“I wanted to do it,” he said. “Don’t go acting like I did some kind of great sacrificial thing. I didn’t. When I lost my parents...the idea of being away from anyone else in my family was pretty much unbearable. Taking care of them, making sure that they were okay, that gave me a purpose. And if there were some sacrifices in there... I don’t mind. It was part of it.”
“Well. It would be nice if you could get some privacy now.”
He looked at her far too meaningfully. She felt herself blushing, and she couldn’t remember the last time she blushed before this. Ridiculous.
“Anyway,” she said. “Thank you. For helping with my hands.”
She wanted to thank him for some other things, too, but she didn’t know if it was appropriate. He picked his hat up off the counter and put it back on his head, and damned if the man didn’t tip it at her like some old-fashioned movie cowboy.
“I’ll see you later, Sammy.”
“See you,” she said, and when he left the room, she was almost certain that he had taken the air right along with him.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
WHEN THEY ALL went out for drinks on Friday night, Rose acted scandalized when Sammy ordered a beer.
“What about the baby?” she said.
“I’m on hiatus from that,” Sammy said.
Logan looked at Ryder, and then back to Sammy.
“I decided it wasn’t a good idea,” she said.
He could feel his friend’s eyes boring a hole through the side of his face.
“Why not?” Iris asked.
“You didn’t think it was a good idea,” she said. “Why are you suddenly asking why I don’t want to do it?”
“Because you don’t normally change your mind. At least, not unless there’s a particularly shiny whim off somewhere, and I haven’t seen any.”
“Maybe because I was trying to fix a problem with something that isn’t supposed to be a Band-Aid.” She looked down at her hands.
Putting Band-Aids on her earlier had been some sort of weird torture. It shouldn’t have been sexy. But it was. Maybe because she was, no matter what. Still, he hadn’t realized quite how sick he was until he had wanted to make out with her while putting ointment on her hand.
“And what gave you clarity?”
The look Logan was giving him sharpened, and Ryder nearly choked on his beer. It was like Sammy had taken her thoughts and planted them into his brain. Ryder’s penis. Ryder’s penis gave me clarity.
It had to come from her. Little witch. Because he would never think of such a thing. It was her. Prolonged exposure to her and her ridiculousness.
“Well, Iris, I went out into a field sky-clad and asked the earth to tell me the answers. Then I went to a pond and knelt by the water. I reached in, and when I pulled my hand out there was a stone in it. And on that stone was written the word idiot. So yeah, then I figured maybe I shouldn’t go have a baby with a guy I don’t know.”
“I was asking you with sincerity,” Iris said.
“I don’t think you were. Anyway. Not doing it. So we never need to discuss me or pregnancy again. Sorry I exposed all of you to it in the first place.”
A muscle in his face twitched. Because of course that was a great reminder that what the two of them had done had the potential for consequence.
He should talk to her more about that. Of course, that would mean talking more about it when what happened next was still up in the air.
So maybe he would give that a pass.
He was momentarily distracted by the arrival of Pansy and her fiancé.
They sat down at the table and Pansy launched into a story about how West’s half brother Emmett, who lived with them at their house, had gotten into an epic scrape with a bull on the Dalton family ranch. Hank Dalton was West’s father. Not his half brother Emmett’s father. But he had other half siblings through Hank. It was all pretty complicated, and a whole lot of mess as far as Ryder was concerned.
Logan and West tipped their hats in greeting to each other at the same time, and not for the first time it occurred to Ryder that the two of them shared more than a passing similarity.
And given who West’s father was, and given the fact Logan didn’t know his...it was enough to make a man wonder. If he were the kind that wondered