Healing Hearts (New Hope Falls #6) - Kimberly Rae Jordan Page 0,74

he have a girlfriend or a wife already?

She didn’t have a boyfriend or a husband, but perfection was so beyond her that it wasn’t even on the horizon. So far, she couldn’t see any faults in him, but part of her hoped she saw some soon. Maybe it would help slow the growth of her feelings for him.

“I need to get going,” Ryker said after he finished the book and handed it back to Bryson.

Bryson clutched the book to his chest. “Will you come back?”

“I’ll be back in a week.”

“A week?”

“Seven days. Maybe your momma can make a countdown so you can see how many days it is until I’ll be here again.”

Sophia nodded when they both looked at her. Bryson looked relieved, and Sophia hoped that this week would be better for him without worrying if Ryker would be coming back. Plus, it might help him learn how to count.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The next few weeks fell into a pattern of sorts. Ryker would show up on either Friday or Saturday to work on the yard, then he’d stay for supper.

Bryson was sad when Ryker left each time, but he dutifully made a countdown chart and then colored in the circles each day. It seemed to help him to have that to focus on. At least he wasn’t as despondent as he’d been the first time around.

They filled some of their time with visits to Nana, and each Sunday, they went to her parents’ place. Sophia wished that there was a place for Bryson to meet other children, but so far, she hadn’t found a place that wouldn’t cost money.

The one good thing that had happened over the past couple of weeks was that Lani had returned from Hawaii, and she and Michael had apparently worked things out and were now officially a couple. As a result, the not-so-good thing was that there were days now when Michael didn’t need a babysitter for Vivianne.

Not a lot of days, but once a week or so, he’d let her know that he wouldn’t be bringing Vivianne by. Usually it was on a Saturday, so she tried to use that day for grocery shopping and other errands even though she would rather have been earning money by babysitting the little girl.

Still, she’d been super careful with her money, and that, along with some good sales at the grocery store, meant she’d been able to set aside a bit. Whenever Nana asked how she was doing for money, she told her she was fine because the last thing Sophia wanted was for Nana to give her money when she already was giving her so much with the house being rent-free.

That week, Michael had told her that he wouldn’t be bringing Vivianne on Friday or Saturday. Normally she would have been more upset, but Bryson had been cranky for the past few days. He wasn’t one to be cranky for no reason, so she was worried that he was getting sick.

“My ear hurts, Momma,” he said as she got him ready for bed on Wednesday night.

He hadn’t had an ear infection before, so she wasn’t sure what to do. It was already too late to go to the small clinic in town. After googling what to do for a possible ear infection, she decided to give him some medicine for the pain in hopes he’d be able to sleep.

As she lay there with him, waiting for him to fall asleep, she texted Michael to let him know that she was going to have to take Bryson to the clinic in the morning. Thankfully, Michael said it would be okay. That he and Lani would take care of Vivianne.

It was one more day without pay, and she wasn’t sure how much it might cost at the clinic. She had the state insurance for Bryson since her income was so low, but she didn’t know if there was any sort of fee that she had to pay out of pocket since she hadn’t used the healthcare system yet.

Worry kept her awake most of the night, and Bryson woke a few times as well, crying because of the pain in his ear. He didn’t even want to eat breakfast once they were up for the day, not even when she tried to tempt him with bananas and peanut butter.

She wanted to cry along with him, seeing him so miserable and in pain. She managed to get them both dressed and into the car, then drove to the clinic in