Eddie angles behind Charlie, which should be hilariously funny, considering Eddie is the larger of the two.
“How bad do they bite?” Eddie asks.
Ryker doesn’t blink. “Took off my last girlfriend’s finger.”
“Whoa,” Charlie whispers.
“Did she get it back?” Eddie asks.
Ryker folds his arms. “No.”
“Dinner,” Bea calls from the deck.
The boys look at each other and promptly break into a run toward the house.
Once again, the dogs follow, and I’m reminded of the fortune teller’s suggestion that I get them a dog.
Rather unlikely to get that approved by Lana. Not as long as she’s spending so many of her hours caring for her mother and I’m due to leave for four to six weeks for filming as soon as school begins.
I glance at Ryker. “I was under the impression you don’t date much.”
He stares me down much as he was staring down my boys a moment ago. “And now you know why.”
Without another word, he turns on his heel and heads back to the deck.
I trail along, wondering less if his statement is true and more what it would take to make the man crack a smile.
It’s suddenly a personal challenge.
A goal.
Secondary to finding an opportunity to be alone with Bea, naturally, but still a goal.
“Which one of these was the dog who disappeared?” I ask Ryker.
He slides me a look.
“Bea mentioned it.”
“Roseanne. She didn’t come back.”
“Oh. Terribly sorry.”
Once again, he doesn’t reply.
I experience that unfortunate wash of emotions that tells me I’m not as impervious to the feelings of wanting to fit in here as I tell myself I am.
Not the first time I’ve encountered a family that made me wish I could belong in ways I never did as a child.
Likely won’t be the last.
“Wash your hands first,” Bea tells my boys on the deck. “Sink’s just inside. Don’t let the cat out.”
“Yes, ma’am,” they chorus.
Manners they clearly learned from Lana.
“You too,” Bea calls to Ryker and me.
