Chapter 17
His sister had never been one to take a back step when she wanted information, and because he didn’t know that much about Libby, he let Zoe ask her questions. All he knew about the woman living in his house was that she was an accountant, her father had frozen her bank accounts, she’d walked out on her wedding, and she was an average ballet dancer. So maybe he did know some stuff, but not all of it.
“Beer, bud?” JD asked, holding out the drink.
“Cheers.” Ryder took it and then a mouthful.
Life had become complicated since Libby Gulliver stepped into his cafe. She brought out his protective instincts, and that wasn’t a good thing. Even though she wasn’t his type, he couldn’t seem to stop thinking about her and caring what she was up to.
Then there was her brain. He’d enjoyed it the few nights they’d shared a meal and watched the news when she disagreed with something the announcer said. Ryder and Libby had debated several issues, and while he’d thought she’d back down, she didn’t.
Independence was liberating. He’d felt it moving into his house and buying the cafe. Ryder wondered if this was Libby’s first taste of it, and maybe she was starting to believe in herself.
His rage was usually reserved for when things went wrong with his family, but he’d felt it when he’d seen her with Fox and his cousins and known she’d considered sleeping in that RV. He’d wanted to beat the crap out of Fox, but of course, he hadn’t because the man was basically a harmless moron.
“Where in Oklahoma is home for you, Libby?” his mom asked before Zoe could ask another question.
Ally burst into the room with her fluffy mutt on her heels, putting a halt to the conversation. “Hey, Uncle Ry.”
He picked her up, tipping her upside down and swinging her around in the kitchen, which had her squealing.
“Seriously, bro, that just about pierced my eardrum,” Brody said.
“Whereabouts in Oklahoma, Libby?”
Ryder had a feeling that if it were anyone but his mom asking these questions, Libby would evade and divert, but he also knew she was a good girl who followed the rules.
“Piedmont,” she said.
“How lovely. I’ve heard it’s beautiful there. It’s also where my favorite chocolate and hazelnut toffee comes from.”
It was only a small gesture, but Ryder saw Libby twitch as her mother spoke. He remembered that night when they were watching the ice hockey and she’d looked the same as she did now when that candy commercial came on.
Curious.
“I’ve tried that. It’s very good,” Libby said, but her words sounded stilted.
“My kids order it in for me,” his mom added.
“So, Libby, where are you staying tonight?” Zoe asked, persistent as always.
“Ah, well?—”
“With me again tonight,” Ryder said, eyeballing his sister and then his brothers to make sure they understood nothing more needed to be said on that matter.
“Uncle Ry, I made you and Phoebe new curling hats,” Ally said.
“No way!” Ryder took the hat his niece held out to him. “I didn’t know you could knit.”
Behind the girl, her father was mouthing the words, “She can’t.”
“I love mine,” Phoebe said, producing it from her pocket and pulling it on.
It was lime green with a red stripe… or Ryder thought it was meant to be a stripe, but it was more of a zigzag.
“So you stay warm when you both kick the?—”
“Do not finish that sentence, Ally,” Phoebe said.
“Sorry.”
Ryder immediately put the hat on his head too and noted that every adult in the room managed not to laugh hysterically.
“I think there is no way we can’t win wearing these,” Ryder said solemnly. “Don’t you think, Phoebe?”
“Never in doubt,” she said with a straight face, even if her hat was crooked.
“I can feel it’s going to be my lucky hat. Thanks, kiddo.” Ryder bent to hug Ally. Her arms went around his neck and held him tight, and that was a feeling he’d never tire of.
He remembered the nights he’d go to Brody’s when he was exhausted and take Ally into bed with him so her daddy could get some sleep. He’d watch her and wonder if one day he’d have a child just like her. He’d wanted it with a fierce pull of longing deep inside him.
“We have practice later, Ally, so Ryder and I will wear them then, just to get a feel for how warm they are. But you need to be ready because the others may like them so much, they will want them too.”
“Maybe we can knit everyone on the Lyntacky teams matching ones,” Robyn Duke said, which had her granddaughter nodding enthusiastically.
“I think you should make your uncles something to wear in the relay too,” Zoe said. She then received several death stares, which she of course ignored. “Like thick headbands.”
His sister was going to pay for that.
“She may not have time now that she’s got all that other knitting to do,” Ryder said while Sawyer, Brody, and Dan nodded around him.
“But those hats are so cool and would help your uncles to win,” JD said solemnly, backing his woman up.
He felt Libby move and then watched as she followed his mom back to the stove.
“Can I help you, Robyn? It’s the least I can do seeing as I’m an uninvited guest at your family dinner,” she said.
“You’re welcome here anytime, Libby, and I invited you,” his mom said, smiling. “Now, there’s a basket in the pantry. If you could get that out and put the rolls from the oven in there, that would be a great help.”
“She’s nice,” Birdie whispered.
“You’ve met her a handful of times, Birdie, you can’t know that,” Zoe said.
“Makes good coffee, comes from money is my guess. Surely she can’t be too hard to find on the internet?” Brody said.
“Her shit is hers alone. If she wants us to know, she’ll tell us. You all butt out,” Ryder said, jabbing a finger at each of them.
“You’re very protective of her considering there’s nothing between you,” JD said.
“Leave him alone,” Uncle Asher added.
“All right, everyone, wash your hands now,” his mom said.
They all did as she ordered—arguing was fruitless and always had been—and sat again.
Ryder watched Libby as his family pounced on the food like it was the first meal they’d eaten in four days.
“We have a guest who is not used to you lot. Don’t be heathens,” Uncle Asher said.
“Get in, Libby, or there will be nothing left,” Ryder urged her. He then watched as she tentatively took a bread roll. Sawyer took charge then and filled her plate.
“I can’t eat that much.”
“Well, you need to. You’re too skinny,” the eldest Duke said.
“You do know it’s as rude to call a woman skinny as it is to call one fat, don’t you, Sawyer?” Libby said and then seemed surprised she’d spoken that way.
“You go, girl,” Phoebe said. “This lot needs putting in place occasionally.”
The family then ate, laughed, and caught up on news, even though some had seen each other earlier that day. It was their way. Every experience was shared, and any issue gnawed over like a bone.
“I saw the Keller team practicing their relay on the way here,” Ryder said when he’d eaten enough that he had to undo the top button of his jeans. Food always tasted better at his mom’s house.
“Those f—damned rodents,” Sawyer snarled, looking at Ally.
“John Bistow called Bailey Harper a fuck weasel today,” his niece said.
What followed those words was absolute silence around the table, and all eyes went to Brody and Phoebe.
“Now that she’s about to be eleven, Ally apparently thinks swearing is acceptable and that she can speak like that in front of the people who helped raised her. The people she should have a whole lot more respect for,” Brody said.
“Sorry,” Ally said and then sighed. “It just slips out sometimes. Bobby says it’s a Duke thing.”
Bobby had been Ally’s best friend since first grade.
“Because we all swear,” Brody said, eyeballing the table’s occupants.
“So, on that note,” Phoebe added, “there will now be a penalty for swearing in front of our kid. One dollar for every cuss word.”
“I thought you discussed this with her, and she knew adults could swear but not kids,” Dan protested. “How come we’re being punished when it’s her who should know better?” He glared at Ally, but his eyes were crossed, making her giggle.
“All that’s changed now that I was hauled into the principal’s office again,” Brody said. “Apparently, she told Ms. Calvin her sneakers were the shit. So you have to pay up. Tonight is your last night of freedom.”
Libby laughed at that.
“Think that’s funny, do you?” Ryder asked.
She shouldn’t fit here surrounded by his family seeing as he was sure she was from a different world, but she did, and that should be a very scary thing for him because she was leaving soon and not his type of woman.
“I don’t swear and never have, so I applaud this action,” Libby said.
“I second that,” both his mom and Birdie added.
“Are you one of those good-girl types?” Sawyer asked Libby. “The kind that never got into trouble and was an A student all through school?”
“Yes… well, I was until lately,” she added, frowning.