“Thank you.”
“Okay, what do you need?”
I lick my lips and take in a deep breath. Ihateasking for help. It doesn’t come easy to me. It never has.
But I don’t know what else to do. He knows that I’m having some challenges with Aiden—he doesn’t knowhowbad it is. But he’s about to.
“I need you to give Aiden a job here this summer,” I say and watch as he pulls his eyebrows together in a frown. “We’re struggling, Ry.”
“Financially?”
“No, it’s not that at all.”
I pull out a chair at the table and sit in it, and Ryker sits across from me, watching me intently.
“It’s time you tell me what’s going on at home, Trouble.”
I lick my lips.
“I know that a fifteen-year-old is going to push my buttons. Test boundaries. But he’s so ...angry. I just got an email this morning from the school. He’s skipped schoolseventeen timesthis semester. He’s missing so many assignments it boggles my mind. He’s not doing any work, and he won’t talk to me anymore.”
I push my hands through my hair and cover my face for a second.
“We’ve always gotten along so well. He’s such a good boy. Sweet. Affectionate. But that kid hasn’t had a nice thing to say to me in two years, Ryker. I don’t know what changed. I don’t know if there was something specific that happened, because he won’t talk to me. He’s completely frozen me out. And now, as you know, he’s getting into trouble, and I’m failing him. I don’t know what to do, but school’s going to be out in two weeks, and I cannothave him left to his own devices this summer while I work, even if I do work from home.”
I shake my head and stand up to pace.
“I don’t trust him. That’s the part that sucks so damn bad. I don’t trust my kid.”
I’m a mess. I’m wringing my hands, and I’m on the verge of tears. I’m just so frustrated.
Ryker stands and simply pulls me into his arms and hugs me against his chest, andoh my God. It feels so good to lean on him. I wrap my arms around his middle and hold on, enjoying his heat and the sound of his heartbeat.
“Okay, we’re going to figure this out,” he murmurs and kisses the top of my head as his hands rub up and down my back, trying to soothe me. “I need help for the summer anyway, so he can work here and stay in the bunkhouse like Gid and I did when we were kids.”
I slump against him, and I’m so relieved that the tears threaten to fall, and I have to blink fast to keep them at bay.
“You don’t have to pay him—”
“I’ll pay him,” he says. “The same as the other hands, because he’ll be working his butt off, and it’ll give him some motivation.”
“Honestly, I think just working withyouwill be motivation. I know he was a jerk last weekend, but he thinks you’re super cool, what with the whole hockey thing.”
“Iamcool,” he reminds me as I pull out of his arms. “Hockey or no hockey.”
“You’re okay.”
He taps me on the nose. “Admit it. You like me.”
“You’re okay,” I echo, making him grin. “I offered to put Aiden in hockey because he loves it so much, and we used to go to the rink to skate all the time, but he said no. I can’t get him to doanythingexcept hang out with kids he shouldn’t be hanging out with. I know this isn’t your job, but I don’t know what else to do.”
“I’m not complaining, and I already said yes.”
“Thank you.” I bite my lower lip and wish that I could hug him again. “School gets out in two weeks, and if you’re open to it, I can bring him out here the next day to start work.”
“That’s fine by me.” He nods and then leans back against the countertop, crosses his ankles, and looks like he should be in a magazine. “Hey, I haven’t asked you, and I feel like an ass because I should have brought it up earlier. How’s the audiobook business going?”
I grin at him. “It’s great. I’m booked out about a year in advance with gigs, and I just finished some voice work for a video game.”
