AllFreeNovel
Share Us
From the window, the spot looked small, but being down here, it feels even smaller, narrower.
“Can’t have you falling off the roof now, can I?” he asks, and I’m unsure if he’s joking or serious. It’s hard to tell when his face seems pretty much the same, though if I look closely, I swear I see a hint of a smile in his eyes.
He lies back, folding his arms behind his head and stretching out, and I try and fail to keep my eyes on the forest.
If he notices, he doesn’t say anything.
“Here,” he says, pulling a plate from his other side and holding it out to me. There’s not enough room between us for him to set it down, so I set it on my lap.
The tray is full of all kinds of little things: fruits, small pieces of bread, meats, and cheeses. It’s like one of those fancy charcuterie boards that are all the rage right now, except different because I’ve never seen some of this.
“What’s this?” I ask, holding up a strange piece of what I assume to be fruit. It looks an awful lot like a blackberry, but yellow.
“Um, I’m not sure what its official name is, or if it even has one, but I call it a Ry berry,” he says, and I swear I see the faintest hint of color on his cheeks, though I can’t be sure in the dim light.
He takes the fruit from my hand and pops it in his mouth. There’s a whole plate full of food, so why take the one I picked up?
I watch with a frown as he chews it slowly, his brows pulling together as if in thought.
“It tastes like a mix of these two.” Reaching over, he snags a grape and a strawberry off the plate. “Maybe a little sweeter, honestly,” he says, seeming unsure, but I love strawberries, so it’s worth trying.
Ryker watches me as I pop one into my mouth, and I try not to squirm under his intense gaze.
“Oh wow, that’s really good,” I say, popping another in my mouth.
“So, Ry berry. I’m assuming that you named it after yourself, huh?” I tease, trying to change his focus from me to just about anything else.
It works. His eyes dart back to the forest at my question, and I’m positive his cheeks flush this time.
“I was seven when I found them. It was the only thing I could think of,” he explains with a shrug, and damn it, if he isn’t adorable when he’s embarrassed.
“It’s cute,” I say, moving on to try a few other things on the board. Some of the meats look different, but nothing is bad.
It’s not until I’ve eaten about half of it that I realize Ryker hasn’t had more than that single berry, and now it’s my turn to be embarrassed.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to hog it all,” I say, holding the tray out for him, but he waves me off.
“I made it for you. I’ve already eaten.”
“How long have you been awake?” I ask before I can stop myself. It’s still dark out; the sun isn’t even up yet. I don’t usually wake up early without some kind of alarm or someone waking me, but being in a new place does that to me.
“I don’t sleep.”
There’s a bite to his tone that wasn’t there a second ago, and I bite my lip against the urge to ask what that even means. As far as I’m aware, everyone and everything sleeps, but it doesn’t seem like he wants to talk about it.
We sit for a while in silence. I continue eating, and we look out at the forest surrounding us. It’s not uncomfortable exactly, but it’s a little strained. I’m not great with the silence, I’m so used to the guys, with so many people in one house, it’s rarely quiet.
The sun begins to rise as I finish off the fruit, painting the sky with shades of reds and oranges. Most of the sun is hidden behind the trees, but just enough breaks through to warm me, chasing off the chill I hadn’t realized I’d felt until now.
“I like to come out here in the morning. There’s something almost magical about watching the sunrise. As if even the darkness of this forest can’t hide from the light sometimes.”
His voice is low and full of emotions I can’t place without looking at him. But I can’t seem to pull myself away to try, mesmerized by the way the light kisses the sky and transforms the forest below. It’s almost as if it’s an entirely different place as the dark shadows that were creepy yesterday are chased away.
“Nothing can hide forever.” I’m not sure why I say it, but once I do, I feel the truth of it settle over me like a weight.
We spend a while up on the roof. We don’t say much, but it’s nice. Eventually, Ryker gets up, and I follow him, unsure what else to do. I expect him to climb back in the window, but he doesn’t; instead, he moves toward the roof’s edge. He stands looking out at the forest, and I notice a book in the space on his other side where he pulled the tray of food from.
It looks a lot like the books on the shelf inside, but just like the one downstairs on the table, there is a feather quill and jar of ink.
