Healing Hearts (New Hope Falls #6) - Kimberly Rae Jordan Page 0,112
order to be able to live a full life.
With Ryker dealing with so many of his own issues—issues brought on by his desire to help those less fortunate—she couldn’t see any way for him to be interested in someone who also had a lot of issues. And her issues weren’t the result of anything so selfless. Nope, her issues were the result of a desire to feel special to someone.
Thankfully, Sophia was saved from having to make further conversation by sounds coming from the bed. She got to her feet and made her way over to check on Bryson.
“Hi, baby.” She leaned over the side of the bed as he blinked up at her. Though she really hated how lethargic he still was, she refused to focus too much on that. Feeling Ryker come to her side, she said, “Look who’s here.”
Bryson’s gaze flicked to Ryker, and a small smile curved his lips as his eyes lit up. “Ryker.”
“Hey there, buddy,” Ryker said as he held out his fist close to where Bryson’s hand rested on his blanket.
Sophia held her breath, hoping he’d respond how he usually did to Ryker. Relief flooded through her when he lifted his hand, making a small fist and bumping it against Ryker’s.
She lifted the cup of apple juice with a straw while Ryker went around the other side of the bed to help Bryson sit up. Once he was sitting more upright, Sophia held the cup and straw close to his mouth.
“Have a drink, baby,” she said.
Though there was no fear of him getting dehydrated because of the IV, he needed to start drinking more on his own because there was no way they’d let him go home if he wasn’t eating and drinking enough.
“You need to drink a bit, buddy,” Ryker encouraged.
After a glance at Ryker, Bryson opened his mouth and allowed Sophia to move the straw into position. She watched with happiness as he took a couple of sucks on the straw. The battle to get him to drink threw her back in time to just after he’d been born when she’d struggled to nurse him. She’d known that there wouldn’t be money for formula, so it had been imperative that she get him to nurse.
Thankfully, there had been another woman there who had enough experience that she was able to help Sophia successfully nurse Bryson. If Ryker was going to be the person who helped Bryson make forward moves when it came to eating and drinking, it would be just one more thing she’d be thankful to him for.
“Want to try drinking something else?” Ryker asked. “I brought something from my mom you might like.”
He went back to the table then reappeared with an insulated cup in his hand. Popping up the straw, he said, “Do you want a taste?”
Bryson frowned at it, then glanced at his mom. “No.”
“How about we let Momma have a taste and see what she thinks?”
This time Bryson nodded, so Sophia hoped that her trust in Ryker that he wouldn’t feed her anything too awful wasn’t misplaced. He held the cup out to her with a smile. She reached for it, expecting that he’d let go. But as she wrapped her fingers around the smooth surface, he kept hold of it, so her fingers brushed against his.
His smile grew as she leaned forward across Bryson and took a sip. At the explosion of the taste of banana and peanut butter in her mouth, she took another small sip before straightening with a smile of her own.
“I think you’ll love this, baby,” Sophia said as she turned to face him. She leaned closer to him. “It tastes just like bananas and peanut butter.”
He didn’t look convinced, but just as she’d decided to trust Ryker, he apparently decided to trust her.
Ryker held the cup for him, just like he’d held it for her, and Sophia waited with bated breath. Not surprisingly, Bryson’s first sip was tentative. When his eyes widened, and he went back for another sip, Sophia wasn’t sure if she was going to laugh or cry.
Something told her that Ryker had asked his mom to pack as many calories into the peanut butter banana smoothie as possible. She stood there, watching in amazement as Bryson kept taking tiny sips of the smoothie.
“You don’t have to drink it all right away,” Ryker said. “It will stay cold in the cup, plus I have another one you can have later on.”