Healing Hearts (New Hope Falls #6) - Kimberly Rae Jordan Page 0,38

from her older sister, Sophia shifted to look over Bryson’s head to where Madelyn sat. “What’s up?”

“Who’s Ryker?”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Sophia stared at Madelyn. “What?”

“Is he your new boyfriend?” she asked. “Bryson seems quite enamored with the guy.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Sophia said with what she hoped was enough conviction, but that didn’t venture into the she doth protest too much territory. “He’s the one who picks Vivianne up each afternoon, so Bryson has gotten to know him.”

She was a bit surprised that Madelyn had managed to get that much out of Bryson. And while she was happy that Bryson was conversing with someone, did it have to be on the subject of Ryker?

“Well, from what Bryson’s said, he seems like a god among men.”

“Madelyn Rose,” her mother said sharply. “We don’t talk like that.”

Madelyn rolled her eyes. “I’m talking about mythical Greek gods, Mom. You know…like Thor. Not the God.”

“Still,” her mother said. “I’d rather you didn’t.”

Madelyn just gave a shake of her head before she looked back at Sophia. “Is Ryker married? Does he have kids? What does he do?”

“Why does any of that matter?” Sophia asked.

“He’s hanging around you and Bryson,” she replied with a wink. “I think it only behooves us to make sure he’s safe to be around you guys.”

“Behooves us?” Chloe asked with a laugh. “Was that in your word of the day email?”

“No,” Madelyn snapped with a huff, but then she grinned. “It was on my word of the day calendar.”

“Idiots,” Natalie muttered, showing once again that when they’d been handing out the sense of humor gene, she’d said no thanks.

Sophia didn’t care what they joked about, as long as it kept the attention off of her. Of course, that was too much to hope for with her family.

“Are you going to answer Madelyn’s questions?” Natalie asked.

“I haven’t asked him if he’s married or if he has kids. As for what he does, he works for Michael.”

“So he mows lawns and plants flowers?” The judgment was clear in Natalie’s tone.

“Nothing wrong with that,” her dad said. “I’m pretty sure that you have people who do that for your home. You’d have to do it yourself if there weren’t people who did it as their job.”

It wasn’t often one of her parents shut Natalie down, but she was glad her dad did it in this case. She was fairly certain the reason he’d done it this time was that he respected anyone who did an honest day’s work. His career as a garbage collector had always embarrassed Natalie, but he’d worked hard to support their family, so he was likely to come to the defense of anyone else who worked hard, regardless of their line of work.

Whatever his reason, she was glad he’d done it because the last thing she needed was to have to defend Ryker herself. That would just make them think that there was more between them than there was.

As usual, Natalie’s husband, Anthony, kept his head down and focused on the food on his plate. She didn’t think Anthony necessarily disagreed with his wife on much, but he was smart enough to know that if he wanted at least one good home-cooked meal a week, it was best he kept his mouth shut.

Thankfully, the conversation moved off the subject of Ryker, but unfortunately, he didn’t leave her thoughts. She had come to the conclusion that he wasn’t married and didn’t have kids, but she did wonder if he had a girlfriend. It was none of her business, of course, so she’d never ask. But she was curious.

What type of woman was he attracted to?

Probably not someone who struggled to make any sort of major decisions and who had no desire for a career. If she had her way, she’d be a stay-at-home mom to Bryson, but Natalie wasn’t completely wrong. She did need to think about somehow getting a job that would offer good benefits for both of them.

But until Bryson was ready to spend a portion of his day apart from her, that wasn’t going to happen.

After they’d had dessert, Chloe’s older kids convinced Devon, one of Sophia’s younger brothers, to go outside with them. Her dad had built a play structure and a treehouse when they were kids, and he’d kept them both in good repair over the years for the grandkids.

“Want to come with us, Bryson?” Devon asked as Owen and Aubrey tugged on his hands.

No surprise, Bryson gave a quick shake of his head. Sophia wished he could