Page 72 of The SEAL's Duchess
Ryder shifted Ellie slightly, buying himself a second to formulate an answer that wouldn’t sound like complete bullshit. “It’s complicated.”
“Uncomplicate it.”
“You think everything’s that simple?” he snapped back. He exhaled, the fog on the windows thickening as if sealing them off from the world outside. “Sorry. I don’t know what it is yet. But it’s not nothing. And it’s not temporary.”
“Does she know that?”
“Probably. Maybe.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “Hell, Sarah, I don’t know. A lot’s happened fast.”
Sarah leaned back, arms crossed. “And the part where she lives in another country? Talked about that yet?”
His arm circled Ellie’s middle, feeling her small chest expand with each breath. “Not yet.”
“Why not?”
Because talking about it made it real. Made it something he couldn’t just keep pretending about.
“Because then she might say it’s impossible.” His head dropped forward.
Sarah’s expression softened for half a beat. “Jesus, Ryder. After Miranda’s crap, I just want you happy. But you’ve got Ellie to think about.”
“Like I don’t know that?” His voice broke sharp. “Ellie always comes first.”
“I know.” Sarah nodded, but she wasn’t backing down. “But if Ivy’s going back to England, and this is just a holiday thing for her?—”
“It’s not.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I see the way she looks at Ellie. At both of us.” He’d seen it. Ivy’s expression as she’d climbed out of his truck, like she was standing outside a warm house in the cold, pressing her face to the window. “Like she wants in so bad it scares her.”
That bought him five seconds of silence. Snow started falling again, fat flakes clinging to the windshield before melting into streaks.
“So, what are you gonna do?”
“What can I do? Ask her to ditch her life? Her family? Move here?”
“Or you move there.”
He blinked. “My life’s here. With Ellie.”
“And Ivy’s isn’t.” Sarah shrugged. “Somebody’s got to bend, or you’ll both break.”
The truth of it hit low and ugly—like a bruise that hadn’t surfaced yet—one more thing he’d shoved to the back of his head and tried not to think about.
“Tantie, voom voom!” Ellie yanked the wheel dramatically, her whole body twisting with the effort.
Sarah’s face transformed. “I know, sweetie. Best driver in Alaska.”
Ellie beamed at the praise, then looked up at Ryder with those eyes that were so much like his own.“Daddy, Eye-vee?”
Shit.
Sarah caught his glance over Ellie’s head. “She had to go talk to her brother, sweetheart.”
Ellie’s face went solemn. “Marsha-mallow. Eye-vee.”
“Yeah, baby.” Ryder forced lightness into his voice. “She’s having hot chocolate and marshmallows with her brother.”
