Page 51 of The Moment He Saw Her

“Thing?” Ryder asked. Dee then did a couple of karate chops.

“How’s my boy doing in your cafe? He’s a sloth at home, no getting around that fact. I’m hoping you can retrain him.”

Delores Heckler had been the girl in school most likely to end up on the wrong side of the tracks. She dressed like a hooker and was one of the kindest people Ryder knew. She didn’t take any crap from anyone, but if she liked you, you had a friend for life.

Red and Dee had a big house in town that their kids ran wild in. They had it all together and cared nothing about what anyone thought of them. Ryder knew plenty of people who could learn a lot from the Hecklers.

“Jade is doing great. Does what I tell him to and is even working faster now that Meadow is on his case. She told him last week that if he dragged his feet again, she’d be embroidering daisies on his favorite jacket when he wasn’t looking.”

“God’s truth, Ryder, I’d be real happy if she lost it. That jacket makes him look like a bum,” Dee said. “How the hell he’s going to get on in life looking like that, I have no clue.”

Ryder heard his uncle’s cough but didn’t look his way.

“You want cider like your girl? She downed her mug before leaving with my accounts to look over.”

“Not my girl, and sure,” Ryder said with way more calm than he was feeling. Taking the mug from Dee, he looked around the room for Fox Gleeson and saw no sign of him, which couldn’t be a good thing. “What did you mean about your accounts, Dee?”

“Libby’s an accountant, so I asked her to look them over because I heard she’s looking at yours.”

“Okay,” Ryder said, refusing to shake his head. “That’s very trusting of you considering you don’t know her.”

“She’s a friend of yours, ain’t she? Can’t be bad if that’s the case,” Dee said.

“Sure, and she’s trustworthy,” Ryder said, knowing it for the truth. If nothing else, he knew that much about Libby Gulliver.

“Well, there you go, then.” Dee smiled.

“Did Libby leave with Fox?”

“Nope. I would have stopped that from happening,” she said.

He watched her walk away, his mind running through unwelcome scenarios. Libby would get a disease if she stayed in Fox Gleeson’s caravan.

“Your mom said we need to be there in an hour, Ryder. You know what she’s like when we’re late,” Uncle Asher said.

Tonight was family dinner night, which they had every week at their mom’s. If you were busy, that was okay, too, but the excuse had better be a good one.

“Sure, you go on and I’ll be there soon,” Ryder said, still looking for Fox. Libby wasn’t his problem. He’d given her a safe place to stay; if she wanted to leave and go to an RV, he couldn’t stop her.

“Go find her, and I’ll tell your mom you’re both going to be late because she told me she’d invited Libby to dinner, and you don’t want to piss her off,” Uncle Asher said. “Or do you want me to come in case you get into it with Fox?”

“How do you know I’m going to the Gleeson place?” Ryder said, looking at his uncle.

“There’s not much I don’t know about those that belong to me,” Uncle Asher said, squeezing his shoulder. “You’re a protector, Ryder, and always have been. If you think that girl needs it, then you’ll go get her and bring her to dinner.”

Was he a protector when he just needed his people to be safe and happy?

Ryder watched his uncle walk to the pool table and then leave with JD minutes later. He followed not long after, and his uncle was right—he was heading to the Gleeson place.

Chapter15

Libby had always prided herself on being sensible and never getting into trouble. Rarely did she make a move without thorough consideration. Impulsivity was for her siblings, not her, until she’d walked out on her wedding. Looking at Fox Gleeson’s RV, she was seriously wondering if that title would now be hers.

It had a buckled roof, was covered in mold spots, and Libby was having serious regrets before she’d even looked inside.

“Ma said if you want a meal, it will cost extra,” Fox said, unlocking the door. “If not, all good.” He then named a price for the night that she’d expect hot towels, sheets with 600 thread count, and hot running water at the least.

Clasping Delores’s accounts to her side, she watched him walk back along the narrow grassy track and thought about how she should be on vacation right now on a tropical island. Spa and shopping days. Should she have just got married and—“No, absolutely not,” Libby said. “You’ve not sunk that low yet.”Close,she thought, but not rock bottom.

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