Love Takes Time (Christian Romance) (10 page)

She
laughed at him.

“What
do I say?  I say that I don’t have much of a choice but to meet your
parents because if I hear that you’ve been dancing with another woman, it’s not
going to be good for this relationship and I have been rather enjoying you.”

Ryder
smiled as the opportunity to discuss how far they were in their relationship
presented itself.  He hadn’t planned on doing that until sometime in the
future but the timing was too good. 

“I’d
hoped as much but then I realized that we are technically just dating.”

“Just
dating?”

“Yeah. 
Right now we are just two people having fun.  Unless you want to be
exclusive.  I guess that depends on how much you have enjoyed the time
that we’ve been spending together.”

He saw
her look on him in a way that was very clear about how stupid she thought his
statement was. 

“Seriously?
 We have been dating for weeks now and all of a sudden you ask me now if I
want to be exclusive?  Um hello.  You better not have been dating anyone
at the same time as me.”

He
was happier than he realized he would be at her response.  Not that he
expected her to want space.  It was nice to make it official.

“No,
I haven’t, but the lawyers at the firm always tell me to get a solid
affirmative on every deal.   So with that out of the way, are you
going to take me under your wings and teach me a few steps?”

“Of
course.  As long as you are a good student.  And since you are
already such a good boyfriend, I am going to teach you for free.  How about
we start next Tuesday with the waltz.”

“That
would be great.”

“Good.
 You are going to need to dress in loose pants and a t-shirt please.
 You are going to need to be able to move freely.”

“That’s
a relief.  I thought you were going to insist on the whole leotard thing.”
 

“Nah. 
I don’t take you for the leotard type.”

She
laughed at him.

“Do
you have any idea how pretty you are when you smile.”

He
watched as her cheeks flushed red.

“I
have been told that quite a lot, even outside of the probably thirty times you
have told me tonight.”

“I’m
sorry.  I just can’t deny it. With you I start to talk before I realize
it.  Just some kind of effect you have on me.”

He hugged
her closely and backed away, hoping she understood how attracted he was to her.
 

“Well
I guess we should call it a night.  I’ll talk to you soon then?”

“Alright, goodnight Ryder.”

“Well
that was just too easy Ryder.  Here I was thinking it was going to take a
bunch of lessons but you picked everything up like nothing.  I can’t
believe you learned so many cornerstone dances in that short a time.”  

Chelsea
looked back at Ryder as she walked across her studio floor and grabbed a bottle
of water, to rehydrate.  It had only been two lessons that she’d given him
and in such a short time he’d become almost an expert at every dance she threw
his way.  She was beginning to think the guy was some kind of dance
prodigy. 

“Are
you sure you didn’t already know how to do all this?  I swear that you
either have to be the quickest learner in the world or I am the best teacher.”

He
flashed his pulse pumping smile at her once again. 

“
Well
Chelsea, I for one know first-hand that you are a great
teacher but I may have cheated a tiny bit.”

“Ryder
Chatham cheated?  This I have to hear.”

“Yep. 
I already knew the basics of some of these dances.  My mother made us
learn how to do a few of them as kids but I never liked it so I didn’t pay attention.
I haven’t needed it for years, really don’t now but if you were going to be my
date at my parents, I figured you would probably want to dance at least once.”

“No
way!”

“Sorry.”

“No
biggie.  So I got an assist and I’m not the greatest teacher of all
time.  Even so, if you haven’t danced since being younger, I’d still say
we did pretty well.”

“I
guess you’re right there.”

Chelsea
stopped for a second.  She was confused by something he’d said. 

“Wait
a minute.  What did you mean when you said ‘if you were going to be my
date’?  I seem to remember that you didn’t ask me to be your date until
you asked me to teach you to dance first.”

“What
can I say?  I had a feeling you would say yes.”

“Oh
so you had a feeling.”

“Hey
I’m just glad you said yes.”

“Like
I had a choice.  You used your extreme cuteness to your advantage. 
But I’m not upset about it.  She walked over to him and kissed him on the
cheek.  “It gave me the chance to spend more time with you, and I can’t
complain about that.”

“I
might have considered that as well when I asked you to teach me.”

“You
might have, huh?”  

“Maybe
a
 tiny
 bit.  You can’t blame me for wanting my
family to meet you.  That way they get a chance to see what I see in you.”

It was
still a bit daunting to her that she was going to be meeting the family of her
billionaire boyfriend.  She didn’t worry about it that much though. 
She figured if they were the ones who raised Ryder, they couldn’t be that
bad.  Besides, she was never one to worry about things that she couldn’t
control and there wasn’t going to be much she could really do to make sure that
they liked her. 

“Still
can’t believe it’s this Saturday.”

“Wait,
this Saturday is the fifteenth?  I didn’t even realize how close we were
to it.  In that case, I need to tell you about my folks.”

Chelsea
felt a bit of trepidation when he said it. 

“That
doesn’t sound good.”

“Don’t
worry.  Most of my family will be nothing for you.  It’s my dad
though.  Everything is a test for him and he’s constantly watching
people’s actions and motives.  He can be a bit pushy and might seem
stuffy.  I just want to let you know before we go so that when he says or
does something that I will most likely be embarrassed about later, you go easy on
me afterwards.”

“Gee. 
What a way to put a little pressure on a girl.  You make it sound like I
should be afraid.  Don’t you think you might be exaggerating a little bit
Ryder?”

“Not
in the least.  If anything, I’m not making him mean enough.  I mean
it’s always with good intent but he just does things wrong sometimes. 
You’ll see what I mean.   I just feel like it would be wrong to send
you in there and not give you a little
heads
up about
him.  And like I said, mom and my brothers will probably be eating out of
the palm of your hand so don’t worry about them.  Just trust me, don’t
take anything my father says as being meant to offend you.  He thinks
about things differently than most people.  He’s a real straight shooting,
priority led individual.  The kind of person that puts business
first...well after his family.  He’s not a bad person, just ... well the
only way to explain it is that he’s just dad.”

The
question came out of her mouth before she realized.

“Is
that why you are like you are?”

Ryder
looked at Chelsea and she could tell her words didn’t come out right.  

“That
came out completely not like I wanted it to.  I’m not saying that I think
that there is anything wrong with you because you know I like you.  A lot
in fact.  It’s just that since I’ve known you, I’ve found you to be a very
by the books kind of guy.  Maybe a little predictable in your routine of
what you will do.”

Chelsea
looked at Ryder as he considered her words. 

“Okay,
so I like a little routine.  You make it sound like I do the same thing
all the time.”

“Come
on now Ryder.  You are totally predictable.  For instance, let’s say
we go to a restaurant for dinner.  It’s going to be at seven pm on the dot
and no matter what it is, you are starting off with a water to drink. 
Your meal will be a nice steak and potato dish with a complimentary red
wine.  If they don’t have those things, you won’t be in that
restaurant.  Anyway, you are tipping twenty-five percent exactly and God
forbid you would ever use poor English.  Those last two I like a lot by
the way.”

“That’s
not fair. You’re around me all of the time these days.  Of course you’re
going to learn my little idiosyncrasies.  But you are spot on in thinking
that it’s from my dad.  He practically ruled me with an iron fist.”

She
looked at him as he thought about his father.  She saw from the nostalgic
look in his eyes that he did care what his father thought of him. 

He’s
a good son.

“That
was all my older brother Ramsey’s fault.  He’s my dad’s namesake and I’m
pretty sure dad really wanted him to follow him into the family business,
eventually taking over.  Ramsey had different plans though.  At a
young age he was pretty sure that he wanted to go into politics.  He
wanted to do what he thought would make a big difference in the world so dad
let him.  That was when he was fourteen so I guess I was almost ten
then.  That was when dad started grooming me to take over.”

“Wow. 
Isn’t that a little young to know what you want to do with your life?”

“You
would think so.  I remember that of the few times I remember ever knowing
of my parents arguing--it was about me and the way he was so hard on me. 
He told my mother that he absolutely refused to let the business not be in the
hands of a Chatham man.  Believe it or not, it meant a lot to me.”

“Yeah?”

“Mm
hmm . . . and I don’t know.  Maybe I wanted to make him proud.  Or
maybe I didn’t want to hear he and mom arguing about me.  No kid ever
wants to be the reason they hear their parents arguing so I chose to like
it.  I made my self like the business so that my mother could see it as
what I wanted to do and my father could have a successor.  At the same
time, it was a win for me.  I don’t think you could have ever found a
father more involved in their son’s activities than mine was.  He was
always over my shoulder, making sure I did my homework and pushing me to make
sure that I achieved higher than . . . well everybody else.  I was to be
his example of a Chatham man.”

She
reached up, running her fingers through his hair.  She felt so bad for
this man that she was falling for.  He had no childhood.  How much
fun could that be?  He answered her question before she asked. 

“Don’t
you dare feel bad for me Chelsea.  I wouldn’t change my childhood for the
world.  And I still had friends.  One of my closest was my best
friend Trent who I have been best friends with since high school.” 

“Well
that’s good then.”

“I
choose to think so.  What about you, miss freedom first?  What’s
behind you choosing to not take the traditional route of life.”

It
was her turn to share her personal family details and even though she didn’t
really like talking about it, she felt like she owed it to him after he’d been
so wide open with her about his.

“It’s
funny, and I never would have guessed it in a million years before hearing that
but our stories are pretty similar except that I’m an only child.  My parents
were really strict Christians and kept a tight leash on me as a kid, especially
my dad.  Nothing but studying and hard work.  Just like you, my
grades weren’t allowed to be less than excellent.  No boys or dating until
I was sixteen and even barely then.  I only had one extracurricular
activity and that was dancing.  Even though it was expensive and likely
broke the bank for them a few times they made sure the money was always there
for my dance classes and I’ll always be grateful to them for that.”

Chelsea
paused in the middle of her thoughts.  It was easy sometimes for her to
forget the many sacrifices that her parents had made for her.  Ones she
wasn’t so sure that she would have been able to do for a child had she had
any.  She guessed that was what it meant to be a parent and why they were
so upset that something they’d paid for her to enjoy as a recreation was what
made her decide not to go to college.  She continued.

“What
they never banked on is the idea that I would love dancing as much as I
did.  I mean I was a thirteen-year-old girl completely crazy about dancing
in any and every way.  I liked it so much.  It just made me feel . .
. I don’t know.  Free I guess.  After all the rules they’d put on me,
I liked dance.  It had rules but they were bendable and often
breakable.  So, to their surprise and disappointment, I shunned the
traditional academic routes after high school to take up the arts full
time.  Needless to say, that decision didn’t fly too well with my parents
especially since I had waited until after applying for and getting admitted to
several really nice schools.  I’d done my interviews with Stanford, and
Harvard, your alma mater.  They were overjoyed to find that I’d gotten
accepted into both but I didn’t care.  I decided that I wasn’t going to
let anyone dictate my life to me.”

“Wow. 
You didn’t expect any another reaction did you?  I mean they only accept a
select few people each year out of tons that apply.”

Chelsea
felt the tears starting to form.  She wouldn’t have started into this if
she knew she would have ended up crying. 

“I
knew my parents and completely expected them to be upset but their reaction was
uncalled for.  When they found out that I decided to pursue dance, they
forgave me but didn’t want to spend their money on it.  My dad is a
carpenter that owns a home improvement business and my mom is an elementary
school teacher.  They felt that they had worked so hard so that I could
have a chance and then for me to throw it all away was childish and
selfish.  They had saved up money for years in case I didn’t get
scholarships and I was hoping they would give that to me for dance school but
they looked at me as if I was crazy when I asked.  Instead, they said they
would keep the money and I could have it if I ever decided to go to a real
school.  Otherwise they’d use it for retirement.”

“That’s
a hard story for everyone.  On the one hand I see your side but I also see
theirs.  They think you
threw
your life away.”

“Yeah. 
Well we made almost completely opposite decisions with the same type of
parents.  Do you think I made a bad decision?”