Page 94 of Timid (Lark Cove 2)

I didn’t know anything about raising a kid. I worked at a bar. Who was going to watch him when I was working until three in the morning? Who was going to help him with his math homework? Who was going to make sure he was eating the right shit from the food pyramid?

For fuck’s sake, I’d slept on a pool table last night. I wasn’t equipped to be responsible for another person. It was one of the reasons I didn’t want kids of my own. I wasn’t that guy.

“We’ll figure it out,” Willa reassured me.

“Yeah,” I muttered. I didn’t have a choice. I wouldn’t let a kid, let alone my brother, go through the same childhood hell I’d gone through.

The motel door opened again and I let Willa go.

Ryder’s face had paled and his eyes were wide as he walked out the door with a backpack slung over one shoulder.

Mom was right behind him, rolling out a cheap black suitcase.

Ryder’s eyes were full of despair as he stood on the sidewalk. The poor kid. There was no doubt that Mom had just dropped the bomb on him.

“Sounds like you’ll be staying with me for a while.” I clapped him on the shoulder. “That cool with you?”

He shrugged and looked at his tennis shoes. He had big feet and was probably going to be tall after he grew into them.

“Willa? Would you help Ryder get his things loaded into the truck?”

“Sure.” She practically yanked the suitcase handle out of my mother’s hand. Then with a parting glare, she walked to the truck.

Ryder waited a beat, then followed her. He didn’t even turn to say good-bye to Mom. He didn’t give her a word or a look. And he didn’t seem surprised, just . . . disappointed.

How many times had she left him before? I remembered my years with her being full of babysitters and neighbors. Maybe our time with her wasn’t all that much different. I bet she’d promised him a fun trip to meet his brother, just like she’d promised me a fun trip to meet my aunt.

Mom didn’t say anything as Ryder walked away, certainly not a promise to return. Instead of watching her kid leave, her eyes were glued to my truck and a greedy smirk spread across her mouth.

She was going to ask me for money. Guaranteed.

“Get out of town.” I shuffled closer, growling down at her. “Now.”

“I need money.”

This bitch was so predictable.

I hated the idea of giving her a damn cent, but if it got her out of Lark Cove and away from me and Ryder, I didn’t care.

I ripped my wallet out of my back pocket and pulled out the stack of cash I’d shoved in there. It was ten days’ worth of tips—about five hundred bucks. I’d planned on running it up to the bank in Kalispell this week.

Instead I shoved it into her chest. “I never want to see your face again.”

She took the money and stuffed it in her jeans pocket. “I need more money if you don’t want me coming back.”

I stepped even closer, sending her back on her heels. “That’s all you’re ever going to get. You don’t see me again. You don’t see him again. You’re dead to us. Got it? If I see your face again, you won’t like what happens next. I got no love for you, lady. But I got a lot of rage.”

The threat erased some of her arrogance. She stepped back farther, looking at me once more before turning into the motel room and slamming the door.

My shoulders collapsed as I breathed. I gave myself until the count of five, then went to the truck and climbed into the driver’s seat. Willa was sitting shotgun, her face etched with worry.

I reached over the console and took her hand as I glanced in the back. Ryder was looking out his window, away from the motel and Mom’s car.

“You got everything?” I asked him.

He shrugged. “I guess.”

Was this really happening? Two hours ago, it was just Willa and me curled together in her bed. Two hours ago, I was just a bartender lucky to have a girlfriend who’d forgiven him after he’d acted like a dick.