“Look—”
We both laughed, Ryder shoving his hands in his pockets and looking down at his boots, shier than me for once.
“You go first,” he said, looking up at me from under his lashes.
“No, you go.” I nudged his foot with mine. “I wasn’t planning on saying anything important.”
Ryder took a deep breath and then let it out slowly, breath fogging in front of him.
“You don’t have to do this,” he said, looking me in the eyes this time. “I can call Astrid and tell her I won’t do it, I’ll explain to your dad, we don’thaveto go through with any of it. I know you’re trying to help, but it’s… it’s a lot. A lot of people, a lot of cameras, a lot of feeling like public property. It’s not that I don’t think you’re capable, not really.” Ryder paused to take a deep breath. “It’s…”
“I want to do it,” I said.
Yeah, okay, I was beginning to see that I’d gotten myself into something bigger than I’d thought.
But it was for Ryder.
I would’ve done anything for Ryder, and that was that.
“How many times do I have to say so before you’ll believe me?” I asked.
That was playing dirty, but I wanted him to take what I was offering. I hadn’t been able to do anything else useful for his career. I could do this.
Ryder smiled wryly. “Nowthat’semotional blackmail,” he said. “Fine. Fine, have it your way, but know you can quit whenever you want and I won’t be mad. It’s hard.”
“I’m not gonna quit on you,” I said, spitting in my hand and offering it to Ryder. “Promise.”
Ryder wrinkled his nose. “You’re not gonna make me…”
“I am.” I nodded. “It’s a sacred promise, you’ve gotta.”
“This is gross,” Ryder said, but he spat in his hand anyway.
The squelch as we shook on it made me wrinkle my nose, too, but this was it. Sacred promise made. No backing out now.
“You…” Ryder looked up at me again, then shook his head. “You’ve barely changed at all,” he said.
I grinned at him again, pulling out my keys to unlock the door. “I’ll even let you wash your hands first,” I said as I stood aside to let him in.
“My knight in shining armour.” Ryder smiled back at me, the first real one I’d seen since he got here, and I knew I’d made the right decision after all.
“More like carpenter in an ancient pickup,” I said, following him into the cabin.
“Same difference.”
7
Ryder
Gentle sunlight spilledthrough the gap in the curtains and onto my closed eyelids as I stretched out on soft sheets, breathing in the scent of fresh linens and Ward’s aftershave on the pillow I was cuddling.
“Morning,” the pillow said.
Crap.
I’d forgotten about last night.
What had started as a conversation about how Ward should sleep in his own bed and I could take the pull-out couch like the uninvited guest I was had somehow turned into Ward convincing me that there was plenty of room in the bed and we should share. He’d said something about method acting and by the time I was done telling him that wasn’t what method acting was, he’d led me upstairs and was holding the covers up invitingly.
