The Heartbreaker of Echo Pass - Maisey Yates Page 0,90
Realizing that your back has a shelf life.”
“I’m a full thirteen months younger than you. So, I’m good for a while.”
“The confidence of youth,” Jake said. “The grand opening of your bakery’s in a couple days, right? I want to make sure that I get there for that.”
“Yes,” Iris said. “It is.”
“Looking forward to it. You know, you’re the best cook I’ve ever known.”
“You’ve had very few people cook for you,” Iris said.
“Not true,” he said. “I’ve had any number of women cook me breakfast.”
“Liar,” Colt said. “You’re always out the door before breakfast.”
The corners of Jake’s mouth pulled down. “True.”
“See,” Iris said to Griffin. “Bull riders.”
“There’s some time before the meat gets done. And that means, we can play football.” That proclamation came from Ryder. And was met with both groans and enthusiastic sounds. Emmett was the most enthusiastic.
And was the most likely to get absolutely clobbered.
“Wait a minute, tell me about the football,” Griffin said to Iris.
“It’s Ryder’s first love, and he coaches the local high school team.”
“So, should I play?”
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d thrown a football around in a backyard. Maybe never? He wasn’t actually sure he knew how to play. He knew the rules from watching it, but...
“Yeah,” Ryder said. “Get in there. I’m obviously going to be judging what manner of man you are based on how well you do.”
He didn’t doubt that. Not for one second.
“All right,” Ryder said. “Men, in positions.”
Griffin got an assignment given to him from Ryder, and took it, the teams were divided up haphazardly and the game commenced. The full-scale violence surprised Griffin, but he found that he enjoyed it. Who would’ve thought. Pink iced sugar cookies in a violent backyard game of football.
It was entirely possible that Ryder was trying to kill him for sleeping with his sister. Griffin couldn’t discount that.
But, mostly, it was good-natured, and he didn’t end up too close to death by the end of the game, even if he was limping.
Ryder’s team beat his soundly.
“You did a decent enough job,” Ryder said, clapping him on the back. “I don’t judge you too much.”
By then, the meat was ready, along with baked beans, macaroni salad and any number of other delicious foods. Colt brought out his guitar at one point, and did some passable country songs, pretty impressive for a casual backyard performance, really. And Griffin just kind of listened. To everyone talking. To them interacting. To family.
Family.
That word settled in his stomach like a rock.
He’d avoided family for so long. The sense of it. The need for it.
He’d avoided his own, because they were so linked to that piece of family he’d lost.
But right here, he saw a family bonded together by loss. It was...he didn’t have words for it.
He went over to the cooler, and opened it and saw that it was out of beer.
“More in the house,” Ryder said. “Come on, we’ll get some.”
Iris gave him a look, but he shrugged and followed Ryder indoors.
“Is this the part where you ask me what my intentions are toward your sister?”
“Yeah,” Ryder said. “I’m pretty proud of myself for not saying it in front of her.”
“Your whole posture kind of shouts it, though.”
“Only because you feel guilty.”
“I don’t feel guilty about anything,” Griffin said. “I think your sister is amazing. I’m not using her. If that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Good. I wanted to be sure of that. My gut is that you’re a pretty good guy. And I have an all right gut. But you’re some rich guy who came down here from California, and I have to admit, that makes me a little bit nervous. Ingrained prejudice.”
“That’s not exactly the whole story,” Griffin said. “I don’t know what she told you. My wife died a few years ago. I came here to lick my wounds.”
Ryder jerked back. “Right. Shit. I’m sorry.”
“It’s a... I’m learning to accept it? I don’t know. Figure out how to exist?” He thought back to that little baby. That little girl of Ryder’s. It made him ache. It made him ache, but it was a fact of life. And he was glad there were babies in the world. That other people had their little girls. But he always thought of his own, and that was difficult. It always would be, he realized. It always would be, and there was some kind of grace and acceptance in that. Grace he hadn’t realized he needed.
“I... I lost my wife and my daughter,” he said to Ryder.