Page 32 of Lost and Lassoed

“Maybe you know her better than I do,” Nicole responded. I didn’t like her tone when she was talking about Teddy—not one bit.

“I do,” I said without thinking. “I mean, she’s my little sister’s best friend. I’ve known Teddy her whole life, basically.”

Betty’s voice saved me. “Chocolate shake for you,” she said, placing a tall glass in front of Riley, whose eyes had gotten just as big, taking in the whipped cream and the red cherry on top of it. “And strawberry for you”—she set mine in front of me.“And an order of fries, extra crispy.” She put that right between us.

“We didn’t order yet,” Nicole said, annoyed.

Betty smiled at her as she pulled her notepad out. “Gus and Riley always get the same thing after soccer,” she said. “Now, what can I get for you two?”

Riley and I switched our shakes after we took our first sips. We always took our second sips of each other’s.

“Chocolate is damn good today,” I said as I slid her shake back to her.

Riley giggled. “You have ice cream in your mustache.”

“Do I?” I smiled. I wiped a finger over my mouth, and sure enough, pink strawberry shake coated it. I licked it off, and for some reason when I did so, my eyes flicked to Teddy, who looked away as soon as our eyes met.

I didn’t have time to think about it—thank god—because Nicole’s voice pushed through the Teddy-induced haze that had been affronting my thoughts way too often as of late.

“Don’t you get any healthy food?” Nicole asked Riley. “All that sugar is bad for you.”

Fuck, no.This woman was not about to lecture my six-year-old on what foods she should and shouldn’t have.

“We don’t think any foods are good or bad,” I jumped in. This was something Cam was passionate about, and I was happy to support her in it. “It’s all just food.”

Nicole looked confused. “That’s not true,” she said.

“It is at our house,” I said firmly, hoping she would take the hint. I looked at my daughter, who was happily sipping on her chocolate milkshake. Good. Maybe we could get the hell out of here soon.

Nicole didn’t say anything else about it, just yammered onabout soccer season like she was coaching the fucking Olympic team.

I risked another glance at Teddy, who popped one more jalapeño slice into her mouth before she slid out of the booth and walked toward the back of the diner. Dusty followed her with a hand at the small of her back, and I was forced to sit with the fact that my opinion of Teddy Andersen was starting to change.

Chapter 16

Teddy

Week two of being Riley’s babysitter was nearly in the books—just a couple more hours left today, and then I could go home. Not that I didn’t want to spend more time with Riley—pretty much the opposite—but I was ready not to have to see her dad for the rest of the week.

He and his arms and his mustache and his eyes were fucking with my head.

Over the weekend, I found an oldRocky Mountain Native Plant Guidein my dad’s garage. I brought it with me to Gus’s because I liked having things to do, and I figured I could try to identify some plants while Riley was wandering around, but when she saw me looking through it while we were eating a snack in the backyard on Wednesday, she immediately took notice.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“It’s theRocky Mountain Native Plant Guidefrom 1998,” I said. “It’s for people to learn about plants in the Rocky Mountains—recognize them, be able to name them, that sort of thing.”

“Where are the Rocky Mountains?” Riley asked.

“Right here,” I said, gesturing around us. “We’re in the Rocky Mountains.”

Riley’s dark brows furrowed, and she looked confused. “No,” she said, “we’re at Rebel Blue Ranch.”

“Rebel Blue Ranch is in the Rocky Mountains,” I said. I tried to think of a way to explain this. “That’s what the mountains are named—like you’re Riley, you’re your own thing, but your last name is Ryder, which you got from your dad, so you’re part of him and he’s part of his dad.”

I was not the least bit good at this, and the way Riley was looking at me proved it. “So the Rocky Mountains are Rebel Blue’s grandpa?”

“Kind of,” I said. Amos Ryder would love that description, I thought.

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