Chapter 11
“So let’s get on with this before we all freeze to death and they find our decomposing bodies in a few days,” Brody said. “I swear it’s going to snow soon,” he added looking at the grey skies above him.
“It takes ten days, bud, and that’s if the weather is warm,” Dan said, doing some stretches. “In this cold, though, our organs will just shut down, and we’ll fall asleep and not wake up. When they find us, we’ll look pretty much like we do now.”
“Thank you for that lesson, Deputy Dan,” Ryder said. “But Brody’s right. Let’s get this done with.” He blew into his hands and tried to warm his frozen face. It was icy and one of those days the sun had stayed in bed, so the air was thick with mist. Gray and miserable, he thought, looking around them.
“You just want to get back to your hot roommate,” Sawyer taunted him.
“No, I have a cafe to run.” But she was hot, and that was becoming a problem he’d like to be done with too. The sooner Libby was out of his house, the less he’d imagine her in places like his bed. It was four days after she’d arrived, and while she was looking, no rooms had come available for her to move into yet.
“It’s only an hour, so shut up and focus,” Zoe said.
“Why are you even here when you’re running the relay with Nina, Cill, and Betsy?” Ryder asked his sister.
The Dukes were lined up along the start of the road most of the family lived on dressed in various exercise clothes.
“I want to be fit for my run,” Zoe added. “Besides, you four need to step up your game. I’m not having those Keller losers beating you.”
“How is it she’s the smallest and got all the competitive genes?” Ryder asked.
“It’s a mystery,” Sawyer said. He wore his hat so low and his jacket collar so high, he looked like a gnome.
“Are you ready?”
They all looked to Ally, who was on the back of Sawyer’s pickup holding a megaphone she had yelled into. Beside her was her little fluff-ball dog, Huffin, wearing a blue jacket.
“Who the hell gave her that?” Brody snarled.
“Birdie borrowed it from Tripp,” Sawyer said, waving at his niece.
“You’re running now. Then you’ll do a relay. I’ve marked out the exact distance with Birdie’s help!” Ally yelled.
“Why is she not in school?” Dan asked. “I’m sure there is some rule I could arrest you for connected with that.”
“Do it. Then I’ll lie in a cell warm until you idiots are done,” Brody muttered. “And it’s a teacher only day today,” he added.
They all grunted something to that.
“Go!” Ally roared.
They started jogging in a line with Ted and Sylvie, Sawyer and Birdie’s two dogs, running beside them. Reaching Uncle Asher’s house, Ryder noted the car of Ms. Jonas, the vet, parked in the driveway.
“That won’t help you win,” Uncle Asher called out the window.
All Dukes raised a middle finger.
“Who is keeping the citizens of Lyntacky safe if you’re both slacking off work?” Zoe asked.
“He’s on call, and there are two other deputies,” Dan drawled. “This is my lunch hour.”
“Are we going to talk to him about the vet?” Brody asked.
“So, Uncle Asher, you know what happens when you put your dick?—”
“Not that. Fuck.” Brody shuddered, interrupting Sawyer. “I don’t want to think about him doing that shit.”
“I bet you a hundred he is,” Zoe said.
“Just yuck,” Dan said, sticking his fingers in his ears.
“And no, we are not saying anything because it’s none of our business,” Ryder said.
“He’s always in our business,” Brody added.
“Pick up the pace here, people. There is no way we’re winning with y’all running like snails!”
“Did your kid just y’all us?” Ryder demanded.
“Let’s go, boys,” Zoe said, surging ahead.
It was annoying, but unless he did something about it, his sister would always be fitter than him and never fail to tell him so.
“You know we’re letting you take the lead because you’re so competitive, right?” Sawyer wheezed.
“Dad told me you were fit!” Ally roared.
“She’s getting double chores tonight,” Brody hissed.
“And send her to bed without food,” Dan added.
“Maybe not food, because you know how she likes to eat, but no ice cream or anything sweet,” Ryder added. His side was starting to burn with a stitch. “We’re not in bad shape. I work out.”
“But you don’t do enough cardio!” Ally shrieked through the megaphone.
“I’m taking that thing off her, Brody. I don’t care if she’s a kid,” Sawyer said, increasing his pace to draw level with Zoe.
“Go, team Duke!”
“You have to be kidding me,” Ryder said. His mom was outside her house sitting on a deck chair, drinking out of a to-go mug. She had a blanket over her knees and was wearing gloves. Ted and Sylvie were now getting love from their nana.
“What has she got on her head?” Zoe asked.
It was camouflage and had earflaps and a long peak.
“One of Red and Dee’s kids came into the library, and Mom helped them with a project over a few days. They came back with that as a thank-you. Mom loves it,” Dan said.
“Why?” Brody asked.
“Give me a D !” their mother called, and Ally responded through the megaphone with a D , and on it went until they got to the e .
“Makes you real happy we only have four letters in our name,” Sawyer muttered. “Thanks, Mom!”
They all raised their hands.
“You’re not very fast!” she called after them. “I have someone in the house who is going to help you.”
Ryder watched in horror as Bart burst through the front door. He then ran after them.
“Speed up!” Brody wheezed.
But it was no good; Bart caught them.
“Well now, I can see why your mother and Ally asked for my help,” he said, wedging himself between Zoe and Ryder. “Let’s get you guys in shape.”
“I don’t think there is long enough,” Dan said.
“Shouldn’t you be fit for your job?” Zoe asked.
“You’d think so” was Deputy Dan’s reply.
“Dan told me he was worried Sawyer wouldn’t be fit enough yet look at him. The youngest and the slowest,” Ryder said.
“What? You little shit.” Sawyer lunged at Dan, who dodged him and then laughed in his face.
“How’s your houseguest?” Zoe asked. “I called in for a coffee yesterday when you were out, and she wouldn’t tell me anything about herself.”
Ryder didn’t speak.
“I asked Libby whereabouts in Oklahoma she’s from, and she said Piedmont,” Dan added.
Every day when Libby came back to his house looking dejected with nowhere to stay, he’d said it was all good and she’d find something soon.
The truth was, he liked having her there. She was quiet and smelled good. Plus, if he cooked, she cleaned. Then she went to her room, and he didn’t see her until the morning, which suited Ryder because she may not be his type, but she was hot. He wasn’t sure she felt it, but there was something simmering between them, and he didn’t need that complication with her.
“When we reach that tree”—Bart pointed up the drive—“we sprint until Ally calls stop.”
“Someone save me,” Sawyer whispered.
“You got that stopwatch ready, Ally?” Bart called.
She held it up.
“Twenty seconds to start!” Bart added.
“I don’t want to,” Ryder said, jabbing his fingers into the pain in his side.
“Go!”
He ran because his siblings did, and if Dukes were nothing else in this world, they were competitive.
Brody had once bet him he couldn’t sit upright in a tree all night. He’d done it and fallen out the next morning and broken his wrist.
“Stop!” Ally yelled.
“The pr-problem, as I see it,” Zoe wheezed, “is that Bart’s old, so he gets our respect, and she’s young, so we can’t swear at her.”
“We’re fucked, and they know it,” Ryder said.
By the time they reached Sawyer’s house at the end of the road, Ryder’s clothes were clinging to him, and his hair was dripping water down the back of his neck. Steam was rising off all the Duke siblings who were bent at the waist, sucking in chilly air. Bart, however, wasn’t even breathing hard. Ally had jumped off the back of the pickup and was now conversing with him.
“We run bases,” Brody said, “but this, I’m close to puking.”
“Nice work, team.” These words came from Birdie, who had climbed out of the pickup and was now standing before her man. “You did great… really.”
“Liar,” Sawyer said, grabbing her. He then ran his sweaty cheek over hers, which had her shrieking.
Ryder felt a deep tug of longing inside him as he watched. A need to belong to someone like these two did to each other. Family was different; this was another level of connection he’d never had. Three of his siblings had it, and he both loved and resented them for it.
“What is that scowl for?” Dan asked.
“What we just did isn’t making you scowl?” Ryder demanded.
“True that.”
“Right. Drink, and then we’re going along the road and dropping you off at intervals. We’ll do the same tomorrow, and then you can have a break,” Bart said.
Ally held drink bottles in her skinny little arms.
“Honestly, brat, if I didn’t love you, you’d be dead to me right now,” Dan said.
“He’s not wrong,” Ryder said, taking a bottle. “You did want a cake made with bananas, right?” Ally hated anything with bananas.
“This is for your own good,” she said. “You were bitching about not wanting to lose this race, so Nana and I decided to make sure you didn’t.”
“Excuse me, but we don’t bitch,” her father said, “and don’t talk like that, young lady.”
Ally rolled her eyes, and Ryder snorted. “Your life is going to be hell for a few years.”
“Phoebe’s taking some online courses so we’re prepared. But God’s truth, bro, I don’t think anything can prepare you. I spoke to Red about it. He said his eldest went from being sweet to surly and rebellious overnight,” Brody said. “And now we’re….” his words fell away.
“Now we’re what?” Zoe asked, moving to stand in front of him, her face no more than three inches away. “What were you going to say?”
“Nothing,” Brody said.
“The tips of his ears are red. He’s lying,” Dan said.
“Just tell them, Dad. Phoebe said we could. It’s you that wants to wait,” Ally said.
Looking at her, Ryder could see that whatever the news was, she was happy about it.
“You tell them.” Brody looped an arm around her neck and hauled her into his side.
“You’re all sweaty, Dad,” she protested, but Ryder saw she didn’t push him away. She was still firmly her daddy’s girl.
“We’re having a baby,” Ally said.
Dan whooped and picked her up. The rest of them just hugged Brody hard. Birdie cried.
“Our b-babies will be close in age,” she managed to get out.
“Very exciting, but now back to the training,” Bart said. “Dan’s starting. The rest of you, get on the back of the pickup.”
They were deposited the exact right number of yards apart, as was marked out beforehand by Bart and Ally. Ryder was last, as he’d always been the fastest Duke, which pissed off everyone else.
“You all right, sweetie?”
“All good, Mom,” he said when she wandered up still wearing that ridiculous hat. “Brody was saying?—”
“It’s so exciting! Two new grandbabies,” she said, clapping her gloved hands.
“Pretty awesome, all right,” he said, squinting down the road. It wasn’t that long, so what the hell was keeping Sawyer?
“How’s Libby?”
“You say that like she’s a local and you’ve known her for years, yet to my knowledge, you’ve never met her.” Hurry it up, Sawyer. Ryder could feel a lecture coming on.
“I’ve heard people talking about her. She sounds troubled. Is she troubled, Ryder?”
“No clue, Mom. I’m not really a guy who asks that kind of cr—question.”
“She’s been living under your roof for four days, Ryder. If I hadn’t been on that course, I would have come in before now. So bring her to dinner tonight.”
“I’m not bringing her to family dinner, Mom.” Where the fuck are you, Sawyer?
“Now you listen to me, Ryder Duke.”
There was just something that made you turn into a weak-kneed five-year-old when your mother spoke to you in that particular tone of disapproval.
“She’s here and alone, and Bob said her car is bad, so it’s going to take time to fix.”
Please tell me you didn’t tell her what was in the trunk, Bob.
“We are a family who supports others, Ryder, and while I’m proud of you for taking her in, a complete stranger, I want you to bring her to family dinner tonight because it’s what should be done.”
“Why?” Ryder only just bit back a sigh of relief as he saw his eldest brother appear, staggering toward him, with Bart running at his side, barking orders. The dogs, all three of them, were yapping at him also. He almost felt sorry for Sawyer. “Pick up the pace!” Ryder called.
“I’m making my special chicken, so you’ll bring Libby.”
“If she hasn’t moved out,” he added. “Gotta run, Mom… literally.” He grabbed the stuffed dog Sawyer was carrying.
“A dog, really?”
“Th-there wasn’t anything else, and this is T-Ted’s, so don’t lose it,” Sawyer said before he collapsed on the side of the road. Ted barked at Ryder, so he ran with the dog’s toy in his hand and away from his mother, who he knew had lots more she wanted to say.