Page 221 of His Virgin Romance Series

CHAPTER26

Abby

“Where are we going?”I asked.

We had left the clubhouse down below, and we were walking towards the trees. We had already passed the point where we’d had sex, and the gentle slope was getting a little steeper.

“You’ll see,” Ryder told me cryptically.

Frowning, I followed behind me until the slope reached its peak. I looked down and saw a tiny house a short distance away. It was obvious that no one had lived in it for quite some time. I could see that the windows were sealed shut, and there was a nice layer of dust that covered them over. The paint had been scraped off, and the roof looked battered and bruised.

Still, there was a certain charm about it. It was extremely simple and very small, but I could almost picture what it would have looked like in better days.

“I didn’t even know there was a house down here,” I said, wondering why I hadn’t thought to explore a little more.

“It’s mine,” Ryder replied.

“What?” I asked, turning to him.

“Well it was my parents’,” Ryder replied. “But since their deaths, it passed to me. That is where I grew up.”

“Wow,” I said, feeling new interest overtake me. “I can’t believe I didn’t know it was here.”

“No one comes here,” I said. “Out of deference to me, I suppose. I think they assume it would piss me off.”

“Would it?” I asked.

Ryder smiled. “It might have…”

“When’s the last time you came here?”

“Umm… a few weeks before you came to the clubhouse,” Ryder admitted. “I come to the house every few months. I just sit in front of it and stare at it and remember my parents. I haven’t ever gone back to their gravestones since they were buried. I do my mourning here… in front of this house.”

We walked down the slope towards the house, and I glanced at Ryder. “Do you ever go inside?” I asked.

“No,” I replied. “After Dad moved into the clubhouse… I stayed back for a few months. And then I moved into the clubhouse too.”

“Couldn’t stay behind, huh?”

“At first, I thought it would be nice to have the house to myself,” Ryder nodded. “I don’t know; it just didn’t feel right staying on when Dad had left.”

We were standing right outside the house, staring up at its remains. “Do you think you’ll ever make use of this house again?” I asked.

Ryder looked thoughtfully at the front door and sighed. “I don’t know… I should do something with it. Otherwise, it’s just sitting here, old and forgotten. I could do it up so that the boys can sleep over maybe… there’ll be more room for everyone.”

I nodded. “That sounds like a good idea.”

“I don’t know that it does,” Ryder said. “Most of the older guys have families or partners. They’re not going to end up here…”

He seemed pensive, but there was no sadness in his tone. It felt like he had resigned himself to the inevitable. This club was family to him, but he was also acknowledging that the other men had real families. They had wives and children who needed them.

“Do you want to go inside?” Ryder asked suddenly, turning to me.

“I… seriously?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought you haven’t been in there for a while?”

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