Someone cleaned up while I was sleeping. Which is amazing, because I was not looking forward to that at all. There was so much broken glass, and so many pictures and pieces of artwork thrown all over the place. It must’ve been tough to clean it all. And now it looks like it didn’t even happen. If it weren’t for all the picture hooks still on the walls, you wouldn’t even know that anything was missing.
Ryder jumps up off the floor. “Oh, yeah. I cleaned it up last night after you fell asleep. If I’d knownthisasshole,” he points to Devon, “was just sitting outside in his truck I would have gotten his help.”
I’m stunned. I wouldn’t have expected something like this from Ryder. And my hormones must be making me crazy, because the thought of him cleaning up for me has tears welling in my eyes. I try to blink them away before anyone sees them, but Ryder notices immediately.
“Awww, don’t be sad,” he says, coming over and pulling me into a hug. “I saved all the artwork, and all the pictures. I even managed to save most of the frames. It’s mostly just the glass that was broken.”
Devon disappears into the kitchen. Probably because my tears make him uncomfortable.
“Thank you, Ryder. I can’t believe you did that for me.” I don’t know what else to say. “It took me years to do all that embroidery, and even longer to collect all those pictures. Thank you, so much.”
“You are more than welcome.” Ryder is still hugging me and my tears are soaking his shirt. His shirts are not safe around me, apparently. Vomit-laced drool and tears seem to soak them at every turn. “The gallery will have new glass panes ready in a couple of weeks. They’re extremely backed up or they would be done sooner. Sorry about that.”
I pull back from the hug a little and look at Ryder. “You brought my frames to have new glass cut?”
“Well, yeah,” he says, letting me go, and turning to take care of the bedding on the couch. “I also brought the few frames that were broken to see if they could repair any of them. They’re not sure about that part though, but they said they would call to let me know as soon as they have it figured out.”
Who is this standing in front of me, and what has happened to Ryder? I was dreading dealing with the frames more than anything else. And now I don’t have to, because Ryder has already taken care of it all for me. And now he’s folding up all the bedding that Devon used last night.
“I don’t even know what to say, Ryder. Thank you doesn’t seem like enough. I wasn’t looking forward to sourcing new frames for all those things. Not to mention how much I didn’t want to clean up that mess.” I hiccup a little laugh through my tears.
“I told you I would take care of you,” he whispers, just loud enough for me to hear. “I didn’t mean just when you were sick.” He leans over his pile of blankets and kisses me gently on the mouth before I can pull away. My heart jumps into my throat.
“Oh, OK,” I say lamely, before changing the subject. “I’m starving. Let’s go see what else you brought for breakfast before Devon eats it all.”
“I heard that,” Devon yells from the kitchen. “I’ll have you know I was waiting for you before I got started but now I’m just going to dig in.”
“Hey asshole,” Ryder yells back, “Denise gets first choice, so keep your fat fingers out of there until she’s gotten her breakfast.” He takes the pile of blankets into the laundry room and comes back to join us.
“I was only kidding, dickface. I’m just getting coffee right now.”
Devon is grabbing his coffee from the tray that Ryder brought from Bump & Grind. Even though they act like they hate each other, they really do care. A lot of bands in this business start to hate each other after so many years together, but these guys have always been more like brothers than anything else.
I just hope they can all stay as close to me now that I have a baby on the way and I won’t be as involved in their day-to-day lives anymore.
