Chapter 7 - Hard Conversations

Ryder's POV

Having a new person in the house was a little unnerving. Faith and I had a specific routine that we followed, and it had worked well for years, so it was weird having someone else in the mix. It just threw me off balance a little. Not to mention that Faith wasn’t a fan of this arrangement. I had meant to tell her all week about what was happening, but I chickened out every time I tried. She had always warned me about the girls etc, that it was going to come back and bite me in the ass. I didn’t want to prove her right, and more importantly, I didn’t want to disappoint her.

She always switched to sign language when she wanted to have a private conversation with me, although I had never had her use such colorful language in her signing. I would have to ask her where she learned the word whore in sign. I knew it, but that was only because I was a teen boy when I learnt. It was inevitable that I would learn all the bad words first. In all our years, I had also never had someone catch us in the act before. Sign language was normally not something that many people knew, so we usually got away with it, but we would have to find a new way to communicate with Keegan around.

I wasn’t going to go pick Keegan up today, but part of me worried about her driving that old station wagon. I was afraid the old clunker would break down on the middle of the freeway. What I wasn’t expecting was being threatened by her grandmother upon my arrival, that lady was scary, and while she was at least in her sixties, I did not doubt that she could follow through with her threats. There was something in her eyes.

After we signed the contract, Marcus went to do what he did best and Keegan and I were left alone in the office. You could cut the tension with a knife.

“Dinner?” I suggested trying to break the silence.

She nodded in agreeance, “Sure, sounds good.”

Once we arrived in the kitchen, she took a seat on one of the stools, and I headed towards the fridge to examine its contents, “Chicken or steak?”

“Either.” She called back, “I’m not fussy.”

That was good to know. I had never met a girl before that wasn’t fussy. I ate a reasonably healthy diet most of the time and especially during the basketball season, but some of the girls I had taken out before took things to the extreme, no butter, no gluten, no sugar, no salt, no oil, no dairy, in other words, no taste. It was one thing that annoyed me about some women.

I pulled out two serves of steak with stirfried vegetables and noodles and put them on to warm up before returning to the fridge to look at drink options. Faith had her own meals prepared as she wasn’t into the whole, healthy eating and ate when she felt like eating on weekends, so it was just the two of us.

“I have beer, juice or water.” I called out from behind the fridge door, “I may have some wine behind the bar if that’s more your style.”

“Beer is fine.” She answered, so I grabbed one for her and another for me.

Popping the top of both bottles and slid one across the counter towards her, which she caught easily, “So I guess if we are going to make this work, we should get to know each other. Did you go to college?”

She took a swig of her beer and nodded, “I went to the same one as you.”

“UCLA?” I exclaimed, a rush of panic spreading through me, “Were we there at the same time? Oh god, did we….”

Keegan glared at me, “No, you did not have sex with me and then ghost me. That honor went to a few of my friends, though.”

I pulled the meals out and put one in front of her before taking a seat myself. I had had my fair share of women in my college days, and if I was being honest, they never went past the one night. I never really had much to do with them afterwards apart from the angry looks across the quad. It kind of now made sense why she didn’t like me very much, I didn’t screw her over, but I screwed over people she knew.

“Look, I’m sorry okay, if I hurt your friends, I apologise,” I advised her as I focused on my meal, unable to meet her eye.

“No need to apologise.” She stated calmly, “It’s not like your reputation was a secret when we were freshmen. If they were stupid enough to believe your lies and crawl into bed with you, then that’s on them. I just don’t like you on principal.”

I eyed her cautiously, “I don’t know whether to be hurt or relieved.”

Keegan looked over from her meal, “Take it however you wish.”

Her cheeks went a light shade of pink went she clicked at how dirty that came out. I was already there but thought I would keep my mouth shut. No point opening that can of worms. I couldn’t flirt with her. I couldn’t blur those lines. This needed to stay as professional as it could. It was just a business arrangement. If I started something, it would end badly, and the whole deal would be shot. Marcus was right. The bosses needed to see me settled down if I was to have any hope of stepping on the court again the season after next.

By the time our plates were empty, we had each had a few beers, which eased the mood a little, and we had gotten through a lot. We had the basics that we should know about, favorite things, dislikes, we discussed a little about our family lives, but I didn’t go too much into the reasons for why I had custody of Faith. I didn’t know Keegan well enough to tell her all the sordid details, just like I knew she was holding something back about her family life. We had also came up with a very good story about how we knew each other. We would tell people we met in college, lost contact, and recently reconnected once we realised there was still something between us.

Hopefully, that was enough of a back story to cover our bases. Marcus had managed to keep my recent around out of the press, and the girl I was with signed an NDA. All the girls I went out with did, and all the people who attended the poker games knew to keep their mouths closed, so when I thought about it, no one had seen me with a girl all summer, probably a little longer. We thought we could get away with telling people we had been together for three months. The only person that might have some questions was my teammate Michael, he wouldn’t talk to the media, but he may bust my balls about being with another chick, which meant I might have to tell him the truth. We also needed to keep the circle of trust on this thing small, less chance of being outed that way.

After dinner, she excused herself and went to her room. I cleaned up, watched a bit of Sportscentre and then realised I forgot to tell Keegan something, so I went to her room, knocking softly on the door. When she opened it, I had to do my best to keep my eyes on hers as a quick glance at her entire had my shorts feeling a little tighter. She was dressed in nothing but light blue cotton shorts and a matching camisole. Even after a cursory look, I knew there was no way she was wearing a bra under that top.

“Ummmm, sorry I forgot to tell you I booked you an appointment with my personal shopper at ten tomorrow and at the salon she recommended. You’ll need something to wear to the event on Tuesday night and for games and other events in the future. It’s all on me.” I explained.

I saw the rage flash across her eyes, “And you don’t think I have anything appropriate to wear?”

“The wives and girlfriends are all about labels. If you want to fit in, then you’ll need some in your closet.” I answered as I shifted nervously.

“So my clothes are trash, and I’m assuming you’ve booked a salon appointment because my hair is trash too.” She announced through gritted teeth.

I rubbed the back of my neck, “It’s not trash, it’s just not….”

“Girlfriend worthy.” She prompted, “It’s okay, I get it. This is what I signed up for, right. Are you coming with me to supervise, or am I free to go on my own?”

“I’ll leave the keys to the car on the counter in the kitchen.” I disclosed, unsure about what else I could say without digging a bigger grave for myself.

“Sure, well, just text me the details.” Keegan answered, shutting the door until half her body was hidden, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s been a long day, and I’m tired.”

Before I could respond, she closed the door completely. This would be a long twelve months if we couldn’t find any common ground, but that was a problem for another day. Right now, my main problem was trying to sleep when all I could think about was how her boobs looked in that camisole she was wearing.