Page 12 of Fastlander Fighter

And to her absolute joy, Ruger kept getting hungry and returning to the table to take bites of food. He even ate half a mud pie, and then asked her to tell Captain that he ate good.

She’d appreciated Captain’s ease with him, and him taking time out of his busy shift to make sure they were good.

He had mentioned that people change, and she agreed. He certainly seemed different than the arrogant Captain of her youth.

But…she’d had an opportunity to give him her number, and she’d thought better of it. She’d known what he wanted to ask. The unspoken question had sat there in the air between them, and she could’ve given him an out and offered her number to him, but she wasn’t ready.

She wasn’t ready, and Ruger wasn’t ready.

It had only been six months since she’d found out Ryan had cheated on her and filed for divorce. The ink was barely dry on the paperwork. Sure, Ryan had moved on quickly, but he’d been dating Naomi for a couple of years before she found out. He’d moved on long ago. For her? She still struggled with her feelings about Ryan some days.

Right now, her focus didn’t need to be on giving a man attention. It needed to be on Ruger and his needs. He hadn’t signed up for two households, or the manipulation from Ryan and Naomi and her family.

He deserved to have something steady in his life. Sloane showing interest in a shifter, with a Crew and all the complications that would come along with his life, was not what either of them needed right now. Or ever, honestly.

Shifters were a completely different creature, and culture, than that of humans.

Captain had been complicated as a young man. Now? She couldn’t even imagine what his life was like outside of Moosey’s.

“Getting tired?” she called out, watching Ruger rub his eyes from where he sat on the bottom of the slide.

“No.”

“Mmm-hmm. Come on.”

“Five more minutes.”

“I gave you a ten-minute warning half an hour ago, boy.”

Ruger huffed a breath and meandered over to her, his little bottom lip pouted out. She’d cleaned up their table and stacked their empty drink cups to keep at her apartment. Ryan took almost everything for his love nest with Naomi on a long weekend when she’d taken Ruger to her parents’ to get some space, and now she was having to slowly replenish her kitchen supplies with each paycheck. The cups helped, and plus they were a very good memory.

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d smiled this much in one day.

Captain had done that.

Ruger was sleepily rubbing his eyes again. He slipped his other hand into hers and let her lead him toward the truck. He would be asleep before they left the parking lot, she would bet.

He’d always been a car sleeper.

Feeling buzzed on happiness, she buckled him in, then shut his door and made her way to the driver’s side.

“Hold up!”

She looked up to find Captain jogging across the parking lot. She perked up and waved.

He came to a stop in the gravel right in front of her and handed her some white fabric. She opened it, revealing a pair of T-shirts with the Moosey’s BBQ logo.

“We haven’t ordered kids’ sizes, so maybe he can just have one as a sleep shirt or something.”

She laughed and assured him, “I’m sure he will want to wear this every day this week. Doesn’t matter if it goes down to his knees.”

Captain chuckled. He shoved his hands into his pockets and scanned the parking lot.

“You don’t have your apron on,” she pointed out.

“Oh, yeah, it’s the end of my shift. I have someone trained to take the opposite shifts of me. Plus I get some days off now. Shane will make it even easier if he sticks with it and becomes a pitmaster.”

Captain ran his hand down his short beard. His eyes were a light silver color right now.

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