curled in my arms, and when she woke up, she wasn’t pissy with me about what happened the night before. I was ready for her to lose her shit, to tell me I could have done more to control what happened last night. But the way she looked at me, I could tell she was more embarrassed than anything else.

Then I went to meet up with Marcus and the reporter that wanted to interview me, and that was going great. It looked like it would be a glowing piece about me, the first good press I had had in such a long time. Unfortunately, I had to skip out early when my sister called to tell me about her mother’s visit. This wasn’t the first time she had reached out to Faith to see her, and I’m sure it wouldn’t be the last time. I had always supervised the visits when she was younger to try and limit the damage her mother did, but ever since Faith had gotten her own phone, her mother had gone around me and contacted Faith directly. I wasn’t a fan of the arrangement, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. How do you tell a child that their mother is a toxic narcissist that they are better off without?

This was the first time she had arranged to meet her mother without telling me, and of course, her mother had done what she always did and screwed it all up. I was just grateful that Keegan was still at the house and had been able to send the bitch on her merry way. As soon as I got in the car, I immediately called Tiffany and demanded a meeting. Of course, she was staying at the Waldorf Hotel in Beverley Hills, so I had to drive across town to get to her.
After tossing my keys at the valet, I took the elevator to the eleventh floor. By the time I found her room, my rage had nearly reached its peak, and my pounding on the door should have alerted her to the fact that I was not happy.

Tiffany answered the door with a bored look on her face, “Ah, if it isn’t my favorite stepson.”

I ignored her comment, navigating around her and into her suite. “I’m your only stepson, Tiff, unless this new fancy fiancé of yours has any kids. Congratulations, by the way, glad you’ve found someone new to bleed dry.”

“What do you want, Ryder?” She asked, examining her nails, “I’ve had more than enough harsh comments thrown at me today.”

“I just came here to tell you that you are not to comment Faith again without my knowledge.” I informed her sternly, “I am changing her phone number today, and she will be the one that decides when she is ready and will be the one to contact you. Do I make myself clear?”

“She’s my daughter. I will contact her whenever I want to.” She sneered, “Maybe it’s time that she comes and lives with me. Now that you have a live-in girlfriend, I’m starting to think that it’s not the best environment for Faith.”

I rolled my eyes at her, “Please, you haven’t once cared in the past six years what was happening in my household, so don’t pretend to care now. I am Faith’s legal guardian. If we went to court, all the judge would see is a mother that abandoned her child and who are you kidding, carting around Faith would put too much of a damper on your new relationship. So do your daughter a favor and concentrate on that. Leave Faith alone.”

Now that my message had been relayed, I saw no need to stay any longer. Keegan had taken Faith with her to her grandmother’s house, so that was my next stop. I multitasked and changed our gate code on my way there and ordered a new sim card for Faith’s cell phone with a new number.

I knocked on the front door, Keegan’s Grandmother opening it moments later, “Well, if it isn’t my favorite Lakers player.”

I chuckled softly, “Hi Trixie, how are you?”

She stood to the side to allow me entry, “I told you to call me Grams, you silly boy.”

I walked into the house, and my nose was assaulted with the smell of chocolate. It smelled so good in here. I followed the sound of giggling until I reached the kitchen. It was about a quarter of the size of mine, but every available surface was covered in vanilla and chocolate cupcakes. Both Faith and Keegan were standing at the counter with piping bags filled with frosting in their hands, laughing together as they piped the frosting onto the cupcakes. I had never seen Faith so relaxed and happy in my life.

I was just enjoying the view when I felt Trixie’s hand on my shoulder, “Look who finally showed up, girls.”
Faith’s smile faltered when she saw me. She dropped the bag and raced over, wrapping her arms around me and burying her head into my chest. “I’m so sorry, Ryder. I thought that she had changed.”

“Shhh”, I soothed her, brushing my hand through her hair, “It’s okay, we can talk about it later.”

Keegan and I locked eyes over the top of Faith’s head. There was so much I wanted to say to her right now.

“Come on, Faith, how about you and I go to the other room and start putting some sprinkles on the already frosted cupcakes. You can help me get them packed up and in the car, and Ryder can help Keegan finish the rest. I don’t know what we would have done without your help, today sweetheart.” Grams told her as if reading my thoughts.

Faith looked up and nodded at her, letting go of me and running to Trixie’s side, and the two of them walked out of the kitchen together, leaving Keegan and me alone.

I walked over towards her and picked up the bag of vanilla frosting that Faith had discarded, “Fair warning, I have never frosted a cupcake in my life.”

I watched Keegan’s hand for a few minutes as she expertly frosted the chocolate cupcake in front of her. She made it look easy. Maybe I could do it. I tried mimicking how she was squeezing the bag, but whilst her cupcake looked perfect, the way I frosted mine made it look like a vanilla turd on top.

“Somehow, I think that is wrong,” I muttered, staring down at it.

Keegan giggled, putting her pipping bag down and coming up behind me. My body stiffened as I felt her breasts pressing into my back as she wrapped her arms around my body until her hands rested over mine.

“It’s all in the wrists.” She advised me, helping me frost the next cupcake, and it came out perfectly this time.

We both stood there together, neither of us moving from our current position. I literally couldn’t until I calmed down because the way she was pressing up against me made my shorts extremely tight, and I didn’t want Keegan to know her effect on me.

“Um, I just wanted to say thank you for being there for Faith today,” I told her, trying to distract myself from our current position.

She let go of my hands and moved back a little as if the spell had been broken. “Sure, no problem. Between you and me, I was very close to punching her in the face.”

I laughed, spinning around to face her now that we had some distance between us, “My stepmother has that effect on most people.”

“I should be thanking you for last night.” She stated, a sheepish look on her face, “If you hadn’t stopped me when you did last night.”

“I would never take advantage of you like that, Keegan.” I whispered, “Not ever.”

I reached up and wiped a smug of chocolate off her cheek, my thumb moving down towards her mouth until it rested on the corner of her mouth, my palm cupping her face. I stopped things from escalating too far last night because she was drunk, but things felt like they had shifted between us. You can’t fake that kind of passion that we had had when we kissed. Maybe there was something there between us. Her gorgoues green eyes were boring into mine as she bit her lower lip. I couldn’t help but lean in a little, closing the distance between us slowly until our lips were nearly touching and what was better was that she was not stopping me.

My lips brushed softly against hers, just as I was about to add more pressure when Faith’s voice called out from the other room. “Hey guys, we need more cupcakes in here, are you guys done yet?”

Keegan jumped back quicker than I could blink, and just like what, whatever had happened was over before it even began. She busied herself, putting cupcakes onto a tray.

I moved to help her, “So what are all these cupcakes for?”

“The community centre is holding a fun-raising event this afternoon. The cupcakes are for the dessert stall.” She explained as she grabbed the tray and bolted out of the room, making me feel like we were back to square one again.

For the next hour, we frosted and decorated the cupcakes in silence. By the time we were packing up, we had over one hundred and fifty delicious cupcakes all boxed up and packed between Keegan’s vehicle and mine, which meant I had to go along to the event with them. Not that I minded, I was curious to see what the center was like.
Keegan and her Grams went in her car while Faith and I followed in mine. The community center looked more like a giant warehouse than an actual building. There were tables, booths and chairs everywhere out the front, with balloons and streamers decorating every crevice and tons of people milling around. Once the cupcakes were delivered to the dessert booth, Keegan’s Grams ran off to find her friends, and Keegan took Faith to introduce her to a couple of the teens hanging around, leaving me alone and to my own devices.

I had my baseball cap and sunglasses on, which helped hide my identity from the crowds. Whilst I liked meeting fans, I didn’t want to distract people from why they were really here. I walked past one of the staff who was handing out pamphlets to everyone who passed. From what I read, this place did a lot for the neighbourhood. They collected food and clothing donations for those who were unable to afford either, held tutoring sessions for kids and community meals once a week, helped people find jobs and housing, and even provided a safe space for the kids to go to while their parents were working. I didn’t know places like this existed, but I could understand their importance. I was lucky growing up. My father had an amazing job, so I had the security a lot of these kids didn’t.

My stroll lead me towards the back of the building and to an old, beat-up basketball court. There were small potholes all over the asphalt that made up the court. The poles holding up the baskets were covered in rust, and whilst the basketball hoops were there, the metal nets were gone, leaving only a few chain links behind. This place was in major need of a facelift. Although it looked degraded, it wasn’t stopping one kid from using it. He was probably about the same age as Faith. I watched him move across the court and shoot the ball into the basket. Watching him, I could tell he was a natural. His hands were fast and efficient, and his aim was brilliant. He hadn’t missed a three-pointer yet.

“You know it’s kind of creepy having you watch me, man.” The boy called out, bouncing the ball in front of him.

“Sorry.” I apologised, “You’ve got talent.”

He rolled his eyes at me, “And what are you, some sort of expert?”

Smiling, I took off my glasses and spun my hand around, so it was backwards, watching his eyes go wide, “You could say that. Mind if I join you?”

“Umm. Sure.” He stammered.

We played for a good thirty minutes, and he got the jump on me on more than one occasion, although he did have an advantage and knew this court better than me. He seemed to avoid every pothole without even looking whilst I nearly rolled my ankle several times.

He put up a final shot over my head, sinking the basket with ease.

“You’re a natural.” I praised him, “do you play on a team?”

He shook his head, “No, my school had to cut our sports program, not enough in the budget.”

It broke my heart knowing that a kid with such talent may never have a chance to develop that talent due to the area he lived. It was not fair, and I was going to rack my brain to try to figure out a way to help him.