Page 47 of The Last Promise You Made

Then, I pushed the cart in the direction of the checkout.

“Wait, we need shampoo and bubble bath,” Ryder said. My lips twitched. It seemed almost impossible to me that this rough, gruff cowboy knew what a little girl needed. It took all those squishy feelings inside me and amplified them.

Addy didn’t say what she liked again. She kept shrugging, but I remembered her eyes lighting up at the olallieberry pie the night before and picked up some berry-scented soaps and shampoos as well as a new toothbrush and some colorful headbands and hair ties before once again making my way to the checkout.

The sales clerk’s eyes turned wide at my pile. It took almost as long to buy everything as it did to shop, but eventually, I had the cart brimming again and was pushing it out into the parking lot, thankful the rain had stopped completely.

When I made it to the SUV, Ryder jumped out, helping me load everything into the back. He was smiling. A slow, wide grin that spoke of joy, as if being able to buy these things for the child he hadn’t known he had was one of the best things he’d done in a long, long time.

He slammed the back and then looked at me, eyes twinkling. “Thank you.”

“I’m glad I could help.”

“No…” He shook his head, the smile dimming just barely. “You should have seen her. She was… I don’t know how to explain it except the old cliché of a kid in a candy shop. She was…” He stopped and then started again. “And I got to do that for her because of your idea and because you were willing to help us.”

That overwhelmed sensation that had been with me ever since finding Anna-Ravyn’s note landed deep inside my chest again. I tried to shrug it off. “Just doing my job.”

“Don’t do that. We both know shopping for a traumatized little girl is not in your job description. But you did it anyway. So, thank you. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay you.”

I couldn’t look away, even though every instinct in my body was telling me to. He reached out and tucked a lock of hair that had escaped my ponytail behind my ear. My body nearly exploded. I literally vibrated with a need to touch him too. Instead, I stepped away, and he dropped his hand, as if he was as surprised as I was that he’d done it.

“You know how you can pay me back?” I asked. His gaze fell to my lips, which only increased the pulsing in my veins. “Buy me a milkshake at the drive-thru.”

His grin returned. “I think I might have just enough money left in my account to be able to get you both a milkshake.”

We headed for the car doors, both of us still smiling. When I got in and looked at Addy, she was grinning too.

And somehow, that moment, where joy overtook the seriousness, lodged itself deep inside me, permanently embedding a mark—a memory—I’d never escape.

Ryder directed me to the drive-thru of the local Dairy Queen. When we got to the menu board, he asked Addy what kind of milkshake she wanted, and she beamed at him. “Chocolate.”

Ryder sent her a smile that was so large and bright it felt like it could blow out the windows. “That’s my girl.”

He winked at her, and damn if my heart didn’t flip right over.

When the intercom buzzed, and we were asked for our order, I responded with, “Two large chocolate shakes and one large vanilla bean.”

“Anything else?”

I looked over only to see a look of horror on Ryder’s face that was almost comical. I turned back to the box. “No, that’s it.”

I was given a total and asked to pull up to the window.

“What?” I said, lips twitching.

“It’s a sin,” he said quietly. It took me a minute to realize he meant my order because my body was thinking of all the ways it would like to sin with Ryder Hatley. Ways my mind knew better than to want.

“Since when is ordering a vanilla shake a sin?”

“Please tell me you did it as a joke, because chocolate will forever and always be the only right answer when ordering a shake.”

I huffed out a laugh, even though I could see he was completely serious. “There’s nothing wrong with vanilla, especially the Dairy Queen vanilla bean shakes.”

“Vanilla is boring and bland.”

I couldn’t help but taunt and tease in return. “Chocolate is dominating and overpowering.”

He shook his head and ran his palm over the neat beard that was just past scruff. It drew my eyes to his lips, which were tilted upward ever so slightly. Those lips had been strong and confident when they’d found mine, leaving me with no doubts he knew his way around a woman’s body.

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