Healing Hearts (New Hope Falls #6) - Kimberly Rae Jordan Page 0,43
you would go, you should have made sure that Charlie behaved. That was the only thing I asked of you. Make. Sure. He. Leaves. Bryson. Alone.”
“They’re brothers, Soph. Brothers tease each other.”
Brothers? Ryker glanced down at Bryson.
“Nope. I’m not going to accept that. Any teasing between them only ever goes one way. Charlie teasing and hurting Bryson.” There was a beat of silence before Sophia said, “You can stay here tonight, but you’re leaving tomorrow, so tonight you’d better sort out where you’re going. I’ll drive you to the bus station in the morning.”
“You are incredibly selfish, Sophia. You have a house and a family helping you. Not all of us have that.”
“I understand that. It was why I agreed for you to come. But all I asked was one thing from you. One thing, Mellie. You knew that before you got here.”
“You’re being unrealistic to expect Charlie to not act like a boy.”
“There is absolutely nothing in this world that says that little boys need to be outdoorsy, rambunctious, or mean. This home is my and Bryson’s safe place after spending far too many years feeling scared. Now you brought someone here who I already knew made Bryson feel unsafe, but I gave you a chance. You allowed Charlie to turn our safe space into a scary one. That is not acceptable.”
Sophia had struck him as being somewhat timid, so to hear her standing up for Bryson and herself made him feel good. He was glad to see that when she needed to, she could hold her own.
Ryker became aware of the fact that Bryson had stopped moving. He looked down to see that there were a couple more pieces of banana left, but Bryson had fallen asleep. That didn’t surprise Ryker, as he suspected that the sleep had been brought on by the adrenalin crash after what had happened earlier.
Ryker pressed a kiss to his soft curls, then let out a breath. He’d spent so long trying to protect himself from this type of situation, and yet here he was, smack in the middle of it. But right then, holding this precious little boy, he couldn’t find it in himself to regret his actions. Later on, he might, but knowing that Bryson felt safe enough to fall asleep with him kept Ryker from feeling any regret right then.
There was a lull in the conversation, then the woman herded her kids past the kitchen door in the direction of the bedrooms. Ryker stayed where he was, figuring Sophia would come looking for them now that the confrontation was over. She was probably as worn out by it as Bryson had been.
Some people would be energized by something like that—Callie, for example—but he was fairly certain that wasn’t the case for Sophia.
A moment later, she appeared in the doorway, the strain of the situation showing on her face. Her brows drew together as she looked at Bryson.
“He fell asleep?”
“Yep. Conked out mid-snack. Hope you don’t mind that I made these for him. I thought maybe he needed something to focus on that he enjoyed.”
Sophia came in and sank down into a chair, seeming to deflate before his very eyes. “Thank you. Everything kind of…exploded.” She sighed. “I thought I was doing the right thing, but clearly, I wasn’t.”
“Oh, I think you probably did the right thing. But for it to work out for all involved, the others need to do the right thing too.”
Her eyes widened a bit at that statement. “Guess I never thought of it that way.”
“Don’t blame yourself when you try to do the right thing, and others do the wrong thing. That’s on them. Not you.”
Ryker wasn’t sure why it was so important to bolster Sophia’s flagging opinion of herself, but it was. Something else to think about later. He was going to have to start making a list pretty soon.
CHAPTER NINE
Sophia stared at Bryson as he slept on Ryker’s lap, wishing that she could take a nap too. She’d never forget hearing Bryson scream while she had been in the bathroom. Her heart had literally stopped as she’d scrambled to get the door open with her hands still soapy and wet.
When tears pricked her eyes at the memory, she lifted a hand to rub her forehead, hoping to hide the rush of emotion from Ryker. She was glad he’d been there for Bryson, taking him so she could focus on dealing with Mellie, but she hadn’t expected him to be there for her as well.