Chapter 18
Chapter 18
“ I ’m not going to lie; you don’t look good.”
“Thanks.” Ribs swiped a weary hand over his stubbled face as Ridge made his keen-eyed inspection. “Stayed the night at Jordan’s again.”
Ridge’s brows rose slightly. “I didn’t get an alert from the locals. Unless it was a personal matter?”
Ribs paused mid-yawn to regard him with disdain. “Would I be here if it were?”
“Good point,” Ridge said. Relaxed now, he slid a platter of muffins between them, his wife’s influence. Pre-Maggie, Ridge would have continued to work while Ribs poured out his heart. Now he took exactly one quarter of a muffin—his only concession to sugar—and sat back, waiting patiently.
“Man, you guys and your wives,” Ribs observed, reaching for the three quarters of muffin Ridge left behind. “I can’t get over it.”
“Neither can we,” Ridge agreed, chewing thoughtfully. “After years of puzzling it over, I still can’t figure out why it happens this way.”
“You mean why you’re so much better now?” Ribs prodded.
Ridge nodded, unprovoked. “The only thing I can come up with is that this is how it’s supposed to be. Remaining alone and untethered is unnatural and, eventually, leads to ruin.”
“Comforting, thanks,” Ribs said.
Ridge’s eloquent brow rose again. “Are you untethered, though? Are you really?”
Ribs took a breath to answer and let it out, deflated. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”
“Did you ever?” Ridge asked.
“I thought I used to. I thought Shimmer did, too.”
The levity died away as they both stared at the plate of muffins, mourning their fallen friend. Ridge took a deep breath. “Right, so what brings you?”
“This thing with Jordan.”
“You mean how you’re in love with her and she has no idea?” Ridge said.
“No.”
“You mean how she’s your best friend’s widow and you don’t know if she’s ready?” Ridge tried.
“No.”
“You mean…”
“Maybe I could tell you instead of you trying to guess,” Ribs groused.
“This is the most fun I’ve had in a while,” Ridge returned. “But go ahead.”
“Have there been any developments on Shimmer’s suicide?” Surely Ridge would have told him if he’d found anything, but given the recent events, he needed to ask.
“Ethan’s been on it. And he’s been…detailed.” It was probably an understatement. If Ethan had a personal stake in the game, which he did, then he would be ruthless in his search for answers. “But so far nothing has come up. Each way we come at it, it keeps looking like what we first believed.”
They stared at the muffins again, once again coming to terms that their friend, whom they’d both loved, had chosen to end things forever.
“I assume there’s a reason you’re asking,” Ridge said at last, shifting them away from the uncomfortable silence.
Ribs told him about Charlotte’s proclamation, the weird noises that had been waking Jordan. In return Ridge gave him the hard stare, the one that said he was puzzling something and frustrated because he was unable to find the answer. Ribs knew the feeling because he felt the same.
“Jordan’s not making it up,” he summarized, somewhat defensively.
“I never believed she was,” Ridge returned agreeably.
“But there’s nothing. I’ve swept that perimeter so hard the spiders moved away to get some peace. There is nothing . Not one trace. Whoever he is, the guy is good. But if he’s not connected to Shimmer, I don’t know what to think.”
“It’s possible it’s connected to Shimmer, but not his death,” Ridge suggested. There were always people with vendettas in their world. Some took longer to come to fruition.
Ribs mashed a crumb on the desk, staring at his finger to avoid looking at Ridge. “It’s different when it’s personal.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know how to do it.”
“The same. Compartmentalize. Keep the job the job, deal with the other stuff later, when it’s over.”
Ribs blew out a breath. He tried to imagine compartmentalizing Jordan and the kids, shoving them into a corner of his heart and focusing on the job, but all he could remember was Charlotte’s face pressed to his chest, her baby fists clinging. Jordan’s soft and small hand between his bigger ones, Nash’s glee at evading capture and causing mayhem.
Ridge knocked on the desk between them, startling him. “When the time comes you’ll do it. Because you have to. It’s the only way to keep them safe.”
It seemed so long ago now that Maggie had been in the crosshairs, when Ridge had led the rescue to save her. He might like to pretend he’d been completely closed off, but none of them had ever seen him so rattled, so intent. That was how they knew, long before he said the words, that Maggie was the one who would remain when the mission was over. Even if some emotion had leaked through, he’d found a way. Ribs would, too. He gave a small nod of assent. Ridge made a flicking motion toward the door, albeit a friendly one. Ridge might be a task-oriented super boss, but he was always available when they needed him. What surprised Ribs was how much they continued to need him. None of them were boys anymore, and yet the dynamic remained with Ridge as their forever mentor.
Ribs paused and turned back. Ridge’s brows rose in question again. “I really love and appreciate you, I hope you know.” After Shimmer, it felt like he needed to say it more, to make certain the people in his world heard all the things they needed to hear.
“I do, and same,” Ridge replied. Then he repeated the flicking motion toward the door. This time Ribs took it, closing the door softly behind him as he made his exit.