Don't Forget Me Tomorrow(18)

Because I couldn’t stomach the alternative.

That it might actually be dangerous to stay here.

Nerves rattled, and I inhaled a shaky breath.

“Not taking that chance, Dakota. Not with you, and not with your son. Of course, I could always take you to your brother’s if you’d prefer.”

Something wry infiltrated that.

“No.” It shot out in a bolt of horror. I mean, not that I didn’t love my brother, but that was not going to work out. Cody might have good intentions, but he drove me insane with his overbearing ways. He’d be so far up my ass about every little thing that I would go nuts.

I definitely didn’t want him to catch wind of this.

Not until we knew for sure.

But staying with Ryder? There had to be a better solution.

I wasn’t sure I could handle that. Being in his space.

Close quarters.

Watching him do his thing.

It was bad enough to have to witness it when we were out, but it would be so much harder with it paraded right in front of me.

“Then let’s get your things.” He gruffed it like it was a done deal, not waiting for a response before he angled around me, going right to Kayden’s dressing table where he started tossing a bunch of things into his diaper bag.

It took me a second to wrap my head around it, and I moved for him, reaching out to touch his forearm to stop him. “This is a bad idea, Ryder.”

He whirled around, and shock spiraled through me when he suddenly had me by the jaw, fingers soft but sure before his hand slid up to my cheek.

His hot palm burned into my flesh.

My stomach tipped onto the floor.

What the hell was he doing?

My feet had turned to putty as he stared down at me. “Call it what you want, Dakota, but I’m not leaving here without you and your son.” The pad of his thumb traced along the hollow of my eye. “I won’t take that risk.”

I blinked at him, hardly able to press out the question. “Do you really think we’re in danger?”

His hand tightened on my face, that gaze darkening and deepening, swilling with something harsh and severe. “I’m not sure, Dakota, but if you are? I promise I will take care of you. Protect you.”

“Why?”

“Because protecting you is what I was created to do.”

I swallowed around the jagged rocks that littered my throat. I had to set aside the questions and worries. Set aside the desperate need to ask him what he meant when he claimed things like that.

None of that mattered right then.

Bottom line, I couldn’t take that risk with my son, either.

And it wasn’t like this was forever. It was just for the night. Ezra would check things out and find it was all good, tell me there was nothing to worry about, and I’d be right back home.

One night.

It wasn’t like I hadn’t spent the night under the same roof as Ryder before.

But it’d been a long, long time ago, and it’d always been wrought with that crush that had made me feel like I couldn’t breathe, like the walls had closed in.

Made me toss, awake but never fully alive.

Wanting with a need that would never be met.

I forced a big smile to my face. “Fine. But know Kayden is going to destroy your house.”

Ryder chuckled. Low and deep and dark, and still, the man somehow made it seem easy and light. “You think I’m afraid of a two-year-old?”

Softness filled his gaze, but there was also something deeper. Something that spoke of a hidden fear that loitered in the depths.

“Are you sure it’s not a bother?” I asked.

“Like I said, taking care of you is what I was meant to do, Dakota.”

Confusion bound, and I couldn’t get free of the snare of those eyes that were watching me.

I had to refuse it. Not allow my head to go tripping into fanciful things.

It’d hurt too damn much when I’d learned Ryder would never love me back. Not the way I’d wanted him to.

So, I found the will that I’d come to find then, the strength, and I pulled back up some of those walls that sometimes threatened to slip, remembering that Ryder would never be anything more than a friend.

A friend that growled, “Now pack your things before I do it for you.”





TEN





DAKOTA





Twenty minutes later, I was pulling out of my driveway that wound around the side of the café that dumped into its parking lot. Ryder followed close behind, his headlights covering us as we eased out onto the main road in the dead of night.

Kayden had barely stirred when I’d picked him up to carry him downstairs and buckled him into his car seat in the back of my car.

Ezra was on his way. He’d insisted he would come himself, along with one of the other deputies on duty.

I made them both swear not to tell my brother or the rest of my family until we were certain of things.

I didn’t want them freaking out for no reason.

I glanced in the rearview mirror.

Appreciation washed over me.

Once I’d let the panic subside, I realized how lucky I was to have an incredible group of people surround me when I needed it.

Ones who supported.

Without question or reservation.