Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

RYDER

I 'd rented a house in an older neighborhood with mature trees where kids rode their bikes on the sidewalks and played basketball on hoops set up in the cul-de-sacs. There was always someone walking their dog.

I'd convinced Faith to try to ride a bike. When I was married, I was never home early enough in the evenings to teach her, and Stacy insisted she didn't need to learn.

But I wanted to be a more involved parent, and I wanted to teach my daughter life skills; that included how to ride a bike.

We'd made it a few houses with Faith starting and stopping, tipping to the side more times than I could count before declaring the whole thing boring. Why learn how to ride a bike when every kid these days had a cell phone, and you could just text them or send them a silly video?

That was a dig at me because I wouldn't allow her to get a phone. That was the one thing I'd insisted on with Stacy. I used my job as the reason. She was too young to be exposed to social media, and I didn't want her playing on a phone instead of outside.

Faith was free to enjoy time with me. Too bad she didn't seem all that interested.

Faith wobbled forward a few more feet, then tipped to the side for what seemed like the hundredth time. She shot me a look over her shoulder. "Are we done now?"

"I wanted to make it to that tree." I pointed to one in the distance. The thing was, I wanted to go for a walk with Faith, but I was afraid she'd say no. And since I'd announced we were going to learn how to ride a bike, it seemed like the perfect excuse to get her out of the house and spending time with me. If this didn't work, I was going to have to look into getting a dog I wouldn't be around enough to care for. This parenting thing was hard.

"Good evening, Ryder," said the older gentleman who lived a few houses down the street from me. I usually saw him out on my morning runs. He was always friendly and seemed delighted that I had a daughter. He'd told me that he missed his granddaughters when her mother moved them to Florida years ago.

"George. Good to see you."

There was a sharp gasp from the woman who was walking next to him in that same yellow shirt and white shorts I'd seen her in earlier. Except now I felt a little freer to check out her long legs.

George beamed. "This is my granddaughter, Violet. The one I told you about."

I couldn't help the grin that spread over my face when Violet blanched. "You talked about me to Ryder?"

George looked from Violet to me. "You two know each other?"

"We went to school together," Violet said.

I winked at Violet, and her cheeks flushed. "We were close. This is the girl I married in second grade."

Instead of being pissed, George chuckled. "You married my granddaughter?"

I nodded as if we were sharing a secret. "That's right."

Faith rolled her eyes. "Kids can't get married."

Too late I forgot my daughter was watching this interaction. "It was just for fun. I'm sure you play pretend with your friends."

Faith looked away. "I'm twelve, Dad."

Like I could forget. She felt more like a teenager every day. She tended to be short with me, as if she was constantly irritated with everything I said and did. And I didn't think it was solely because of the divorce. I'd damaged our relationship by not spending enough time with her, but I intended to fix that. If it wasn't too late.

"I enjoyed playing pretend with my girlfriends at your age. We'd act out scenes in movies, dress up in makeup and costumes. It was fun," Violet said, and I shot her a grateful look.

"Are you out for your evening walk? "I asked George. I was trained to watch people, and their habits, and it was no different when I moved here. I couldn't turn off my training even if I wanted to.

"Violet brought me dinner. Thought I'd take her with me."

"That's nice of you," I said to Violet, not surprised she was the type of woman who made time for her family. I wonder why I hadn't seen that in Stacy before we got serious.

Violet looped her hand through George's arm, gazing up at him. "Now that I moved home, I can see Grandpa more often."

George patted her hand and said proudly. "Violet moved home to open an ice-cream shop."

"I've had the pleasure of tasting her ice cream. It's fantastic."

Violet's gaze swung to me. "You liked it?"

It seemed to matter more to her than she cared to admit.

"I had to check out how you incorporated my sister's pie into ice cream. It's good."

Violet tucked a chunk of her hair behind her ear. "The trick is to use real ingredients and leave tiny chunks of pie in the vanilla ice cream along with cinnamon."

I was impressed with the time and attention she took with her product. I can't say I'd ever thought much about ice-cream flavors before.

"I've had several restaurants inquire about using it for their fall menus."

George looked at her with pride in his eyes. "You didn't mention that. Fantastic."

He was obviously proud of his granddaughter, and if she visited him often, it meant I'd be running into her as well. I'd have to schedule more evening walks.

"That's great," I said to Violet, cataloguing how she stood up straighter, seemingly soaking up the praise. I wondered why she'd moved here if her parents still lived in Florida. I couldn't remember if George had given a reason why his family had relocated.

"Are you learning to ride a bike?" Violet asked Faith, and I was grateful she thought to include her.

I was worried that Faith would use the conversation as an excuse to head home without me.

"I know how to ride," Faith said, even though it was clear she couldn't. It would have been easier to learn with training wheels, but Faith said they were too babyish for a twelve-year-old.

"I used to glide down hills all the time when I was a kid. It helped me keep my balance, and then riding on even ground was easy. Everything came easily to my older sister, but I had a hard time getting it at first."

Faith looked at her with new respect. "You have a sister?"

Violet nodded. "Danielle was a natural at everything."

I couldn't help but draw my own conclusions. It was similar to profiling for my job. Certain characteristics equated to personality traits. Did Violet feel inadequate because of her sister's success? Is that why she moved home and away from her immediate family? Was her grandfather the only one who got her? Or was it her grandmother and guilt that drew her home?

"There's a hill over here. I'll show you." Violet started toward the park but turned back to me. "If it's okay with your father."

I appreciated that she'd deferred to me. "Of course."

Violet led the way to the park, and I was pleased to see that Faith followed.

George sidled up next to me. He nodded toward Faith. "She still giving you a hard time?"

"She's at that age. I think they call it the tweenager stage now, not quite a teenager but not a little girl anymore."

George nodded. "Violet has a way with people, and she adores kids."

"I hope she can help. I want to teach Faith how to ride a bike. I learned when I was younger."

"Yeah, but you grew up on a farm with brothers. I bet it was a competition to see who could do things the fastest."

"You got that right. And I was the middle kid, always trying to keep up with my older brothers." Not only that, but things came easily to Ted and Wes. When Mom died, they took over for Dad, making sure we did our homework and ate meals. "Faith has no one her age to play with. That's hard, especially since we moved here, and we don't know anyone."

"There're lots of kids in the neighborhood. The more she's out, she'll meet them."

I crossed my arms over my chest as I watched Violet talk to my daughter. I assumed she was giving her directions on how to go down the hill without falling. I wasn't worried she'd get hurt because she was on grass and wore a protective helmet. "She's only with me every other weekend."

"You going to try to get more time?"

"I'd like to. We'll see." I still wasn't sure I was staying in Maryland. I didn't like being so far away from Faith. Soon she'd be involved in after-school activities, and I wouldn't be able to drop by after work. The commute was too far.

"I hope you stick around. I like having you in the neighborhood." I didn't share my job with many people, but I'd told George. There was something about him. I couldn't lie when he asked what I did, although I usually said something generic like I worked for the government.

"I like it here." Living on my own for the first time since college was freeing. There was no one telling me how I should do things. I could be the dad I always wanted to be. Stacy was always pushing me away, saying I didn't need to be there for Faith. She'd take care of everything.

Faith pushed off the ground and started rolling down the hill. She gripped her handlebars tightly as if she was scared. She veered from side to side, but Violet ran along beside her shouting encouragement.

"By golly, she's got it," George exclaimed as Faith straightened out the bike and glided to the bottom without touching the ground once with her feet.

Faith looked over at me, excitement shining in her eyes. "Did you see, Daddy?"

Daddy. I hadn't heard that in a couple of months. When she made the switch to Dad, it had hurt. Even though I knew she was going to grow up eventually. I hadn't wanted it to happen so soon. "You looked great."

I moved closer to them. Faith turned to Violet, who was talking to her about something. When I reached them, Violet asked, "Do you want to try it again?"

Faith's gaze swung to me. "It was so fun."

I hesitated to say anything. If I encouraged her to take another ride, she'd say no just to spite me.

"I always loved the feel of flying down a hill. There's nothing more freeing," Violet said happily.

Violet was a free soul. The opposite of me. I was carefully regimented. I had to be for my job. But it had started when my mother died. When the responsibility of getting myself ready for the day primarily fell to me. My brothers had their hands full with Jameson and Daphne. Jameson defied all rules and expectations, and Daphne had been so young. I was expected to fend for myself.

Faith pushed her bike up the hill.

"I can't believe you got her to do that," I said to Violet softly.

"I had trouble learning how to ride too. I remembered this helped me. Everything came so easily to Danielle; my parents would get frustrated with me. So I figured it out on my own."

"I'm sorry."

Violet smiled. "I'm not sad about it. It's just the way it was. The good thing was that it forced me to be independent, to figure things out. I didn't need my parents' approval like my sister did.

"All the qualities that make for a good entrepreneur," I said.

Violet looked at me in surprise. "I suppose you're right. I hadn't thought about it like that."

"You're not going to back down at the first sign of trouble. You'll figure it out and keep going."

Violet nodded. "Business ownership comes with a lot of ups and downs."

Faith took off down the hill, this time better able to keep a straight line. Her feet didn't touch the ground once.

"Great job," I said once she'd reached the bottom.

"Does this mean I'll be able to ride now?" Faith asked hopefully.

"You'll need to keep practicing on the hill. Then you can try on a flat surface."

"I know we were supposed to go for a walk, but is it okay if I practice?" Faith asked me.

"Of course." The point of the walk was to spend time with Faith, and I could do that just as easily here.

Violet touched my forearm, and the heat of her palm seeped through my skin. "I'd better get back to my walk."

"Thanks for your help," I said to Violet and nodded toward George.

He waved. "Have a good evening."

I watched Violet walk up the hill to her grandfather, thinking how nice it was that she spent time with him. I'd worried about him living alone, especially since he was recently widowed. But he had Violet, and she seemed to take good care of him. It only made me more attracted to Violet. She was a nice person. Not that Stacy wasn't, but at some point over the course of our relationship, she'd changed.

When Faith was young, Stacy convinced me that it didn't make sense to travel to Maryland. Later, she said we didn't have time. That Faith didn't even know my side of the family. But whose fault was that?

"I'm getting so good at this," Faith said as she pushed her bike past me again.

"You are." I was proud of her for trying. She was so quick to give up around me. Stacy had said it was because she knew she could get away with that kind of stuff with me, but I never knew what that meant. Was I easier on Faith because she was my daughter or because she was a girl?

She was my only child. I wanted to cater to her. But I knew I had to balance that with raising her to be independent.

"I'll be riding in no time."

I hoped so. It would be easier for her to get around the neighborhood and meet new people. I'd noticed that a lot of the kids used bikes here. It was an easy way to get around. And I wanted her to like it here, to fit in, and hopefully find some friends. It would make everything easier.

I'd love for her to live with me, but I didn't hold out hope that it would happen. As the mother, Stacy was confident that she'd get Faith and whatever custody arrangement she wanted in the divorce.

I watched Faith go down the hill until the sun was starting to set. This was my favorite time of the day. "You about ready to head back?"

"I'm starving. Can you push my bike?" She pushed it toward me.

I wanted to help her. I always wanted to take care of her, but I was conscious that I needed to encourage her to do more things for herself. If Stacy was right, and Faith was needier around me than her, it was even more important. "It's your bike. You can take it back."

Faith groaned but didn't argue with me. I took that as a win.

At home, I threw together a sandwich and fruit for both of us. I'd need to learn to cook more things now that I was single. When I was growing up, Mom, then Daphne, did all the cooking. In the interim, my older brothers helped out. Then I met Stacy in college, and we moved in together during our senior year. I never had a reason to learn.

"We should learn to cook. Maybe we can take some classes."

"Really?" Faith asked. "I offer to help Mom, but she won't let me."

That made me pause. "I didn't know you were interested in learning to cook."

"We had a class in school, and I liked it. It was only five weeks long though, and we didn't get to cook much, just brownies and pizza."

I grinned. "I think we can do better than that, don't you?"

Faith smiled, and I took that as a win too. Maybe I just needed to show her what Stacy wouldn't in order to endear her to me. Or better yet, listen to Faith and what she wanted. Then find a way to give it to her.

Maybe that was the issue all along. Stacy didn't want to meet our needs. She was only concerned with her own. If ours weren't convenient, they were stifled or dismissed. I didn't want that for my daughter.

I vowed to do better with Faith. She was my priority. I shouldn't be thinking about sunny ice-cream shop owners who took care of their grandfathers.