Page 78 of The Moment He Saw Her

“Who had sex?” Sawyer wandered into the room, filling up all the remaining space, of which there wasn’t a whole lot anyway.

“Ryder,” Cill said.

He then had four pairs of eyes on him.

“Nice work, little bro. Who with?”

“Why is it nice work? You lot need to get lives and stay out of mine.” Ryder kept his voice down, not wanting Libby to hear because if she hadn’t pulled away from him last night, they would have had sex, and he knew that.

“Why are you whispering?” JD asked.

Ryder closed his eyes and ignored the four of them as they discussed his love life and anything else that they thought would annoy him for the next ten minutes.

“Better go, my next client is here.”

When he opened his eyes again, it was just Sawyer and JD in the room. His brother was staring at the tattoo from beside JD now.

“You didn’t tell me you were getting this.”

“I don’t tell you everything,” Ryder muttered.

Sawyer looked at him then. “Huh, I always believed you did.”

“Because you were such an open book for years, after all,” JD said.

“That’s different. People expect that of me, but not him. He’s the nice Duke sibling.”

“I’m sure the other three may have something to say about that,” Ryder said.

“Maybe” was all his brother said, but he knew that look in Sawyer’s eyes. There was a talk in Ryder’s future, and it would be around what else he’d hidden from his big brother, and there was no way he was coming clean about that.

Chapter23

“Breakfast in five, Libby.”

She couldn’t help the smile at the knock that followed those words. She’d been living with Klaus and Lea Becker for two days now, and they treated her like she was their child. Libby loved it.

Did she miss living at Ryder’s? Yes, but only because she didn’t get to see more of him. Didn’t get to sit on his sofa while they ate what he’d cooked and talked or debate about things like they had. But this was for the best. She and Ryder had their relationship back to where it should be. Boss and employee.

“Be right there, Lea.”

The sleepout was small and cozy, and for a woman who had lived in rooms five times this size her entire life, it was wonderful. The walls were wood, and at one end there was a rocking chair with a knitted blanket. Libby had sat there for a few hours before she fell asleep and read a book from Klaus’s home made bookshelf last night.

Her mattress was soft with thick covers she snuggled into each night. There was a small bathroom stall, which had everything she needed. This room was nothing like what she’d left behind. There was no closet full of expensive clothes. No cosmetics or skincare products lining the counter in her bathroom. “But I like it more,” Libby whispered.

How was it possible she’d found peace here in Lyntacky when her life was in turmoil? When this life was the opposite of what she’d always known.

Libby had made more friends here than she’d made in her lifetime, which said what about her? She was a shallow person who’d kept to herself?

Making the bed, she noted a fake eyelash on the pillow. Going back into the bathroom, she found her makeup remover. Libby then slowly took off the last of her eyelashes. Staring in the mirror, she saw a woman she hadn’t seen in many years.

No makeup or eyelashes. Barefaced and real, she thought. Looking at her nails, she saw only two of the fake ones left, but there was no time to get that off now. Grabbing her jacket, she left the cabin and walked the few feet to the Becker home. There was always something delicious in the air when she stepped inside.

The walls were full of framed cross-stitch and photos of their family. A fire roared in the log burner, and the windows facing their precious coffee hut that no longer had the neon sign lit showed her it was cold outside.

“Morning,” Klaus and Lea greeted her.

Lea was stirring a large pot of oatmeal at the stove, and Klaus was making coffee.

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