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“Come in,” Annabeth answered.
Eli, Josie and Hunter all spilled into her small kitchen. Seeing Hunter, the eldest Boone sibling, made her think about Ryder and the mess she was in.
“Hey.” Annabeth stood, tugging her giant sweatshirt past her hips. She hadn’t bothered to put herself together today. Now she was acutely aware of her oversize sweats and sloppy ponytail. Not that she had time to worry about it too much. Hunter had the boys bundled up and out the door, “to a livestock auction for some man time,” before she’d said more than a dozen words. It was only when she and Josie were left alone in the kitchen that she noticed the way Josie was looking at her.
“What?” Annabeth asked.
“What’s up?” Josie asked, opening the cabinets and taking in the morning cleaning spree.
“Nothing—”
“Don’t tell me nothing.” Josie smiled at her. “I know about the job. And I know Flo’s hospital bills still exist. And I know Cody’s getting grief at school, but this is something else.”
Annabeth started packing up Cody’s crayons. “Why does there have to be something else?”
“Because Annabeth Upton gets dressed every day. She puts on her makeup, does her hair and believes you fake it ’til you make it. Your mantra is ‘make lemonade out of the lemons life gives you’ so...yes, there has to be something else.” Josie put her hands on her hips. “Don’t get me wrong, I think you’re crazy for always being so together, but this—” she pointed at Annabeth “—isn’t you.”
Annabeth slid into the kitchen chair, watching Tom bat one of the crayons across the table and onto the floor.
“Is it Ryder?” Josie rifled through the cabinets until she found two empty glass Mason jars. “You’re one of the only people he talks to, you know that? When he comes out to the ranch, he’s still so distant.”
“He still blames himself,” Annabeth spoke softly.
“For?”
“His mother’s death.” She’d never forget how devastated he was.
Sophomore year Ryder was already a hell-raiser. His mom had gone to pick him up after he’d snuck out and drunk too much to drive home. She’d swerved to avoid a deer and the car had landed upside down in a ditch. Ryder had cut through her seat belt to get her out, but he couldn’t resuscitate her. His father shut down for almost a year, leaving Hunter to pick up the pieces. Ryder took the blame—and more risks than ever. Starting fights, run-ins with the law—and nothing she or Greg said had helped. But whether it was the guilt and anger eating him or the need for his father’s attention that drove him to such measures, Annabeth wasn’t sure.
“It wasn’t his fault.” Josie frowned.
“I think everyone knows that except Ryder. And, maybe, his father.”
Josie’s frown grew. “Teddy blames him?”
She shrugged. “Ryder thinks he does. And Ryder does. And that’s all that matters.”
“That’s what I’m talking about. You’re the only one that knows that.” Josie shook her head. “That thing—that connection—you two have.”
“What?” Annabeth looked up. “What thing?”
“Oh, please.” Josie opened the bottle of wine she’d carried in and filled both glasses halfway.
“Seriously,” Annabeth pushed. “What thing?”
Josie sat across from her, a confused look on her face. “I always got the impression you two were hot for each other. Even in high school, there was that—zing.” She paused. “Not that either of you acted on it. Greg was there.”
Annabeth stared at the wine in the Mason jar, wishing she could drink it but knowing she wouldn’t. “Well, we did.”
Josie almost snorted her wine.
“And I’m pregnant.”
Josie started coughing.
“And I don’t think he’s interested in being a father.” Annabeth stood, getting a glass of water for Josie.
Josie took a long sip, stared at Annabeth then took a long sip of her wine.
