5. Ryland

5

RYLAND

“ Y ou really don’t have to do this.” Hannah’s low, sweet voice barely reached me over the growl of my SUV’s engine.

I followed the GPS directions to a tiny home in the middle of a narrow street. Overgrown grass lined the sidewalk and crept up the porch steps. My palms itched with the need to grab my camera and take a series of black and white shots to encapsulate the dejection.

“I don’t mind. Scott and Arthur would’ve helped, but they had to make an appearance at the office.” The late hour didn’t bother either of them. We’d all gotten used to the chaos of owning our own businesses and the crazy hours that came with it.

Liddy struggled against her car seat straps. “Let’s go. I want my stuffies.” She’d gotten more animated and talkative the closer we got to her home.

Hannah closed her eyes, rubbing them with her thumb and forefinger. “You don’t have to take all your animals.” Liddy’s lower lip pooched out, her thin arms crossing.

I opened my door and hurried out before I started laughing. Neither would appreciate it, and it did no one any favors for me to end up on Hannah’s bad side. We needed her too much. I opened Hannah’s door. “Keys? I’ll get the door while you help Liddy.”

She passed me a single key on a worn leather string. “Just… don’t think too badly of me once you’re inside.”

I would never. The words lodged in my throat. Saying them proved nothing. I nodded once and jogged up the sidewalk, sidestepping a broken tricycle and skipping the broken board at the bottom of the steps. The key slid into the lock and turned easily, giving me a chance to enter the house before Hannah.

I swept a look around the small interior. Her entire home could fit in my bedroom. It caused a pinch in my heart to think of them living here, of them doing without.

“Any chance you’d close your eyes and forget you saw any of this?” Hannah lowered Liddy to the floor. “Go get your stuff, honey.”

Liddy ran down a hallway that was all of three steps deep and darted into a side room. Her cheerful voice came through the paper-thin walls as she sang to her animals.

I tapped my temple. “Sorry. Memory like an elephant. I never forget.”

“Figures,” she murmured as her shoulders slumped. Bending at the waist, she picked up a discarded shoe and tossed it into the corner. She avoided looking at me and concentrated on digging a bag out of a tiny closet barely big enough to hold a single person, much less enough outerwear for them both to last the winter. Her embarrassment practically broke my heart in two.

“What about Liddy’s father? Do you need to tell him where you’ll be?”

She snapped around so fast her forehead nearly cracked into mine. When did I move that close? We shared a single, searing breath.

“No.” Her voice dropped to a hiss. “That rat bastard didn’t want anything to do with Liddy. It’ll be ice capades in hell before I care if he knows where we are.”

Okay then. “I take it he doesn’t help out at all?” I already knew the answer, but I was enjoying the heat of her fury.

Lines framed her mouth from the force holding her lips together. “We’re on our own.” She shoved past me. “Thought you came to help.”

The words were a challenge wrapped up in a pretty face. Protective anger rose up hot and fast, so fast I barely managed to keep my face expressionless and my tone cordial. “What do you need me to get?”

“I’ll pack the bags.” A smile like sunshine over the water appeared on her face. “No way I’m letting you in my bedroom. You’d probably steal my underwear.”

“Actually, Arthur’s worried you’ll try to sell his.” I eased my hands into my pockets, a grin on my face as I waited for the explosion.

Hannah did not disappoint. She dropped the bag, and it hit the floor with a thud. “Are you serious? What kind of delusional egos am I dealing with?”

I leaned into her personal space, meeting those gorgeous blue eyes. “The best kind.” Just then, Liddy walked down the hallway toward us, dragging a duffel.

“Can I carry that to the car for you?” I held out both hands and Liddy placed the handles in my fingers. I had to get out of there before I said or did something I’d regret. Liddy and Hannah deserved better than a punk willing to shirk his responsibility. It ate me up inside, even as the pride in Hannah warmed me. She’d made the best of a tough situation. Her determination to take care of Liddy as a single mom proved Arthur had made the right call in offering her the job.

Maybe there was something else we could do to help her out during the upcoming months.

By the time I set Liddy’s bag in the back and returned, Hannah met me at the door. One bag rested at her feet as she carried two others in each hand. “That’s it.”

I opened my mouth, ready to argue that couldn’t possibly be everything, but the warning look in her eyes stopped me. I took all three bags and added them to Liddy’s. I’d already dealt with her landlord and paid in full for the upcoming summer. Hannah and Liddy had nothing to worry about.

“Are you a lion?” Liddy grabbed my hand as I helped her climb into the back seat of the SUV. Her little shoes left dirty imprints on the leather and an even deeper imprint on my heart.

“A lion?” I held out my fingers so they resembled claws and made a roaring sound. “That kind of lion?” She nodded emphatically.

“I guess I am.” I held back my laughter and slid into the driver’s seat.

Hannah covered her mouth with both hands. “Sorry,” she whispered. “I think it’s your hair.”

My hair? I fingered the topknot. “Because it’s blond?”

“That.” She croaked, cleared her throat, and tried again. “And the way you walk.”

I walked like a lion? Huh. I’d never have thought of it as a compliment, but the way Hannah said it sent a lightning bolt of heat scorching throughout my body.

We chatted all the way back to the mansion. Liddy, once she discovered she had a captive audience, never stopped talking. Hannah and I carried on a bit of a conversation in between talking to Liddy. Both were warm and welcoming, and I soon realized Hannah had a biting humor that charmed me.

We pulled into the circular drive, and I turned off the SUV. “You both go explore.” I took all their bags from the car and slung them over my shoulders. “Your rooms are on the second floor. If you take the stairs on the right, it’s the fifth door on the left. You and Liddy will share a suite, if that’s okay with you.”

“Of course.” Hannah reverted back to that quiet shyness once she crossed the threshold. She walked around with a child-like, wide-eyed wonder that I could not ignore. Once I placed their bags in their room, I ran down the hallway to my own room and snatched up my camera.

My fingers flew over the settings until I had it exactly how I wanted. Hannah and Liddy climbed the stairs opposite me. Crouching, I aimed the camera in their direction and snapped a close-up shot of Hannah’s face the instant she spotted the elaborate balustrade and second set of stairs stretching up to the third floor. She raised a hand to her heart and stopped.

Liddy ran ahead, her arms out by her sides like wings. Another click, and I captured the joy in every line of her body.

Hannah moved forward, her steps so cautious that I halfway expected her to grab Liddy and run. The candid shots gave me a true look at Hannah and her daughter. I’d grown used to seeing people through a camera lens. It did something to them, showed a truth that I’d never found through any other means.

While Hannah and Liddy explored the theater room at the end of the hallway, I flipped through the pictures, studying them for what I’d missed in our interactions.

Hannah’s beauty stunned me. My fingers froze over the buttons, my heart thudding heavy at the perfection in her features. Her laughter carried out from the theater, and I raised the camera in time to immortalize the moment of pure joy as she carried Liddy through the doorway. Their faces were close together, Hannah’s head arched back in bright laughter.

My pulse spasmed and skipped. I clicked the button again and again, each second frozen for eternity. These were the kind of shots that should be printed, framed, and hung in museums and art galleries for the world to see. I was too selfish for that. These were mine. A bold possessiveness overwhelmed me. No one outside these walls, outside of myself, Arthur, and Scott, would ever see these photos.

“Ryland?” Hannah spoke my name in a sweet caress meant for late night pillow talk and I was enough of a bastard that it made my cock throb. I lowered the camera and found her standing less than a foot away. Liddy skipped around the perimeter, trailing her hands over the Victorian couch and tables sitting beneath an old fashioned tapestry. “Yes?”

She eyed my camera, a thin-lipped frown forming on her lips.

“Sorry.” I lowered the device so that the strap bit into the back of my neck. “I probably should have asked if I could take your picture.”

“Probably?” Hands on hips, she stared me down. Her furious expression quickly turned into curiosity. “It’s fine. I’d like to see.”

I kept the strap around my neck. Years of almost dropping the camera had ingrained the habit. I moved to stand beside her, close enough that our shoulders brushed and I smelled the clean, fresh scent of shampoo in her hair. I turned the camera toward her. “You’re beautiful.” It was a genuine compliment I would’ve given anyone, but it came out with such raw force that Hannah sucked in a breath.

A beat of stunned silence passed between us before she wrapped her hands around mine on the camera and angled it closer to herself. “You’re a really good photographer. No one has ever made me look that good before.”

“They must not have tried very hard.” I tried to shift the current of attraction back where it belonged. “And I should be good. I’m a professional. I’ve been photographing the rich and famous for years.”

I raised my eyes to hers, ready to see hurt and confusion and found compassion instead. What started as basic attraction exploded into something more. Bigger. Darker. It threatened to drag me down and never let me go.

Hannah’s eyes shifted, her gaze dropping to my lips. Hers parted on an exhale, and my stomach tightened. One move and our lips would connect. One breath of space stopped me. I dropped the camera and lowered my chin.

“Honey, I’m home.” Scott’s voice boomed through the mansion. The front door slammed, and the sound of heavy steps bounded our way.

Hannah jumped away from me as her cheeks flushed and she licked her lips.

I snapped one last picture then turned to face Scott.