Wild Embrace (Wilder Irish #11) - Mari Carr Page 0,14

but they hadn’t wanted to take the boys. Yvonne had shown up with Darcy in tow, introducing her as her “baby cousin,” a term Ryder had since come to learn the older Collins’ cousins used for Darcy and Oliver, the youngest two in her large family.

Darcy had only been twenty, a fresh-faced college junior at a local university. She’d shown up in denim overalls, with a hot pink tank top beneath, and her hair in long braids on either side of her head. She’d bounced into the house, a bundle of energy armed with a new video game, and for the first time since losing their mother, Vince and Clint had actually smiled.

She’d been back to the house countless times since then, and she’d solidified her place in his son’s heart. Clint talked about Darcy like she hung the moon.

She—and Yvonne—had come into Ryder’s life when he was at his lowest point, the world around him so dark, he couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face. She’d stepped in time after time to help in the past four years, always available, even at short notice. And he didn’t question for a second that she loved his sons every bit as much as they loved her.

It was one of the reasons he’d gone to bat to help her get a job with the marketing department. He knew she had a can-do attitude and a good work ethic, something she’d proven in her short time working here. Helen had thanked him earlier in the week for recommending her.

Regardless of all that, Ryder wasn’t sure he’d ever really noticed, really seen Darcy as anything more than that young, hardworking girl in the overalls who’d become an important person—a much-needed female influence—in his sons’ lives. Before tonight.

“Not sure how you could top that last question,” he said, trying once more to put them back on steady footing. The last thing he needed to do was start to think of Darcy as…Jesus…a sexy woman.

One with desires that had just awakened something long dead inside him.

Darcy winked. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

“Should I be frightened?”

She smacked his forearm lightly, and he realized she always touched him like that. Playful taps and jabs and hip bumps, like they were two kids in middle school.

He’d been a standoffish asshole for years. So much so, most people gave him a wide berth. And apart from roughhousing with the boys or hugging them good night, no one touched him. It hadn’t occurred to him until now that Darcy was the only other person who didn’t shy away from touching him physically. She never had.

“I’ll take it easy on you,” she promised. “Tell me a secret about yourself. Something no one else knows.”

“A secret,” he repeated slowly.

Ryder felt his spine stiffen, his blood suddenly going cold. It was an innocuous enough request. And he could make up anything, tell her anything, and they could move on.

But he only had one secret. One thing that had been eating away at his soul, bit by bit for the past four years.

Darcy seemed oblivious to his current unease. “Something scandalous,” she joked. “You snore like a chainsaw or you do cosplay or you play the bagpipes in a kilt with nothing underneath it.”

“I don’t snore, I don’t dress up, and I play no instruments.”

Darcy glanced at him curiously. Even to his own ears, his words sounded wooden.

“I notice you didn’t mention whether or not you go commando.”

The Ryder he’d been a lifetime ago might have laughed at that, but he couldn’t right now. Not because she wasn’t funny, but because her question was still rolling around in his brain like a grenade set to explode.

Silence fell between them, and it hovered for too long.

He assumed Darcy was giving him time to think of a secret, but when the minutes dragged on, she finally noticed his distress.

And, because it was Darcy, who had a kind heart, she tried to let him off the hook. “It’s a silly question,” she said. “I’ll think of another.”

“No.” The single word came out louder than he’d intended, startling Darcy, who jerked slightly. “No. I want to answer it.”

Darcy nodded but said nothing more.

He lifted the bottle of vodka and took a long pull, trying to figure out if he was really going to do this. Going to tell her.

“I’ve never…told anyone…”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” she said, once again giving him an out.

Ryder had sworn to himself he’d never share