Chapter 26
Libby wasn’t Libby Gulliver; she was Libby Caldwell. Ryder took a deep breath. He was sure she had her reasons, but he hated it when people he cared about lied to him.
When he’d come down the stairs and heard her father speaking to her like he was and seen his hand gripping her wrist too hard, his vision had tunneled. He’d thought seriously about just punching him, which would have been a hell of a first impression he’d never have come back from.
“And who are you?” Ryder asked the man standing slightly back from his uncle, Libby, and her father.
“I’m Samuel Caldwell, Libby’s brother.”
“How dare you tell me how I can speak to my daughter,” Phillip Caldwell said.
Power. The man had it in spades, but Ryder wasn’t impressed or intimidated. He’d spent his life around strong people.
“I will if you’re part of the reason she ended up here in Lyntacky using a fake name and in a car that was broken. She had no money, and I’ll add she was cold and hungry to that. What father allows their daughter to end up in that situation?”
It was only a flicker, but he saw the shame, and it was gone as quick as it had come.
“Ryder, it’s okay, really. I’ll deal with this. You go back to the birthday party,” Libby said, sounding desperate. Her eyes shot to his and then away again. He saw the panic.
And then it all fell into place.
Phillip Caldwell, head of Caldwell Candies, one of the biggest manufacturers of chocolate and confectionary in the USA.
Well, fuck.
“So, when I asked if you were good at making chocolate because you’re an heiress to some chocolate empire, and you said no, that was a lie. Because you’re actually the daughter of the owner of Caldwell Candies?” He could feel the anger rising.
If there was one thing Ryder hated in this world, it was being played, and she’d done just that.
“Ryder, shut it down,” Uncle Asher said. “Save that talk for later.”
“My daughter is not a chocolate maker. She’s an accountant,” Phillip Caldwell said, tightening his grip on his daughter, who now looked like she was having a full-fledged panic attack. Ryder shouldn’t care about that, but the heat in his chest told him he did in fact care very much.
“I swear to God, Mr. Caldwell, if you don’t take your hand off your daughter’s wrist, I’m breaking it for you.”
“Ryder,” Uncle Asher said. “Rein it in.”
Phillip Caldwell must have seen bloodlust in Ryder’s eyes because he released Libby.
“Father, calm down, and we will discuss this rationally,” Samuel Caldwell said.
“Don’t tell me to calm down when your sister has brought shame down on this family,” he snapped.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing. Go back upstairs, Sawyer,” Uncle Asher said, and Ryder knew his big brother would ignore the order because he had a sixth sense when it came to his siblings and knowing something was off.
“Somebody start talking,” the eldest Duke said, coming to stand on Ryder’s other side.
“Meet Libby’s father and brother, Sawyer. Phillip Caldwell, the head of Caldwell Candies, and Samuel Caldwell, his son,” Ryder said in a cold voice.
“And why is the head of Caldwell Candies making you angry?”
“Come on, bro, Libby’s not a Gulliver, she’s a Caldwell.”
“Right,” Sawyer said. He then whistled. “My mom would like to meet you. She loves those little chocolates with?—”
“Not the time, Sawyer,” Uncle Asher said.
“Libby, we’re going,” Phillip Caldwell said.
“No. I’m not leaving with you, Father.”
“Andrew is?—”
“A weak-kneed fuck weasel who told your daughter to stay out of the photos on her own wedding day because of the scar on her chin,” Ryder said.
He may be pissed with her, but he could still give her father a few home truths because he knew she’d never be brave enough to stand up to him or her brother.
“I beg your pardon?” Phillip Caldwell’s eyes went from Ryder to Libby. “Is that true, Elizabeth?”
“Elizabeth?”
“Libby is a nickname for Elizabeth, Sawyer,” Uncle Asher said. “I thought you were smart.”
“Rough night,” Sawyer added.
“Ryder, let me explain,” Libby said.
“Nothing to explain. You’re a rich girl who’d had enough of her life and ran here. You lied to me and everyone in this town who looked out for you, and more than once. I think that covers it. So, you and your daddy head out, and I’ll see you.”
Suddenly he didn’t want to look at her anymore. He felt raw, like someone had squeezed a lemon all over his cuts. He’d known she came from money, but not how much, and if he was honest, it wasn’t that because his family had buckets of it; it was the lying. The mistrust. He’d opened up to her and thought she’d done the same, but all the time she’d been holding back who she was.
“I need to get back to the party. Get your things and leave Lyntacky. Goodbye, Libby, I won’t be seeing you again.”
“Ryder,” Uncle Asher and Sawyer said at the same time. He ignored them and walked back up the stairs, knowing everyone was watching him.
“Hey, how’s the party going?” he said to Ally when he reached her. She wore a pink tiara, a huge smile, and a chocolate stain on her chin. He wiped it off.
“It’s the best party ever!” She hugged him, and he hugged her back and didn’t want to let her go but knew he had to. Holding that warm little body close, knowing that she loved him unconditionally, no-holds-barred, was easing some of the tightness in his chest.
“So have you eaten all the cake yet?” he asked when he released her.
“No, but Uncle Dan is trying.”
She ran off to her friends.
“Ryder?”
He looked at Zoe.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Something,” Brody said, joining his sister. “What’s going on, Ry? Your eyes have the squinty look they get when you’re pissed off or trying to hide something.”
“No, they don’t,” he protested, squinting.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing, Mom, everything is peachy. Great party, and Ally got some awesome gifts,” he said, desperate to change the subject.
“Ryder Asher Duke, you are lying to me,” she said, putting her hands on her hips.
His mother got a certain look in her eyes when she meant business, and it was usually a signal that had her children running for the hills.
“Libby’s father and brother are here, and he’s the head of Caldwell Candies, and Ryder didn’t know that, and Libby’s been lying to him about her identity, among other things,” Sawyer said, arriving.
“I’m not discussing this at my niece’s birthday party or ever. So, all of you, back off,” Ryder said. He then walked around them and began clearing plates, knowing that they’d all be huddled together in seconds discussing exactly what had happened downstairs.
Has she gone? Had Libby left with her father, and Ryder would never see her again?
And that’s a good thing because she lied to you and is not your type. Lyntacky could also never be home for someone like her. The daughter of a billionaire.
Gathering up an armload of empty dishes, he headed back down the stairs, and there was no sign of the Caldwells, which he told himself was a relief.
“I sent them to the Rollaway,” Uncle Asher said from behind him. “They need to talk, Ryder, and here wasn’t the place.”
“Okay.”
“You want to talk about anything?”
“No.”
“You were always the one who worried me the most.”
“What?” He turned to face his uncle. “Why? Surely I’m the one who caused you and Mom the least amount of trouble.”
“You hold everything deep inside you, and it festers and grows. You hold onto your pain and your sadness. Your brothers may do that, too, but eventually they either get it out with a fight or an argument. Not you, though. You were always the easygoing one. The peacemaker who wanted things to run smooth.”
“We’re all made different,” Ryder said.
His uncle came closer and sat on the high stool he’d set up by one of the benches for Meadow because sometimes her back was sore.
“I used to watch you when they were arguing. You didn’t like the raised voices as a kid and always tried to make them stop by doing something to distract whoever was arguing.”
He remembered those times. It wasn’t that the fighting or the raised voices scared him; he’d just hated it when his family was at odds with one another.
“I told you once that it wasn’t a realistic expectation for everyone to get along all the time. You said you knew that, but you wanted them to,” Uncle Asher said.
“Is there a point to this, Uncle Asher, because I have things to do.”
“Not right now, you don’t,” he said in a voice that as kids had had them standing to attention.
This man was father and uncle to the Duke kids. He’d given up his life for them and his sister without hesitation. Ryder remembered his dad but not the person he’d been. But he knew Asher Dans. Honorable, loyal, and mean when he needed to be.
“Ryder, you’ve spent your life?—”
“Drifting. I know, but that’s changed.”
His uncle studied him. “You think you were drifting?”
He nodded.
“Never that, Ryder. You were just a little late to the table on what lit your fire, but you were never aimless, bud.” He withstood the look his uncle gave him because he’d been the recipient of it often in his life.
One of Uncle Asher’s best interview techniques, according to Dan, was his ability to stare a person down with a look and a loaded silence.
“I’ve always admired your ability to walk into a room and set people at ease, Ryder, and maybe I should have told you that before now. Always admired how you command respect with little effort on your part. And you were never just drifting, Nephew. You always had a direction, no matter how big or small. I’ve always been proud of you, and the man you’ve become and a little jealous at your ability to read a situation and say exactly what needs to be said. There was a time I wanted you to join me in the police force.”
“Really?” That shocked him.
“Really. You’re a good man, and someone your mom and I are very proud of. Never forget that, Ryder. And I think Libby is a good person, too, or she wouldn’t be someone you care about.”
“She’s been playing us,” Ryder said, his tone hard.
“Perhaps, but you have to ask yourself why that sweet girl was forced to do something like that,” his uncle said as he got off the seat. “And she is a sweet girl, Ryder. You know that deep inside.”
He said nothing more, and his uncle left.
Too much emotion is never good for anyone—his brother Sawyer always said so. But Ryder had always liked to feel them, good or bad, even if he didn’t show it. But right then, he hated the sudden tightness in his throat at his uncle’s words and the deep, heavy ache inside his chest when he thought about Libby,
She’d hurt him with her lies because he’d fallen hard for her… or the woman he thought she was.
Has she already left town?