Page 13 of Every Beat of My Heart

“He didn’t mention her. He just asked if he and Faith could stay. That’s why I thought it would be a good time for a family meeting.”

“I wonder what’s going on there,” I said, more to myself than Dad. None of us were close to Ryder. Ever since he got married, he distanced himself from us. My brothers blamed his wife, but I was irritated with him.

He was in control of his life and his decisions. He could come home if he wanted to. I wouldn’t let him off the hook as easily.

Even if my brothers made fun of me for living at home, I vowed to stay after Mom died. I wanted to make sure my dad and my youngest sibling Daphne were going to be okay. Fiona and Teddy were already in college when Mom got sick. Teddy moved schools to be closer, but Fiona stayed away.

Then one by one, the rest of my brothers left. Axel enlisted in the military, and Ryder went off to school, met Stacy, married, and never returned home. Now he had a daughter, one we didn’t know well.

I hoped that Ryder’s visit meant that he was aware that he needed to see his family more often, but I wasn’t sure. What if Faith hated it here and wanted nothing to do with the farm? She was getting older and might not want to be away from her home or her mother.

“It will be okay.”

“I know.” I stretched my neck, my appetite suddenly gone.

“You’ve always felt things so deeply. I know it hurt you that Ryder stayed away all these years.”

I huffed out a laugh because I went to great lengths to pretend I didn’t feel anything. “I do not.”

“I see you, Jameson.”

I wanted to tell him not to see me, but I didn’t want to be rude, especially in front of Izzy. Instead, I went for humor. “What you see is what you get. I’m a surface-level guy.”

“If you were a surface-level guy, you wouldn’t meet with homeowners on your free time or substitute teach for pennies.”

“Fire safety is important. Fire detectors save lives. Do you know how many people have the old ones and never change the batteries?”

Dad gave me a look. “You’re proving my point.”

“Those middle-school kids need a cool teacher.” I winked at Izzy.

Izzy rolled her eyes. “I wish you could teach my class. Our substitute talks the same.”

“What do you mean?” Dad asked her.

“She talks. Like. This.” Izzy spoke in a monotone voice. “It’s so boring.”

Dad let out a chuckle. “Sounds like it.”

“She said the teachers love her because she gets everything done on the list.” Izzy looked at me. “I bet you’d let us play games.”

“Well, yeah. You’re in second grade. Why should you be checking off lists at that age?” I shuddered at the thought. “I don’t want to meet the kid who takes their second-grade education seriously.”

Izzy gave me an exasperated look. Even she thought I was ridiculous at times.

“What do you do in middle school? Babysit them while they’re on their phones?” Dad asked, surprising me because he never asked about specifics of my teaching positions.

I straightened in my seat. “We get the work done, and we have fun doing it. But I don’t let those kids get away with anything. I know how they are. If they can get an inch, they’ll take a mile.”

“That’s my boy,” Dad said, and for once, I heard the pride in his voice.

I shouldn’t need it, but I still wanted it. I was pathetic like that.

“Ryder’s staying at the cottage this weekend, but what do you think about moving in?” Dad asked.

“I like where I’m at.” The apartment had been the perfect spot to move in when I turned eighteen. I wasn’t sure what school I wanted to go to, or if I even wanted to go at all. When I finally enrolled, I lived at home and commuted to school because I wanted to be near Dad and help on the farm, but I wondered what a woman like Claire would think about a grown man living above his dad’s garage.

I wasn’t exactly in the basement, but it was close to it. She was living on her own and raising a kid. A good one at that. He was respectful if a little standoffish, which was normal for a teenager.

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