Chapter 14
Ryder loved martial arts. For someone who had drifted for so long, clueless what he wanted to do with his life, it had given him discipline and control.
He’d never told his siblings he didn’t know what his direction should be. Truth was, he’d been ashamed that he was simply drifting while they all seemed to have a goal or, at the least, went out in the world to find what they wanted.
It had been his Uncle Asher who pointed him toward martial arts. He’d found a man who taught in his home a two hours’ drive from Lyntacky. From his first lesson, he’d been hooked. Ryder had spent many long grueling hours of practice to reach the stage where he was ready to be tested for his black belt, and he was proud of the fact he’d achieved what he set out to do. It was the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life, and the most rewarding.
People thought he was the laid-back, easygoing Duke, and he was, mostly. But he had his own brand of determination and stubbornness. He also had anger he’d learned to harness. That and fear. He’d gotten his first real taste of that when his father had died suddenly. Ryder had hated how vulnerable and scared that made him feel.
“And that’s it for today, everyone. You all make sure to practice those moves,” he said when they were done.
“Ryder, I just need you to show me a few things,” SJ said, moving closer.
The woman was a man-eater, and a product of her parents, who were class A assholes. He’d been dodging her advances for years and thought them harmless. After what Libby said to him earlier about believing SJ was his girl, he didn’t want to anymore.
“What’s the issue, SJ?”
“If you could just come in behind me and help me through the moves. I can’t seem to get them right, Ryder, and you’re so good at them.”
“There are no moves I taught you that need me to do that. Show me what you don’t get, and I can run you through it while facing you.” The shock on her face told Ryder he’d never spoken to her in that tone before, but maybe he should have.
But when you grew up with someone, you tended to just put up with their crap.
“I take my classes seriously, Sydney Jane, and flirting doesn’t factor into it. So, if you want to learn, all good, I’m here for that, but if not, then see you around.”
She glared at him, then with a swish of her hair, she was gone.
“You pissed off with anything particular, or life in general?” JD, said, moving to his side.
“It’s like SJ moves on to the next Duke when one of us gets into a serious relationship. I just never realized before now how annoying her flirting is.”
“Yeah, I had it a time or two, and I have to say, I didn’t enjoy it,” JD said, stretching from side to side.
“Is my class too much for you, old man?”
“Zoe told me I have back pain because I’m lazy and don’t do enough physical stuff outside the bedroom?—”
“I could show you a few moves that will make your pain a whole lot worse if you say things like that in my hearing again,” Ryder said.
JD’s smile was slow. “You Dukes are such easy targets,” he said, pulling on his sweater. “So how’s Libby?”
“You say that like you know her well,” Ryder said.
“Oh, but I do, and we had a long talk. Plus LouJean came in for her monthly color today and said Libby was a sweet girl who’d suit you just fine. As Red Heckler was there getting his waxing, a discussion on the fact that you’d make a fine husband struck up. Your sister, who was also there annoying me on her lunch break, agreed. She added that she needed to check Libby over more thoroughly, though, before making a firm call on her suitability,” JD added.
Ryder didn’t groan, but it was close.
“The woman is leaving again when her car is fixed. There will be no wedding.”
“She’s hot?—”
“Should you be saying that seeing as you’re living with my sister?” Ryder said, sounding testy.
“Where is the rule that says you can’t comment on a woman’s looks if you’re living with the love of your life?” JD asked.
“I just threw up in my mouth.”
“Jealousy is ugly on you, and I know it’s just because you need the love of a good woman.”
Ryder grabbed his brother-in-law by hooking an arm around his neck. He then flipped him to the floor, making sure he didn’t land hard enough to hurt himself, but hard enough to shut him up.
“Is there a reason he’s getting a private lesson?” Phoebe’s brother, Caleb Stanway, looked down from the other side of JD. “Because I could do with one. I can’t quite get that straight punch right.”
“You can’t get any of it right,” his boyfriend, Jonathan, said from behind them.
Ryder pulled JD back to his feet. “Now shut up.”
“I was just asking him about Libby Gulliver,” JD said, moving behind Caleb far quicker than he’d moved all class.
“She’s nice and makes excellent coffee,” Caleb said. “She’s also classy and way out of your league. Her jewelry is high-end and expensive. The woman may not have money now, seeing as she’s roughing it in your cafe, but she comes from it,” he added, looking Ryder up and down. “I thought Brody was the slob in your family?”
“We may need another intervention,” JD said, still standing behind Caleb. “And I agree about Libby coming from money and lots of it.”
“I just got Dr. Hannah’s chicken dumpling recipe,” Jonathan said waving a piece of paper in his hand as he joined them. “I’ll make it for your dad tomorrow.”
“Do you think Ryder could do with some polishing?” Caleb said to his boyfriend.
The three men then studied him, which had Ryder growling.
“Dukes have the best hair,” Jonathan said. “But it could do with styling, especially now that Libby is staying with him.”
“Get the fuck out of my face,” Ryder snarled.
“No need to swear, Sensei!” Dr. Hannah called. “See you on Thursday.” Raising a hand, she left with the others, who all filed out the door like a gaggle of geese.
“You can all piss off and take your opinions with you. Libby Gulliver is a stranger who I helped out. Nothing more to it than that,” Ryder snapped.
“He’s protesting,” Caleb said. “Plus she’s been living in his new home for days now. You can’t tell me they’re platonic.”
“I’m dropping all of you if you don’t stop. And you know I’ll do it!”
“Sweet. Job done, then. Nothing like annoying a brother-in-law to get you ready for a drink. Let’s go to the Rollaway,” JD said. Ryder glared. They smiled, and he gave up. Being pissed off only gave people more ammunition. The best way to deal with this shit with Libby going forward was to ignore it. Easier said than done, seeing as the woman turned him inside out, even if she wasn’t his type.
“See you at the Rollaway,” JD said like he hadn’t just spent the last ten minutes roasting Ryder.
When he was alone, he took a few deep breaths. He’d spent a lot of his life annoying his brothers but apparently wasn’t keen on anyone annoying him when it came to a woman, which you would think he’d have figured out by now.
Libby Gulliver was messing with his head. Pulling out his phone, he called Meadow.
“Everything go okay with lockup?”
“Yes, all good, thanks. Libby is out looking for a place to stay, Ryder.”
“Again?” He sighed. It was cold, she’d just worked a full day, and there wasn’t anywhere for her to look because he’d have known about it.
“Did you upset Libby, Ryder?” Meadow asked. “Because she mentioned she didn’t want to inconvenience you any further.”
“No, Meadow, I didn’t upset her.”
“Do you have a girlfriend I don’t know about, because Libby?—”
“No, Meadow,” he cut her off. The people in this town got their teeth into an idea, and it grew from there even though there usually was very little factual evidence to back it up.
“She’s a nice girl. They don’t drop into your lap every day. Besides, it was lucky I was walking up the main street when I was because Beau Keller was making a move on Libby.”
The anger was quick. Ryder stomped it back down. She was not his girl.
“I asked him if he needed more jock-itch cream, and it scared him off for now, Ryder, but I can’t promise to always be there. I also told Libby that Dukes and Kellers don’t get on.”
“Libby is free to talk to whoever she wants, Meadow,” Ryder said, thinking that he’d like to have a private word with Beau Keller, and it wouldn’t be fit for his mother’s ears.
Libby was vulnerable and hurting and didn’t need Keller hitting on her. Plus she was under Ryder’s protection for however long she was in Lyntacky.
Meadow muttered something about foolish men and hung up. He then called the number Libby had given him, but she didn’t answer.
Did she go back to my place?
Ryder made himself drive to the Rollaway instead of what he wanted to do, which was check where Libby was. Parking, he got out and headed inside. She would be at his house by now; he was sure of it.
“Hey, Uncle Asher,” he said as he reached the bar and took the stool to his right.
“Nephew, I’ve been hearing stories about you and your girl,” he said. “How about you tell me your version so I can sift through for the truth when I’m talking to people?”
“This town is fucking exhausting,” Ryder said. “God’s truth, Uncle Asher, I barely know the woman, and suddenly everyone wants to marry me to her. You met her. Does she look like my type?”
His uncle laughed.
“Small towns, bud, you know that. Now tell me everything about this Libby Gulliver because I only met her briefly, and while she makes an excellent coffee, I haven’t done a check on her yet, but you just say the word.”
Ryder snorted. “She doesn’t strike me as a career criminal.”
“They never do,” Uncle Asher said.
“Your girl was in here before looking for accommodations. Fox told her he had an RV she could stay in,” Dee said coming to take his order.
“You’re not serious? That thing leaks and has mold all through it,” Ryder said. He was angry again, and before he’d taken a single mouthful of beer.
“Totally. I told her to go see Dr. Hannah because sometimes she has a room. Directed her to the hall where you were doing your thing.”
“Thing?” Ryder asked. Dee then did a couple of karate chops.
“How’s my boy doing in your cafe? He’s a sloth at home, no getting around that fact. I’m hoping you can retrain him.”
Delores Heckler had been the girl in school most likely to end up on the wrong side of the tracks. She dressed like a hooker and was one of the kindest people Ryder knew. She didn’t take any crap from anyone, but if she liked you, you had a friend for life.
Red and Dee had a big house in town that their kids ran wild in. They had it all together and cared nothing about what anyone thought of them. Ryder knew plenty of people who could learn a lot from the Hecklers.
“Jade is doing great. Does what I tell him to and is even working faster now that Meadow is on his case. She told him last week that if he dragged his feet again, she’d be embroidering daisies on his favorite jacket when he wasn’t looking.”
“God’s truth, Ryder, I’d be real happy if she lost it. That jacket makes him look like a bum,” Dee said. “How the hell he’s going to get on in life looking like that, I have no clue.”
Ryder heard his uncle’s cough but didn’t look his way.
“You want cider like your girl? She downed her mug before leaving with my accounts to look over.”
“Not my girl, and sure,” Ryder said with way more calm than he was feeling. Taking the mug from Dee, he looked around the room for Fox Gleeson and saw no sign of him, which couldn’t be a good thing. “What did you mean about your accounts, Dee?”
“Libby’s an accountant, so I asked her to look them over because I heard she’s looking at yours.”
“Okay,” Ryder said, refusing to shake his head. “That’s very trusting of you considering you don’t know her.”
“She’s a friend of yours, ain’t she? Can’t be bad if that’s the case,” Dee said.
“Sure, and she’s trustworthy,” Ryder said, knowing it for the truth. If nothing else, he knew that much about Libby Gulliver.
“Well, there you go, then.” Dee smiled.
“Did Libby leave with Fox?”
“Nope. I would have stopped that from happening,” she said.
He watched her walk away, his mind running through unwelcome scenarios. Libby would get a disease if she stayed in Fox Gleeson’s caravan.
“Your mom said we need to be there in an hour, Ryder. You know what she’s like when we’re late,” Uncle Asher said.
Tonight was family dinner night, which they had every week at their mom’s. If you were busy, that was okay, too, but the excuse had better be a good one.
“Sure, you go on and I’ll be there soon,” Ryder said, still looking for Fox. Libby wasn’t his problem. He’d given her a safe place to stay; if she wanted to leave and go to an RV, he couldn’t stop her.
“Go find her, and I’ll tell your mom you’re both going to be late because she told me she’d invited Libby to dinner, and you don’t want to piss her off,” Uncle Asher said. “Or do you want me to come in case you get into it with Fox?”
“How do you know I’m going to the Gleeson place?” Ryder said, looking at his uncle.
“There’s not much I don’t know about those that belong to me,” Uncle Asher said, squeezing his shoulder. “You’re a protector, Ryder, and always have been. If you think that girl needs it, then you’ll go get her and bring her to dinner.”
Was he a protector when he just needed his people to be safe and happy?
Ryder watched his uncle walk to the pool table and then leave with JD minutes later. He followed not long after, and his uncle was right—he was heading to the Gleeson place.