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“She’s as smart as a whip, just like my girl.” The hinges of his recliner creaked as he pushed down the footrest, and he used the arms to push himself to standing. He winced a bit as he did, and I gave him my arm and helped him hobble over to the round table sitting in the nook.
He settled into his spot, and I uncovered the pot pies and set one in front of him and one in my spot before I went into the kitchen and grabbed forks and napkins.
“There you go,” I told him as I set the fork beside his pot pie and pecked a kiss to the top of his head, his white hair sticking up in the back.
“You don’t have to take care of me, you know.” Still, he was taking his fork and digging it into the pie, his hand shaking so bad I didn’t know how he was able to hold onto it.
“Maybe I’m here so you can take care of me.” I sent him a soft smile.
He smiled back, and my chest panged with the love I had for him. Appreciation thick.
He and my grandma had raised me from a little girl, since the day my mama had dumped me on their porch when I was three and hadn’t turned back. Maybe I was angry at the woman, scarred in ways that wouldn’t heal, but I also held a huge amount of gratitude that she’d done it.
Because of it, she’d given me the gift of her parents who were the best people in the world.
“What did you get up to today?” Grandpa asked as I plopped into the chair next to him.
I pulled a piece off the edge of my pastry and popped the flaky goodness into my mouth. “Got a job.”
“Doin’ what?”
“Training a little girl how to care for and ride a horse.”
He tried to hide his smile by ducking his head. “Training, huh?”
Excitement shivered through my veins. I couldn’t help it. “Yup.”
Grandpa grinned. “Well, if that isn’t the best news I’ve heard in a long time.”
“I think so, too, Grandpa.”
Even if it meant working for the biggest asshole I’d ever met.
SIX
CALEB
I stepped into the building to the sound of a whirring machine and the grinding of metal, so loud it screamed through my ears.
Ryder was bent over some sort of worktable, wearing protective glasses and gloves on his hands, so intent on what he was doing and lost to the roar of the machine there was no chance he could hear that I’d entered through the side door.
Reckless.
In my world, you didn’t turn your back like that. You were vigilant. Always fucking watching your back.
I prayed to God I hadn’t dragged that world here to Time River. Coming here the way I had, to a place I didn’t belong. A place that would never be home. But Ryder had convinced me it was the safest place for us to hide.
The sheet metal he’d been shearing in two cut apart, and the machine wound down, the sound fading off until it was just the quiet of me standing there behind Ryder while the man inspected his work.
He jumped about two feet in the air when he turned around and saw me standing there.
“The fuck, man? Are you trying to give me a goddamn heart attack? I’m too young for that shit.” He laughed that low, casual laugh.
“Maybe you should pay attention to your surroundings.”
“Maybe you should stop sneaking up on the unsuspecting.” He quirked a dark brow.
That had basically been my job, and the asshole knew it.
“You’re lucky I wasn’t here to cut you.” Couldn’t stop the grin from pulling to the edge of my mouth.
Laughing again, he stretched out his tatted arms. “Try it. You know I’d take you down.”
Ryder was younger than me by five years, his hair black and his eyes close to the same. He was tall and sinewy—all corded muscle. The dude was not to be toyed with, not that I wouldn’t give him crap about it, anyway.
“You know I’d kick your scrawny ass.” I grinned and pulled out a chair at the square table to the side of me.
At the same time, the side door opened, letting in a bright wedge of light, before it clattered shut again. Ezra strolled in wearing his Sheriff uniform.
“Thought I saw you parked out front as I was driving by—probably could bet on it since you’re the only asshole who would drive a Range Rover in this town.” Ezra smirked, his blue eyes glinting.
“Seriously. That shit is embarrassing,” Ryder said as he swaggered over, wiping his hands with a towel.
I canted them both a scowl. “It’s the safest for Evelyn.”
In an instant, they sobered.
“How is she?” Ryder asked as he pulled out a chair and flopped down beside me.
I fidgeted in the uncomfortable metal seat. “Quiet. Doesn’t say much.”
