Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 128801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
Nothing to keep us apart but the fear if we let it.
And I wouldn’t let the unknowns keep me from this.
This connection that hummed in his room.
A sated song.
A silence brimming with so much meaning that neither of us could speak.
Ryder never let go, he just shifted me in his arms and carried me into the bathroom.
His touch so tender. His care so fierce.
He turned on the shower, and once it warmed, he stepped into the stream, only then placing me onto my feet.
He angled me under the fall, urging my head back so he could wet my hair. Chills lifted as the hot water rushed over my body.
His hair was wet and the water pounded into his skin and those eyes never looked away as he tended to me.
And my spirit resounded with truth.
With us.
With the promises we’d made.
Both the unspoken and the ones that had fallen from our lips.
He didn’t need to say anything as he wrapped me in a towel and carried me back to his bed. He situated me in the middle and didn’t hesitate to climb in and wrap me in his arms.
His fingertips played through the wet locks of my hair as we both lay facing each other.
Staring for the longest time.
Finally, I broke through the bated stillness. “I need to tell you something.”
His sharp brow furrowed, but he kept gentling his fingers through my hair.
Sure encouragement.
“What is it?”
My mouth suddenly felt dry, and my pulse quickened in a fray of anxiety. “Kayden’s biological father came into the restaurant today.”
Every molecule in Ryder tensed, worry treading through his features, though he set his hand on my hip, his thumb running circles in an effort to chase my apprehension away.
“How?” The single word cracked down the middle.
I inhaled a shattered breath, forcing myself to speak through the fractured peace. “He saw me with Kayden at the store a month ago. He said he didn’t recognize me at first, but when he did, he realized Kayden might be his child. He’d seen the Time River Market & Café sign on the back window of my car, and when he came back into town, he came in.”
Ryder flinched, but he kept running those circles on my hip. “Did he tell you what he wants?”
My head shook on the pillow. “He’d come to find out if his suspicions were true. When I confirmed them, he said he needed time to process it.”
I stalled, then whispered the fear. “I’m terrified he might want custody or something, and I know that makes me selfish, but I got so used to the idea of him not being a part of our lives.”
“You don’t have to feel guilty for that, Dakota. You don’t even know this guy.” I could feel the protectiveness well in Ryder.
A rising tide.
One that would demolish when it hit land.
“I know.” My teeth plucked at my bottom lip. “I’m scared of what this means.”
“You’re allowed to be. But the only thing we can do is take it as it comes. And know that no matter what, we’re always there for Kayden. He has us, and that love will never fail him.”
My spirit thrashed, and a tear slipped free. Ryder reached out and gathered it with his thumb before he pulled me closer to him, strong arms wrapping me in their protection as he pressed his lips to my forehead when he whispered, “This life is for you two now. Whatever that looks like. Whatever that means. I promise you, Dakota.”
FORTY-THREE
RYDER
“I watch Wion King.” Kayden patted his chest and dipped his chin real deep, shooting me one of those dimpled smiles that completely slayed.
The one that cut to the core and guaranteed the choice I had made was the right one. One that affirmed I wasn’t just taking this action to get myself free, but because our kids deserved better. A safer place to grow up. A safer place to live and learn. One that didn’t fester with greed and prey on their innocence.
On their pain and their grief.
It wasn’t like I was going to change the world or shake up the order of things, but it was the one small footprint I could make.
Because I could see myself standing in that very spot at Kayden’s age, and there wasn’t a question in my mind that my mother had looked at me the exact same way as I was looking at him now.
With a love so fierce that she felt like she might explode with the magnitude of it. Ribs hardly strong enough to contain it. With a hope so fervent that I would grow into a good man. That I’d find joy and peace and all the things in this life that made it worth living.
But I’d followed my grief down the wrong path. It was insane that I could go back all those years and pin it on one reckless, foolish decision made in a place of desperation. A choice to walk through a door I never should have walked through.