“Great.”
“Do you still like living out here?”
I frown. Is he going to tell me that we have to move back to the city after all?I won’t go back. I’d rather run away.
“I love it here,” I tell him honestly. “Will I really have to move into your house when the summer’s over?”
“Yep, you’ll live with us during the school year,” he replies.
“So I don’t have to go back to Missoula?”
He stops walking and turns to me, takes me by the shoulders the way he does when he’s telling me something serious.
“Aiden, you are staying here. You and Willow live here now. Wills even put her house on the market. You’re not going back to Missoula, okay?”
“Okay. Good.”
“Have you had any weird messages come through on your phone from a number you don’t know, or an unknown number?”
Now he’s making me nervous again.
“I haven’t looked at my phone since last night,” I reply. “I got a text from Mac to hop on and playCall of Dutywith him. But there’s nothing weird.”
“That’s what I want to hear. If that changes, you tell me right away.”
“I will. I mostly ignore my phone. I’m too busy to pay any attention to it.”
“That’s not a bad thing.” Ry opens the barn door, and we walk inside.
“Hey, girl,” I say to Sunflower, the horse I ride the most. She can be skittish, but she loves me. I rub her head and then follow Ry to the other side of the building, where a big box sits in the corner. “What’s that?”
“The punching bag I promised you.”
One thing I’ve learned this summer is that if Ryker promises something, he comes through. Always.
“I know you’re not quite as angry as when you first came here, but we can all use a round or two with a punching bag once in a while,” he says with a shrug. “I need your help hanging it.”
“Sure, I can do that.” I like it when he needs my help. I like feeling useful.
“What’s your favorite part of the ranch?” he asks me as he cuts open the box.
“What do you mean?”
He shrugs and gestures for me to hold on to the closed end so he can shimmy the bag out of the cardboard.
“When I first moved here, when I was about your age, my favorite part was the quiet. I liked that there isn’t a lot of noise out here. And the stars are cool too.”
I nod, thinking it over. “I guess I just like that I feel safe here.”
He stops what he’s doing and turns to me. “You didn’t feel safe with Willow in the city?”
“I always feel safe with Aunt Wills, because she’s a mama bear and she will cut a bitch.”
Ry smirks and nods. “Yeah, she is that.”
“But I didn’t feel safe at school. I never knew what to expect, you know?”
“Yeah.” He sighs and pulls a hook out of his pocket, then stands on a stool to screw the hook into the beam above us. “I know that feeling, and it fucking sucks.”
