And it was all thanks to the magnificent woman in his arms.
“Oh my goodness, this is heavenly.”
“Mmm…” he hummed beside her. “I have to agree.”
“No, seriously…I can’t believe how amazing this is!”
Shaking his head, Ryder chuckled. “Peyton, it’s a BLT, and you made it yourself. I don’t see what the big deal is.”
She waved the sandwich in his face. “Are you kidding me? Are your taste buds not working? This sandwich is spectacular! The avocado really gave it a pop of flavor and the candied bacon is just decadent. Yum!”
“Watching you fry up bacon in nothing but my t-shirt was way more decadent,” he corrected. “The sandwich is good. Catching a glimpse of your incredibly sexy bottom peeking out from under my shirt was simply spectacular.”
“Such a guy,” she murmured around a giggle.
It was after midnight, but when Peyton told him she hadn’t eaten dinner–after her stomach growled loudly and repeatedly–he dragged her from the bed and into the kitchen. It was too late to order anything to be delivered, but they had been stocking his kitchen over the last several months, so he knew they’d be able to put some kind of meal together.
He just didn’t expect it to be this good.
Off in the distance, he heard his phone chime with an incoming text. Frowning, he got up and walked across the room to see who it could be.
“And for the record, you walking around in nothing but those snug boxer briefs is pretty spectacular too,” she called out, winking at him when he turned around.
It was hard not to preen under her praise, but the message he was reading stopped him in his tracks.
“Ryder? Is everything okay?”
He reread the message again just to make sure he understood it. “Um…yeah,” he murmured, frowning, before turning the phone off and putting it down. When he sat back beside her and picked up his sandwich, he could feel the weight of her stare. “What?”
“Seriously? You’re not going to tell me why your face got all scrunchy?”
Laughing, he turned to look at her. “Scrunchy? My face got scrunchy? Is that even a thing?”
“Trust me,” she said solemnly. “It is.” But then she started laughing too, so…
“It’s nothing,” he said before taking a bite of his sandwich. Unfortunately, even the crunch of the extra crispy bacon wasn’t enough to drown out Peyton’s sigh. “I’d tell you, but…I feel like it’s something I should tell Austin first. And Garrett.”
With wide eyes, she dropped her sandwich. “Oh my God! It’s about Uncle Cash, isn’t it? Was that who texted you? Did he tell you where he was? Is he here in Magnolia? Is he going to try to see Aunt Grace again?” She shook his arm. “Or…or…did he tell you why he disappeared? Is it too late to call Austin?” Looking around wildly, Peyton tried to see the clock on the microwave.
“First of all, calm down,” he told her. “Yes, it’s too late to call Austin or Garrett. No, it wasn’t Cash who messaged me. He’s not here in Magnolia though so there’s no worry about him going to see Grace or anyone.”
That took some of the wind out of her sails. “So…who was it?”
“Peyton…”
“Ryder,” she mimicked. “Oh, come on. It clearly has something to do with Uncle Cash and you know once you call Austin and Garrett, everyone’s going to know. Come on. Please!”
Rolling his eyes, he knew she wouldn’t let up, and he also knew she wasn’t going to be the one to gossip to anyone about it until her cousins brought it up first, so…
“Okay, so my guy had last tracked Cash to Seattle and…”
“Wait. I’m sorry. Your guy? For real?”
He nodded. “Yeah. My guy.”
It was her turn to roll her eyes. “You know, I heard everyone mentioning him like that, and I thought they just couldn’t remember his name. But you really just call him your guy? Why?”
“His name isn’t important and he doesn’t like to draw attention to himself.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Do you want to know what he texted me or not?” he asked with a combination of humor and frustration.
“I do. I do. Sorry.”
With a nod, he gave her the basics. “It seems as if Cash is living with a woman in a little town just outside of Seattle.”
“Oh.” Her shoulders sagged. “That’s a little anticlimactic. I mean…obviously he’s involved with someone. What’s the big deal?”
“This woman is a bit…younger than Cash,” he said carefully. “Like…younger than Jackson.”
It took a minute for the implication to hit her, and then her eyes went wide. “Oh my goodness! No! You think this woman is his daughter?”
“We don’t know yet, but she’s obviously someone important to him if he just packed up and left Magnolia without saying goodbye to the family he was supposedly reconnecting with.” He shrugged. “If you think about it, it just makes sense. He’s got a second family.”
“Wow,” she sighed. “That is going to hit everyone hard. Ugh…so much drama. I mean…why come back at all?”
“I think he was truly interested in the inheritance, but maybe got a little caught up in nostalgia when he saw Garrett that day. Who knows?”
“It’s just wrong that he dangled that money at the guys and then left town with it. So he gets to be a millionaire and share the wealth with his other family.” She shuddered. “He’s the worst.”
“Actually…” he began slowly, unsure he should be sharing this, but… “He never cashed the check.”
“What?! How do you even know that? And why wouldn’t he? I mean…two million dollars! Who wouldn’t take that money and run?”
“I’m not even going to begin to try to understand Cash’s thought process. All I know is my guy was able to check it all out and the check was never cashed. Maybe he does still plan on giving your cousins the money. Who knows?”
Picking up her sandwich again, Peyton frowned. “Well, I don’t even want to think about any of it. It’s giving me a headache and I wish I didn’t know any of it.”
“You begged me to tell you!”
“I didn’t realize it was going to be such awful news!”
It would be wrong to argue that she should have known by his…scrunchy face–which he still didn’t think was a thing–but honestly, the last thing he wanted to be talking about right now was Cash Coleman and all the ways he’d done his family wrong. Instead, he finished his sandwich and washed it down with a bottle of water. Once he saw that Peyton was done, he took both their plates and cleaned up.
“I can help,” she said as she got up, tugging the t-shirt down to cover her bottom.
Which was completely adorable.
Once everything was put away, Ryder took her by the hand and led her back to bed. “Come on, Duchess. I think we’re both ready for a good night’s sleep, right?”
As if on cue, she yawned. “Definitely.”