Chapter 15
Libby had always prided herself on being sensible and never getting into trouble. Rarely did she make a move without thorough consideration. Impulsivity was for her siblings, not her, until she’d walked out on her wedding. Looking at Fox Gleeson’s RV, she was seriously wondering if that title would now be hers.
It had a buckled roof, was covered in mold spots, and Libby was having serious regrets before she’d even looked inside.
“Ma said if you want a meal, it will cost extra,” Fox said, unlocking the door. “If not, all good.” He then named a price for the night that she’d expect hot towels, sheets with 600 thread count, and hot running water at the least.
Clasping Delores’s accounts to her side, she watched him walk back along the narrow grassy track and thought about how she should be on vacation right now on a tropical island. Spa and shopping days. Should she have just got married and—“No, absolutely not,” Libby said. “You’ve not sunk that low yet.” Close, she thought, but not rock bottom.
Taking a deep breath of cold country air, she stepped up and into the RV and tried not to think about Ryder’s lovely house. The soft bed and warm running water. Or the smell in there that was all him. The spicy, forbidden scent of a man she never thought she’d want but couldn’t deny she did.
He was the exact opposite of Andrew. What you saw with Ryder was what you got. She hadn’t known him long, but from what she’d seen, Libby could tell he wasn’t a fake. He had no sides, like her ex-fiancé. If he said he would do something, he did it. The towns' people liked and respected him too, which spoke volumes as to his character. Libby was sure Ryder had his own demons—everyone carried some of those—but he seemed comfortable in his own skin…unlike her.
He hadn’t hesitated to approach those two bikers that day she’d been hiding in her car because he believed it was the right thing to do. A brave, if not stupid, thing. After all, he could have been hurt. Libby had never thought herself brave until that day she’d walked out on her wedding.
Looking around her she knew it wasn’t bravery that had her staying here, it was desperation. At least all her shots were up to date so hopefully she wouldn’t catch anything.
There was a bed, a small hand basin, and a Porta Potty. The place was dirty. Curtains hung in big loops from hooks spaced too far apart. The bed covers were thin, and she’d be shivering all night under them.
One night, Libby. You can do this for that long. Tomorrow she’d find somewhere else. She’d sleep on a sofa if she had to, but not here.
Libby hadn’t believed herself to be an entitled snob, and yet since she’d left her life, she’d faced the fact she was that and more. Perhaps she wasn’t a snob, but definitely entitled because she’d always had what she wanted materially. If her mother saw the interior of this RV, she’d have a fit. In fact, it was unlikely she’d have even entered the main street of Lyntacky.
Looking around her again, it was then Libby realized she’d forgotten her suitcase. She’d have to walk there and grab it. Maybe if Ryder wasn’t home, she could take a quick shower and come back here. It couldn’t be far, as the drive had only taken a few minutes.
Stepping back out the door, she still clutched the Rollaway’s accounts—no way was she leaving them here for anyone to find. Libby knew by the time she returned, it would be pitch-black, but she felt safe walking around in Lyntacky.
Her life had gone from perfect to complicated, and she wasn’t sure that was going to change anytime soon. Had it been perfect, though, Libby?
“You leaving already?” Fox now sat around a fire with three other men.
“I left my luggage. I’ll be back.”
“Come and sit. We can go get that later,” Fox said. “These are my cousins.”
The men all nodded politely.
“I’ll just get my things,” Libby said.
“Have a drink. Plenty here, and I’ll drive you back to get it,” one of the men said, getting out of his seat and waving for Libby to take it.
“I don’t think so.”
Those angry words came from the man striding around the house toward her. Ryder Duke looked like his face was carved in granite, his expression menacing. No longer in his gi, he wore jeans and a gray sweater.
“Let’s go,” he said, reaching Libby. His fingers wrapped around her wrist.
“She’s staying here, Ryder, so you don’t need to worry,” Fox said. “You want a beer?”
“No, I don’t want a fucking beer! What the hell, Fox? You can’t think staying in that RV is good for anyone. Now, let’s go, Libby.”
“I don’t like what you’re saying, Ryder. We, my ma and I, offered Libby hospitality?—”
“That RV is full of mold. It’s not insulated and freezing. She’d be lucky to come away without a respiratory disease.”
“What?” Fox frowned.
“I told him not to drop out of school before he at least understood some big words,” Ryder muttered. “You ever slept out there, Fox?” He glared at the man.
“Well now, not sure why I would seeing as I have a bed in the house.”
“I can look after myself, Ryder,” Libby said, trying to shake free of his grip.
“You cannot be serious? You’re like a foal who just left its mother. Bad decision after bad fucking decision.”
“I am not!” Libby felt her own anger rise. “And who are you to tell me that?”
“Exactly. You tell him, Libby,” said one of Fox’s cousins whose name she didn’t know. “You can’t come in here and insult my cousin, Duke.”
“Fuck off, Geoff,” Ryder said.
“I laid you out flat in school. I can do it again,” Fox said, advancing.
Oh my God, was she going to be the cause of Ryder Duke fighting again? Libby hated violence; it made her feel shaky and a little nauseous. Possibly because she’d not been exposed to much of it in her lifetime, which she knew was exceedingly lucky considering what some others had to put up with.
“I was five, Fox. Move on,” Ryder said. “Now, go back to your beer, and we’ll leave.”
Fox and Ryder eyeballed each other for long seconds, and then the man sighed.
“Just trying to earn some cash, man,” Fox said. “Easy for you Dukes. We all know you got money.”
“We work as hard as the next man,” Ryder said, and his voice had a mean tone to it now.
“Dukes are good folks,” another man said.
“I know,” Fox Gleeson added, shaking his head. “Sorry, Ryder.”
“All good, bud, but don’t try putting anyone else in there”—he jabbed a finger at the RV—“until you’ve cleaned it up.”
“I am quite happy to be staying in there,” Libby lied.
“Yeah. Guess you’re right, Ryder,” Fox said as if she’d not spoken.
She’d noticed that about people in this town. They tended to ignore her if Ryder was talking. It was irritating.
And that, as far as Libby could see, was that. Ryder tugged on her wrist, and seconds later, they were walking around the house.
“I’m not your property, Ryder. You may employ me?—”
“And let you sleep in my house,” he added.
“Fine, I owe you and have thanked you. I’ll work a day for free if that makes you happy.”
He opened the passenger door, then put his hand on her head like she’d seen police do on TV and forced her inside. He then slammed it. Ryder got in the driver’s side and slammed that door, too, and soon they were backing out the drive. He beeped the horn, and the men still seated raised their beers.
“I’m not sure what just happened,” Libby said.
“We grew up together is what happened. Fox knew he was wrong. Now, you need to listen to me, Libby.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Until a room comes free somewhere in town that is warm, dry, and not in Fox Gleeson’s backyard or the back seat of your car, you can continue to stay with me, and I will charge you a huge rent.”
“I can’t do that, Ryder. I’ve already been there too long.”
“Why?” He shot her a look. “This is not the Victorian era, Libby. People of different sexes cohabitate all the time.”
“Because you have a girlfriend!” The word came out a screech.
“And I told you I don’t,” he snapped. “SJ is someone I went to school with who was raised with shitty examples as parents, and she now thinks the only way people—namely, men—will appreciate her is if she flirts with them. I’m nice to her, which is possibly going to change after today,” he added.
“I still don’t believe you,” Libby said, folding her arms. “No one just kisses someone like that when they aren’t together.”
“So, by those standards, we should be together?”
She’d walked right into that one, Libby thought. “What we shared was not a real kiss like the one you and SJ had. It was just a comfort thing. We both knew that.”
He slammed on the brakes right there in the middle of the street. Seconds later, he was unclipping her belt and pulling her across the console so she was in his lap. He then kissed her. Shock held Libby still, and then she couldn’t think of anything but Ryder and the feel of his lips on hers. It was hard, possessive, and she’d never been kissed like that before. While she was grappling with the sensations bombarding her, he lifted his head and looked at her. Both of them were breathing hard.
“There, see? People who feel nothing for each other can kiss and it’s no big deal,” he said, his voice gruff as he dropped her back in her seat. “Besides, everyone in town thinks we’re together anyway. We’re not and never will be, and we both know that. So, for the love of God, stop walking from one bad situation into another, and I won’t have to rescue you again,” he snapped.
She wanted to touch her lips to see if they were swollen. Why did his dismissal of that kiss hurt so much when she was still reeling from it?
“I usually make good decisions,” she felt the need to say as the car started moving again. Anything to fill the strained silence that now lay between them. “Excellent ones that have been thought through and executed well,” Libby said. “I’m the one in my family that people come to when they need financial help and have to make plans.”
“Perhaps you need to go back to being the clear-thinking Gulliver, then,” he said and then sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that—kissed you. You didn’t deserve it, but I was angry, and that doesn’t happen often to me.”
Libby sighed, too, all fight sliding out of her. “Life was so simple once.”
“You sound like my niece,” he said, shooting her a look. “Life is rarely simple, even for those who choose a simple life. You still have to make daily decisions, Libby. Take Meadow. She made her choice to live a sustainable life and pursue her hippy values, but to keep to those, she has to live in a world where those around her don’t. Daily, she is faced with people who she says are?—”
“Poisoning themselves,” Libby added. She’d had the discussion with Meadow often in the few days she’d worked with her.
“Exactly. But my point is, no one has an easy ride.”
She knew he was right and also knew she was feeling sorry for herself. Libby had made this choice and had to face the consequences of her actions. Then she would need to go home and face her family… one day.
“Are those the Rollaway’s books?” He nodded to the bag at her feet.
“Yes. Delores asked me to take a look, which was odd because she has no idea if I’m a good accountant.”
“As opposed to a bad one?”
She nodded.
“Dee’s a pretty good judge of character.”
“She said seeing as I was your friend, which I’m not, she can trust me.”
“Ouch,” he said with zero sincerity. “You don’t want to be my friend, Libby?”
“My point, Ryder, is that this town is too trusting.”
“You get hurt sometimes, but mostly you don’t,” he said with a shrug.
“You people are unlike any I’ve met before,” she muttered.
“And that’s a good thing,” he added.
“I’m not sure yet,” she said. Her eyes went to his mouth. She could still feel the imprint of it on hers.
Libby watched him roll down the window as they approached a man sprinting along the road who she recognized as Beau Keller who the Duke’s were feuding with. She saw another one further along, and yet another in the distance.
“Practice all you want, but you’re not beating us, Keller.”
“Fuck you, Duke,” Beau Keller said. He then looked around Ryder to her. “Oh, hey, Libby. Real good to see you again.”
“Shit weasel.” Ryder made a growling sound low in his throat.
“Ass face,” Beau responded.
Ryder then drove on. He lowered the window when he came to each runner and hurled out some abuse, which they hurled back.
“Meadow said you and the Kellers don’t like each other.”
“She’d be right,” he said, and she had a feeling that was the last thing he’d say on that topic, which was fine with her because she had a whole host of things she never wanted to talk about, and now that kiss was on that list.