Page 45 of The Moment He Saw Her

“I’ll have a look for you, but do you want me looking at your numbers?” Libby asked the question as she dropped into his seat, which was still warm from his body.

“I need to send this to my accountant, but it doesn’t tally and shit, so if you can do that we’re even,” he said.

“And shit?” Libby muttered, already focused on the columns.

“Technical term that I thought you’d know since you’re a number cruncher.”

“Not so much,” Libby said vaguely, already lost in the columns before her.

“Okay, well, I’ll just leave you with that, then. I need to work on my chocolates. Holler if you need me. Also, I don’t care if you see my accounts.”

Libby heard the thud of his feet as he ran down the stairs, but that was the last thing as she lost herself in what she’d studied to do, even if it wasn’t her first love. But maybe she could get to that one day soon now she was feeling rebellious?

Chapter13

Libby had always been detail oriented and strong at math. Her father had chosen accounting for her, and she’d not argued, but she had after she’d gotten her degree. Libby had to fight him every step of the way to prove she was good enough to work for him.

“Here.” A hand placed a mug before her a while later. “There’s a file called ‘Spreadsheets’ on the desktop if you want to tidy those too. I’ll pay you,” Ryder said.

“Don’t any of your siblings know how these things work?”

“Possibly, but I never got around to asking them. The accountant often yells at me, but we work it out eventually.”

“Tell me you don’t go into his office with an envelope of receipts?” Libby asked.

“No comment. You all good if I head out now, Libby? Meadow will be in and out, as she’s getting a head start on baking for tomorrow. She’s got a key like you.”

“Okay, no worries.”

“I’ll see you at home, then.”

“Sure, see you, Ryder.”

See you at home sounded like something a couple would say to each other, and Libby knew a woman—maybe the one he’d called SJ—would have that with Ryder one day.

Libby wasn’t sure how long she sat there, but she enjoyed every second reorganizing his files and cleaning the desktop, and when she’d done all she could, she shut it down.

Ryder’s business thrived despite its recent opening. She’d seen a folder named “Online Products” and wondered if he was thinking of moving into that, but it wasn’t her place to ask. Libby would leave Lyntacky soon. She had decisions to make as to where she’d go and what the future held, which should excite her way more than it did. What it actually did was terrify her because she’d lived under her family’s protection her entire life.

It’s time to grow up, Libby.

Even after only a few weeks, she knew that if she went home, things would be different now because she was different. This small taste of independence, no matter how disastrous, had gone a long way to showing Libby she could survive out in the world on her own.

Picking up the empty coffee mug, she headed back downstairs.

Meadow was wiping down tables with a teenage boy she didn’t know.

“This is Jade, Red and Dee Heckler’s son,” Meadow said. “He helps out sometimes.”

The boy was tall and had that gangly look some teenagers have. He nodded, then went back to his work.

“Do you have the number for Bob, the mechanic, Meadow?”

“Sure do.” She read it out, and Libby called the man. Bob told her that the parts for her car would take another few days to arrive, which meant she needed to urgently find a place to stay, because she wasn’t leaving Lyntacky yet.

“You head out now, Libby. We have this, and I’ll lock up soon,” Meadow said. “You staying at Ryder’s again tonight?”

She’d given up on wondering why her business was everyone else’s in this town. “I’m going to ask around, so hopefully I’ll find somewhere else.”

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