Healing Hearts (New Hope Falls #6) - Kimberly Rae Jordan Page 0,18
shield his eyes from the sun as he assessed the tree they were getting ready to remove. Normally, Michael took on the dangerous role of climbing to the top to trim down some of the branches. But since he was still out of commission, the decisions about the tree removal fell to Ryker.
He’d managed to eke out enough hours of sleep between the nightmares the last few nights that Ryker felt confident he’d be able to focus enough to safely tackle the job. With one of the crew’s help, he put on all the safety equipment he needed, then together they began the slow work of removing branches and eventually, the rest of the tree.
By the time they were done, muscles Ryker had forgotten he had were screaming for relief. But it was a job well done, so he felt gratified. He’d honestly never thought he’d feel as much satisfaction doing landscape work as he did working in pediatrics, but there were times he did. It was a different sort of satisfaction, but it was still there regardless.
Once they got everything cleaned up and the equipment back to Michael’s, it was time for him to go pick up Vivianne.
Though it was nice that Bryson no longer looked at him with fear, Ryker knew that he couldn’t let himself get too close to the child. Even so, a couple of times over the past week, he’d stayed long enough to let Bryson read to him. He couldn’t let it be more frequent than that, however, just because he needed to keep a distance of some sort between them.
On that particular day, he wasn’t going to be able to stick around for a book. But so far Bryson hadn’t gotten upset when he couldn’t stay, so he hoped that was still the case that day.
“Hi, Ryker,” Bryson said from the door as he approached the porch.
“Hey there, Bryson. How’s it going?”
“Good! We’re going to see Nana.”
“Is that your grandmother?” Ryker asked as he followed the little boy into the house.
“She’s my grandmother,” Sophia said. “So his great-grandma. She lives in the care home.”
“Sounds like Bryson likes to visit her.”
“He does. We both do, actually.”
“We made her some cookies,” Bryson said. “Would you like one?”
“Uh…sure. Who am I to turn down a cookie?”
“Get both bags,” Sophia said as he disappeared through an open doorway.
He reappeared a moment later with a couple of bags that looked to contain more than one cookie in each of them. “Here. These are for you, and this bag is for Michael.”
“Why, thank you.” Ryker took both bags from Bryson. “I’m sure Michael and I will enjoy them very much.”
“They’re Nana’s favorite, and Momma lets me help her make them, even though only girls are supposed to cook.”
Ryker had figured out that perhaps the influences Bryson had already had in his life weren’t that great, so it didn’t really surprise him to hear something like that from the child. Sophia, however, gazed at Bryson with a look of dismay.
“I know there are people who think that way, but I happen to think that anyone can cook, if they want to. I’m not a great cook, but I have to do it unless I want to eat pizza every night.”
“Pizza every night?” Bryson’s eyes grew wide. “That would be awesome.”
“You’d think that,” Ryker agreed. “But trust me when I say that after awhile, you want to eat something else.”
Bryson nodded then. “I think I’d miss bananas and peanut butter. Especially on the pancakes Momma and I make.”
“That sounds yummy. Do you help your mom a lot with cooking and baking?”
“Yep. Everything we eat, I help her make.”
“That’s good. I’m sure she appreciates that, and if you like to do it, don’t let anyone tell you that only girls can cook, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Well, I’d best get going, and it sounds like you have somewhere to be as well.”
After he picked up the car seat and the diaper bag, Ryker said goodbye to the pair and left the house. Every time he was around the two of them, it was hard not to come away with more questions. Which meant he had to continually tell himself that their lives were none of his business.
When he got to Michael’s, he handed him Vivianne and then the bag of cookies. “Those are from Bryson. He gave me a bag for each of us.”
“I’ll keep one for Lani, but I’m definitely having a snack now,” Michael said.