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“So, where you staying?” Noah asked him.
“Not sure yet. I don’t want to bunk down with the happily-ever-after team if the baby’s arriving any day, and Mom—”
“Nuff said there,” Buster said. “I think the cabin is free if you want that for a few days. I’ll ask Macy or Brad. You got a minute?”
It was like he’d been gone only a matter of weeks, not years. They were comfortable with him, he realized, and some of the tension inside him eased.
“Sure.”
“Noah, make coffee stat,” Buster said, wandering away with his phone pressed to his ear.
“This is your place, not mine,” Noah groused, moving behind the counter. “You should be serving me.”
Buster ignored him.
“You can stay at The Howler, but there’s a bit of noise in there at the moment. We’re renovating,” Noah said.
“Not sure how long I’ll be here, but the cabin is all good thanks, if it’s free.”
“Seen your mom and Hope yet?”
“They’re in Brook, back later, so your sister told me.”
“Where is she?”
“Who?”
“Faith,” Noah said, doing something with the coffee machine that made a good smell.
“Ah, not sure, and you’d possibly know her movements more than me.”
Noah shot him a look. “You just said you saw her.”
“Oh, right. Down at the water. I was dipping my fingers in the lake. No idea where she went after that.”
“How’s it sitting? The ‘my little sister with Paul Newman’ thing?”
“Not sure how it happened? Or how they even get along, considering what I remember of Newman and his neatness? But to my mind, he’s a good guy and will be a great dad and husband.”
“They’re amazing together, actually. They complement each other. He’s got all that control and tidiness going on, and she hasn’t.”
Ryan laughed. He knew what his sister was like.
“Two people can’t be like him in a relationship, there would be a constant power struggle. Hope just rolls with it, then takes a stand in other areas,” Noah said. “They are recycling demons, and there’s the environment that needs protecting constantly. She has Newman doing all kinds of things now. He actually purchased a thrift store sweater the other day.”
“Get out,” Ryan said. Even he remembered that Newman liked label clothing.
“Truth. He’s never going to wear it, but it made Hope happy.”
“All about balance, I guess,” Ryan said.
“Did she give you the stare down, bud?”
“Who?”
“My sister.”
Ryan nodded, wondering why it felt so good to just be plain old Ryan again. No pressures, no people at him. It was liked he’d stepped back in time to when he’d hung around with the pack he’d called friends. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed it until now.
