Chapter 174 The Competition (Two)

• “I’m not worried. It doesn’t matter to me if he comes or not. I only feel bad for poor Emma. Did you see her face? She was almost crying. He knew how much it meant to her that he should be here today. He shouldn’t have raised her hopes up only to dash them this way. And then to worsen matters, he’s not even picking up his calls. I just…” She paused in her tirade when Dan’s face changed and he nodded in greeting to someone behind her, and then she perceived a whiff of Ryan’s cologne, a scent that never failed to make her heady.
• “Daddy! You came.” Taylor exclaimed happily, and Becca turned slowly to see a sweating and somewhat disheveled Ryan making his way into the row of chairs to come sit beside them.
• “Of course, I did, honey. I would have arrived earlier, but there was traffic and I had to walk the rest of the way.” Ryan said, smiling in greeting at Becca, whose heart skipped a beat at the sight of him as she immediately forgot that she was supposed to be angry at him.