Healing Hearts (New Hope Falls #6) - Kimberly Rae Jordan Page 0,96
head bent forward.
After a moment, she lifted her hands to brush back the strands of hair that had escaped the messy bun on the top of her head. Looking up, she met his gaze, and for a moment, they just stared at each other.
Then her gaze slipped to Bryson. “He’s still sleeping?”
“Yep, and his vitals are all stable.” It was what he told her each time she woke up, knowing that that was what she needed to hear from him.
She stayed on the bed, staring at Bryson for a few minutes before she said, “I think you don’t need to keep coming back every day now.”
“What?” He’d heard her perfectly fine but couldn’t quite understand why she’d tell him that.
“I know Michael relies on you a lot, and it’s probably hard for him to have you here, especially when he has to worry about care for Vivianne too.”
Ryker couldn’t deny that it had been a bit of a juggle for Michael and Lani, but they understood his situation. “I don’t think it’s good for you to be here on your own.”
“I’ll see if someone from my family can come to stay with us.”
That didn’t offer him much reassurance. After all, her family hadn’t seemed all that eager to help her out so far. It seemed that the one person who wanted to be there was her grandmother, but unfortunately, she wasn’t physically able to come on her own.
“I really don’t mind being here,” Ryker said, which was the truth.
“But it’s a lot for you to drive back and forth every day, especially after working.”
“I’m not comfortable leaving you on your own here.”
“I’ll be fine. If I have questions, I can always phone you, right?”
“Well, of course, but…”
Though she still had a fragile air to her, Ryker could see that she was trying to show him that she was strong. He didn’t want to abandon her, but he couldn’t deny that having even just one day of solid work would be helpful. Not just for him, but for Michael and Lani as well.
“Please,” she said. “I feel like we’ve taken up so much of your time. Now that Bryson is improving, there’s no need for you to be here every single day.”
He knew that she was already worried about owing him for what he’d done for them. With a sigh, he said, “Just one day. I’ll be back on Friday.”
“Saturday.”
Ryker lifted his brows at her response. “Are you actually trying to get rid of me?”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I’m trying to give you a break.”
He wanted to insist that he was fine to come back, but he also didn’t want to run roughshod over what she wanted. Even if he didn’t necessarily agree with it. “I’ll call you each evening to check on the two of you, and you have to promise to call me if something comes up that you need to talk to me about.”
“I promise.”
Ryker really didn’t want to leave her, especially when he wasn’t sure she’d take care of herself if he wasn’t there. How would she get food? She still wasn’t willing to leave Bryson for more than a few minutes at a time.
Still, he did owe Michael for being so accepting of his truncated workdays so far that week. At the determined look on Sophia’s face, Ryker found himself agreeing to her request. He’d stay in New Hope for a couple of days and hope that he wasn’t making a mistake.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Sophia felt decidedly shaky the next day. After Ryker had left the night before, she’d cried. It was so stupid because she was the one who had insisted that he go. But it wasn’t until he’d left, knowing that he wouldn’t be back for a couple of days, that it had struck her how alone she would be.
After she’d stopped crying, she’d called her parents to let them know how Bryson was doing. Unfortunately, when she’d asked if either of them could make it up the next day, they’d said they wouldn’t be able to since her dad was working overtime and her mom had already committed to watching Chloe’s kids.
She hadn’t been too surprised. For as long as she could remember, her dad had picked up extra hours at his job whenever he could. After all, providing for a large family on a single income wasn’t exactly easy. Also, Chloe often dropped her kids off with their mom, especially now that she was pregnant again.