Chapter Two
Ryder
I set the electronic signature pad on the box I’m holding under my arm and knock on the door. There’s no answer, but I can hear the sound of people shuffling around and a child giggling, so I knock again. The door opens and right when I’m about speak, I’m quickly cut off and whipped in the face by a mountain of long blonde curls. I rub my eye, ensuring that I haven’t gone blind from the impact of the woman’s hair. Gently pushing the door wider, I step inside and scan the foyer, looking down the hall for the woman who opened the door and crazily ran back inside. The only thing I caught a glimpse of was her hair as she rounded the corner with a baby in her arms. But now she’s nowhere in sight.
I take a few more steps into the hallway and stop in the entryway to the living room, catching sight of a little dark-haired boy sprinting around the room and jumping over toys as if he’s in the four-hundred-meter hurdle at the Olympic Games. I smile. He reminds me so much of myself when I was his age. I was never one to sit still either.
The sound of running water coming from the kitchen stops and the loud clang of metal clashing against metal echoes in the house. A woman screams from behind the wall at the boy who is running around. Apparently, the boy’s name is Aiden since she’s yelled it at least a hundred times in the last forty-five seconds that I’ve been standing here.
I take one more step and crane my neck to look into the kitchen. Long blonde locks fall to the woman’s lower back, shifting from side to side as she moves around the kitchen holding a baby in her arms. She turns her face to the side, looking more than a bit stressed out. Even from this angle I can tell she’s carrying the weight of the world on those small shoulders of hers. Her face is forlorn and appears exhausted. What could possibly be going on in her life to make her look so defeated?
“Look Mom!”
My head automatically snaps to the direction of the boy standing on the arm of the sofa ready to jump. Without thinking I drop the box I’m holding and race to the kid as he leaps from the edge. Time seems to stand still as I watch the boy fly through the air. It feels like I’m not even moving; as if my shoes are filled with cement preventing me from going anywhere. By some force of nature, I get to the boy in time, catching him just as he’s about to hit the edge of the glass coffee table. I fall onto my back, taking the kid with me. My heart has never beat so fast in my life. I’ve never been this scared before. Ever. This is why I don’t have kids. I’m perfectly happy being the cool uncle to my nieces and nephews and not have to deal with things like this on a daily basis.
Out of breath, I finally get to have a look at the boy who is now resting across my chest. His blue eyes gleam from excitement, clearly not phased a bit about what happened. I blow out a relieved breath and lean my head back onto the carpet. I’m tapped on the chest a few times by small fingers and I lift my head again to meet the boy’s welcoming gaze.
He looks down at me with an infectious smile splayed across his face. “Hi.”
I can’t help but to laugh. “Hi.”
“My name’s Aiden. What’s yours?”
Before I have a chance to answer, Aiden is ripped out of my arms by his frantic mother. “Aiden are you okay?! How many times have I told you not to climb on the furniture?”
“I’m fine Mom.”
I sit up and watch her guide Aiden over to the couch. Her long blond curls cascade over her back as she leans forward, putting the baby down next to his brother. She turns to face me and damn, she’s fucking beautiful. I have never seen a more beautiful woman in my life. Granted, she looks like a complete mess right now, but she’s still the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on. Her hair is in disarray and her white button-down blouse is half hanging out of her tight in all the right places short tan skirt. Yet, all that doesn’t deter me from thinking about how much I’d like to kiss those full lips of hers.
She rushes over to me. “Are you okay? I don’t know what to say. Thank you so much.”
I stand and brush off my pants. “No problem.”
“Oh my God! Your head is bleeding. Let me see.” She drags me over to the stool next to the kitchen island. She turns my head to the side inspecting the damage. “It looks really bad; you may need stitches. I can take you to the hospital. I’ll pay the bill. I’m so sorry.”
The minor injury I sustained is nothing compared to the countless times I’ve gotten hurt growing up with my two older brothers; bruises, sprains, and broken bones were normal occurrences in the Storm household. I take her hand away from my head to try and get her to calm down. She’s so panicked. Her skin is flushed and her breathing is coming in short bursts. If I don’t get her to relax soon, she’s going to start hyperventilating. I speak to her in a soft voice. “Hey, I’m fine. I’m sure it looks worse than it is.”
She finally stops fussing over me long enough to peer up at me and I do not like what I see. Tears brim her pale blue eyes and are ready to fall. I’ve seen many women cry, hell, I was the cause of most of it, but for some unknown reason, watching her struggle is killing me inside. I hold both her hands in mine and shake them gently in front of her. “I want you to take a deep breath.” I expect her to tell me to fuck off, but she doesn’t, instead she slowly inhales a healthy lungful of air. “Better?”
She nods. “Yes.”
“Good.” I smile and she returns the gesture, sending a surge of heat straight to my groin. Fuck, she’s even more stunning when she smiles. She lights up the whole damn room. I shift in the chair and adjust myself. I have a feeling if she saw the erection she’s giving me, she would be completely embarrassed and this woman is having a hard-enough day as it is.
“Let me at least clean the wound up for you. I have a first aid kit in the bathroom.” She returns with a white plastic case filled with bandages and antiseptic spray. She lays everything out on the counter and begins to clean the blood that’s starting to dry in my hair. “I can’t put a bandage on it and there’s a bump. Let me get some ice.” She hurries over to freezer and grabs some ice cubes, placing them in a clean dish rag. “Here hold this.”
“Mommy, we’re late!” Aiden yells from the living room.
“Damn it!” She runs into the other room and scoops the baby up. “Aiden get your backpack.” She picks up her phone and gives it a quick glance before shoving it into her oversized purse along with a water bottle, a small box of cookies, and a package of baby wipes. “I am so late for work.” She turns to me as she put the baby’s shoes on. “I really have to go. Are you sure you don’t want me to drop you off at the hospital?”
“It’s not necessary, but you might want to change before you leave the house.” I point to her stained skirt. She looks down and touches the damp spot, then brings her fingers to her nose to inspect what it is. God I really hope that mess was made by some sort of food product.
She groans. “Peach jelly.”
I stifle a laugh, eyeing her hair. Dangling from one of her messy curls is a wad of green gum. “You might want to take care of that too.” I say, pointing to the viscous material.
She raises her hand to her head, combing her fingers through her hair until they fall upon the sticky goo. She moans. “Oh come on, gum? Really?”
“You know if you use some ice you could probably…”
She lifts the baby off the counter and practically throws him into my arms before I have a chance to finish my sentence. She runs to the kitchen drawer and pulls out a pair of scissors. She quickly searches for the piece of gum again, separates the curl from the rest of her hair and cuts it off.
I shake my head and chuckle. “That works too.” I hold the little boy in one arm as I hold the ice to my head with my free hand. I’m comfortable around kids. I have six nieces and nephews that I’ve cared for hundreds of times.
I watch the baby’s mother run down the hall and laugh to myself. This is certainly turning out to be a very interesting day. I jostle the baby a little, making him giggle. “And what’s your name?”
Aiden comes running over to me. “That’s my brother Caleb. Everyone thinks he’s sooo cute, but he always takes my toys. Sometimes he makes me so mad.”
“You shouldn’t get mad at him. He’s a baby and doesn’t know any better yet. You’re his big brother, you need to watch out for him bud. You know I have two big brothers and I always took their toys.”
“I bet they got really mad huh?”
“Well yeah, they did at first, but then they taught me how to share and they even gave me some of their toys that they didn’t want anymore. Caleb isn’t taking your stuff because he wants to make you angry, he just wants to play with his big brother.” Caleb leans over tapping Aiden on the head. “See, he loves you.” Aiden laughs and runs back into the living room.
The shuffle of the cardboard box I dropped by the door earlier has me turning around. A well-dressed man with short dark hair stands in the foyer. He takes one look at me and steps back onto the porch to check the address, then walks back in. “No, this is the right house.”
My heart sinks a little. I assume the man is the kid’s father and the husband of the woman I’ve been lusting over since I stepped foot in this house. I don’t know why I feel so deflated. I’m not looking for any kind of relationship right now. Besides, it was stupid of me to think a beautiful woman like her would be single. Maybe it was just hope settling in my empty heart. I hadn’t even known how empty my heart was until the moment I laid eyes on her. I have a good job and family who loves me; I also get to fuck quite often so I figured my life was pretty good up until this point.
The tall man makes his way over to me, but is cut off by Aiden. “Uncle Tyler!”
I’m slightly relieved to hear Aiden call the man uncle, but that still didn’t mean that gorgeous mess of a woman didn’t have a husband. Although I’m not looking for a steady girlfriend, I really want to get to know her.
Tyler stretches his hand out and ruffles Aiden’s hair. “Hey buddy, where’s your mom?”
“She had to get changed. She got jelly on her clothes.”
“Okay, why don’t you finish getting ready, I’m gonna take you to school today.”
“Good ‘cause mom is a bit cranky and she was crying too.”
Tyler looks at me and we exchange a sympathetic glance. My heart is breaking for her and the boy who had to witness his mother suffering. Who would do that to her and her kids?
Tyler yells to the back of the house. “Mad!”
She peeks her head out of an open door. “I’ll be out in a minute.”
“You okay hon?”
“Fine!”
Tyler closes the distance between he and I, extending his hand. “I’m Tyler and you are?”
“Ryder. I would shake your hand, but mine are kind of full at the moment.”
He laughs. “I see you survived the Aiden initiation.”
“Barely.”
He claps me on the back. “Welcome to the family.”
My chest fills with a happiness I was not expecting. I don’t know why that statement means so much to me. I don’t even know these people, yet I feel like this is where I belong. Growing up with a learning disability had been hard for me. I never had many friends and was constantly bullied because I was slower than the rest of the kids. Even my own brothers teased me at times. As I got older my aggression became worse and I started to fight back against those who had made fun of me. My behavior caused me to be expelled from four different schools and my mother had to hire a tutor so I could be home schooled just so I could earn a high school diploma.
I hadn’t been diagnosed until late in my teens because teachers were telling my mother that I was just being lazy and didn’t want to do the work, but that was the furthest thing from the truth. The truth was I struggled every single day trying to keep up with the rest of the kids. I had trouble reading and math problems looked alien to me. I tried my best in school, but my best was never good enough. I wanted to make my mother as proud as my brothers had made her when they’d brought home their report cards, but all I managed to do was disappoint her. Eventually, I gave up trying completely. Those had been the hardest years of my life up until the time I was diagnosed with dyslexia, but through it all, my mother never gave up on me. I have the utmost respect for single mothers and all they do for their children to give them a better life. I was lucky to have such a constant support in my corner.