Healing Hearts (New Hope Falls #6) - Kimberly Rae Jordan Page 0,3

with continuing issues from that time with Ezekiel.

More than anything, Sophia wanted to provide Bryson with what he needed to become the person he was supposed to be. Not the person his father had tried to mold him into.

“Now, if you want to pay me in snickerdoodles, I won’t object.” Nana gave Sophia’s hand another squeeze before releasing it.

“I think we can do that,” Sophia said with a smile that didn’t feel as bright as she wanted it to be. “Bryson loves helping me in the kitchen, especially when he knows we’re bringing treats for you. Right, Bry?”

Bryson looked up from the picture he was coloring. “Yep. Momma lets me measure the flour and stuff.”

“And he’s my official taster.” Sophia reached out to ruffle his curls. “So he gets to try the first cookie.”

“You’re a great team.” Nana’s smile was warm and loving.

“You’re part of our team, too, Nana,” Bryson said, a serious look on his face.

His words were a big part of the reason she loved bringing him to visit Nana. He never spoke much around anyone else, certainly not her parents, who were usually surrounded by chaos. He’d been an early talker, but the environment they’d been in hadn’t encouraged him to speak. Free from that now, she could tell how comfortable he was with someone by how much he spoke around them.

“I’m glad to hear that, Bry. I love being part of your team.”

Sophia’s heart clenched as Bryson smiled. Like Chloe, all Sophia had ever wanted was to be a wife and a mother—although not to quite as many children as her sister had. Now, though, it was just her and Bryson. The idea of the family she would have wanted them to be part of was long gone.

These days, all she hoped was that she could give this precious little boy a safe environment in which to grow and thrive.

~*~

Ryker Bennet took the stairs that led to the front door of his parents’ home two at a time. If she saw him, his mother would no doubt scold him for his less than dignified approach, but he hadn’t been doing dignified for a few years now.

He opened the door and stepped into the house. Warmth and delicious aromas greeted him as he closed the door. After he toed off his boots and hung up his jacket, he headed in the direction of the kitchen.

Judging from the vehicles in the driveway, he knew he was the last to arrive, but thankfully, he wasn’t late.

“Uncle Ryker!” The sound of his nephew’s voice brought him to a halt before he got too far, and he turned to see the child approaching from the family room at the back of the house.

“Hey there, Jonah.” Ryker lifted his hand for a high five as the ten-year-old approached him. “How’s life?”

Even as he smacked Ryker’s hand, Jonah wrinkled his nose, which made his glasses shift up a little. “I got grounded from my Xbox, so I haven’t been able to play Fortnite all week.”

“Yikes. What did you do?”

“It’s what he didn’t do.”

Ryker looked over to see his older brother, Silas, strolling toward them, then turned his attention back to Jonah. “And what was that?”

Jonah lifted his narrow shoulders in a shrug. “I was supposed to practice piano for thirty minutes, but I played on my Xbox instead.”

Though he’d never say it out loud, Ryker would definitely have preferred to play video games than practice the piano. “Guess you probably should have put in the time, huh? Thirty minutes off the Xbox versus a week? I think you’re smart enough to do that math.”

Looking despondent, Jonah nodded. He definitely could do that math. The kid was smart as a whip, as was his younger sister, Emery. But it was really no surprise given who their parents were. Silas was one of the top trauma surgeons in the state, while Donna, his wife, was a math professor at the University of Washington. Ryker was no slouch himself when it came to brains, but Silas and Donna took it to genius levels, and apparently, their children took after them.

“You need a haircut.” This pronouncement came from his younger sister, Callie, as she joined them. “And a shave. You’re looking shaggy.”

“So are you,” Ryker said as he reached out to tug a strand of her hair.

She kept her dark blonde hair short since she said it was easier to deal with at her job in a lab where she was a researcher. Silas and Jonah had