Page 68 of The Moment He Saw Her

“That scoundrel!” Tripp looked ready to spit nails. “I’m the mayor in this town, and that man needs a lesson from me about how to be a good community member.”

“That shit weasel Finny is not being served in my bar again,” Red said.

“Uncle Asher is looking into things to see what can be done. Did you all know that Finny was an FSIS inspector?” Ryder said. “Seems he got his buddies to pull some strings.”

“No one but me pulls strings in this town,” Tripp said.

“Okay, well, let’s see what Uncle Asher turns up before we haul Finny in and bring out the bright lights and instruments,” Ryder said.

“I’ll need two coffees tomorrow, Ryder. I always have my first one with Klaus and my second with you,” Tripp said.

“Damn it’s cold.” LouJean slapped her hands together. “Let’s get this done.”

Red was their skip because he was calm and concise with his instructions, which Ryder thought was because of plenty of practice with a volatile wife and kids.

They played five ends because it was late and cold, and the A team won, which pleased them but not Beau Keller, who bared his teeth at Ryder when he slid a stone in behind his to settle nicely in the button after some vigorous sweeping from Red and Tripp.

They talked, debated, and argued, but by the time they were done, all were feeling confident they were in good form.

“And now I need to get some sleep, as I’m on early shift tomorrow,” Beau said when they called it a night. “You better have those muffins with that crusty, sugary shit on the top tomorrow, Duke.”

“Do I have to keep serving you Kellers?” Ryder asked. “Go someplace else.”

Beau raised two middle fingers over his head as he left.

“I can’t work you guys out. You hate but tolerate each other. Kinda a love-hate,” Red said.

“More hate-hate but we live in this town and can’t avoid each other,” Ryder said. “See you round.”

After yawning all the way home, Ryder let himself in quietly. There was no noise from Libby’s room when he passed it. After a shower, he then fell on his bed and waited to fall into a deep sleep.

It didn’t come.

Chapter20

Sleep wasn’t something Ryder ever worried about. His head hit the pillow, and he was out. Knowing Libby was in his house was messing with that. He needed to know what plans she had. When she left here, she’d be on her own again, and that was a terrifying thought.

Plus there was now that kiss. What the hell had he been thinking, grabbing her like that? Hauling her into his lap again hadn’t been his wisest move, either, because he knew she fit there perfectly. Then there were her lips. Made for sin, they’d given him visions of plenty of things he’d like her to do with that mouth.

Fuck!Now he was hard as well as tired.

What father cuts off a kid’s finances? It was an asshole thing to do as far as Ryder was concerned, and surely he had to know she wasn’t used to living on her own. Basically, she’d fallen out of the nest, and he’d gone, “Well, fuck you. Survive.” Mind you, it was a pretty dumb move on her part to allow him to have that much control.

She’d charmed his family tonight. Offered to do the dishes and then helped Ally with homework. He wondered if she was really an average ballet dancer or if she was actually good at it. He could see her in one of those pink things, with the shoes.

Sleep wasn’t coming, so he got out of bed and tugged on sweatpants. Ryder then headed down the hall to the kitchen. Once he’d made hot chocolate how he liked it, with plenty of marshmallows, he grabbed his laptop that he’d picked up on the way home from curling practice and headed for the sofa.

Business was going well, but Ryder had plans to start something new. He’d been toying with moving into specialized confectionery. The giants in that industry had the basic stuff covered, but he wanted to sell to those that were shopping for a special occasion.

Looking over what Libby had done, he could see his desktop was organized and the spreadsheet she’d fixed was the same. Ryder wrote up more notes for what he planned to do and what he needed to research to make it happen.

“Hey,” Libby said from behind him. “You can’t sleep either?”

She wore winter pj’s. These were black with yellow-and-red tartan down the sides. Absolutely nothing sexy about that look, and yet he couldn’t help it. Something about Libby Gulliver made his body hum with need when she was close.

“Hey, Libby. I made hot chocolate if you want some.”

She headed for the kitchen and returned with a mug. Ryder thought she would take the armchair, but no, she sat next to him and curled up her knees.

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