Healing Hearts (New Hope Falls #6) - Kimberly Rae Jordan Page 0,92

at them both, his eyes wet with tears. Sophia’s heart broke, and she couldn’t help but slump against Ryker.

“It hurts,” Bryson whispered in a shaky voice.

“I know, buddy,” Ryker said. “But Gina is good at her job. If you hold still, it won’t hurt as much. You can do that. I know you can.”

Bryson blinked a couple of times before he nodded and lowered his head to rest against Sophia again. Ryker plucked the stuffed animal he’d brought for Bryson from his pillow and settled it against Bryson’s chest.

He wrapped a thin arm around it, and as Gina began to do what she needed to with his other arm, Sophia sang softly to Bryson. It was a song that Nana had sung to her as a little girl.

Be not dismayed whate’er betide,

God will take care of you;

Beneath his wings of love abide,

God will take care of you.

She felt his body relax against her, save for a slight tensing when the technician inserted the needle into his arm. It was all she could do not to tense in sympathy with him.

When it was all done and the technician was gone, Ryker let go of them and moved to the other side of the bed. “You did so well, buddy. I’m proud of you.”

He held out his fist close to where Bryson’s hand was. It meant Bryson didn’t have to lift his too far to give Ryker a tiny fist bump.

As Sophia watched Ryker interact with Bryson, the crush she’d had on the man had blossomed into something so much more. He should have been too good to be true, and maybe he was. Still, she refused to believe that he hid any sort of ugliness beneath his handsome exterior the way that Ezekiel had. Which, given how badly her track record was in judging men, probably made her a fool.

But as long as he was there for Bryson, she’d accept that character assessment of herself. A fool in love…because there was no denying that her emotions were fully engaged in this man. But he would never know. No one would. Her mistakes in the past hadn’t been in her feelings but in revealing them. In letting them dictate her choices. That would be the mistake she wouldn’t repeat.

He might be a good man, but he’d never be her man.

Ryker was a doctor, even if he wasn’t practicing currently, which meant that he was far above her. A doctor needed someone who could match his intellect, and that certainly wasn’t her.

Sophia had never dreamed of being the wife of a man like Ryker. She’d only hoped that she could find a man who would love her. A man who would care for his family the way her father had.

And she could see that while Ryker might be working a simple job, he was not a simple man. He was someone with incredible knowledge and, from what she’d heard while they’d been in the hospital, was also very well-respected.

She had no idea what the staff thought of his presence in the room with her and Bryson, but it probably wasn’t that they were a couple. Though she didn’t want to, she knew that she needed to encourage Ryker to get back to his life. The life she was sure he’d put on hold in order to be there with them.

From what she had gathered, though Bryson wasn’t completely out of the woods, he was at least headed in the right direction. She didn’t need Ryker to be there every day, helping her understand what the doctors and nurses were saying.

She knew that other families who had children in the hospital didn’t have someone with medical experience like Ryker running interference for them. They asked their questions of the nurses and doctors if they didn’t understand. That was what she needed to do. Be the adult her age said she was and deal with this situation on her own.

“I need to go make a phone call,” Ryker said, drawing her thoughts from…well, him. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

She watched him go, accepting that the thing she’d resolved to never want in her life again was becoming something her heart longed for. But accepting it didn’t mean she was going to do anything about it. Her brain was holding strong so far. Not only was it reminding her of what had gone wrong in the past, but it was also telling her that Ryker was someone she didn’t have a chance with. She