Page 17 of Rider

He growls into the phone and I have to pull it away from my ear. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” He hangs up and I smirk. He’s in for a surprise.

I looked down at Carmen and smiled. “Your knight in shining armor will be here in about twenty minutes. You can show him where the car is and he’ll take care of it. It’s on the house.” Before she can respond, I walked over to the kitchen and took a look in the fridge. It’s almost empty except for some milk, a half dozen eggs and some shredded cheese. I close the door and start going through the cabinets. A few pastas, some cereal and oatmeal but other than that her kitchen is almost empty. I pull the chair out at the table and sit down. She’s been silently struggling and that shit ends now. I started texting one of the prospects a list of things to do today.

The response comes back almost instantly. I give him a quick list of groceries to pick up, telling him to add anything else he can think of that small kids like to eat and then tell him to find someone who can get out here today to fix a dryer. I give him the address and tell him to let me know when he’s on the way with the groceries. She might not be living with me yet but that sure as hell doesn’t mean I’m not going to provide for her. I think it over for a second and before I can stop myself I get back up and walk over to Carmen. She’s putting on lip gloss and fixing her hair as she sits there.

“How much money do you and Ray typically make in a week cutting hair?”

She stops fooling with herself and looks at me. “I don’t think that’s any of your business. How much do you make in a week?”

I squinted and tilted my head. “Ok, point taken but give me a range at least.”

She sighed and resumed what she was doing before I interrupted her but she responded, “It depends on how many appointments we have booked, who shows and no shows and walk-ins. Plus if you get someone who wants a complicated color it’s more than a regular cut and color.”

I grow impatient as I stand there. “Ballpark it. How much do you bring in during a week?”

She looked around the room avoiding my gaze while thinking. “Typical week is anywhere from six hundred to nine. Just depends.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose thinking about Rayleighn struggling to take care of herself and Colton. It makes me sick to think they were living on such a small amount of money. I must be radiating a lot of frustration because Carmen speaks up, “It’s not that bad. It evens out during the year. The holidays are more too. Everyone has to look good for the holiday photos.”

Nope. Not my girl. She’s not working for scraps anymore. I get my phone back out and call the other person who I know is awake at this time of morning. He answers on the first ring.

Rayleighn

I stretched my arms out and immediately felt the empty space beside me on the bed. I opened my eyes and sat up, looking around the room for a sign of Rider. I check the bedside clock and it’s fairly early. I quickly put some clothes on and checked on Colton. He’s still asleep but with the sun rising he’ll be up soon. I walk out to the living room and see Carmen sitting quietly on the couch and I see Rider in the kitchen standing in front of the stove. I catch Carmen’s attention and smile.

“Sweetie, I know it’s a lot to ask but I need to get into your bathroom. I need makeup and a hairbrush.”

I chuckle to myself, “Sure Carmen. I think our shades might be a little off but you’re welcome to whatever you’d like.”

“It’s def-com five around here. I’ll take what I can get.” She rushed out of the room back towards my bathroom.

I give her a puzzled look but continue on to the kitchen. I wrap my arms around Rider before he can turn around and whisper good morning to him. He switches the heat to low and turns around to give me a hug and a kiss. I look over at the stove to see what he’s making. “Where did all this come from? I don’t remember having pancake mix in the pantry or sausage in the fridge.”

“I ran out real quick down to the mini-mart and picked them up. You deserve a good breakfast and I figured kids love pancakes.”

That makes me smile that not only was he thinking of me but of Colton. I never imagined that someone I was with would actually care about my son, too. Before I can ask him how I can help, there’s a knock on my door. I turn to answer it and Rider places his hand on my shoulder, stopping me.

“When I’m here I’ll answer the door and when I’m not I want you to not answer it unless you know someone is coming over. We have to think about your safety. It’ll just be temporary baby, I promise. You won’t have to live like this forever. I’m going to take care of it.”

I nod, understanding the meaning behind it. The thought of Grayson out there not knowing if he can find me churns my stomach and the smell of the pancakes becomes less appetizing. I lean against the door frame of the kitchen and watch as he answers the door. His friend Ink appears a few seconds later and now I understand Carmen’s distress. I think of her dad accosting him on the lawn which makes me laugh, bringing their attention to me.

“Good Morning, Rayleighn. It’s nice to see you again,” Ink politely calls over to me.

I give him a small wave. “Are you here for breakfast too?”

He shakes his head no but smiles at me. “Just here to get some work done. But hey if you’re inviting me I’ll come back after I’m done.”

Rider gives him a look that instantly dashes Ink’s hopes of getting a hot breakfast. I roll my eyes in amusement and blow him a kiss which he catches and pretends to eat. I love this playful side of Rider. A second later I see Colton walking down the hall out of the corner of my eye. I go to him and pick him up and he gives me a great big hug. I will never take those for granted. One day he’ll be too big for me to pick him up and I might sit down and have a big fat cry over it but hey, that’s my prerogative. He sees Rider and crawls down from my arms to get back to the ground and runs over to him. He grabs his pinky and holds on to it as he says hi. It’s the cutest thing, and I can feel the tears in my eyes but I will them to stay inside.

Carmen comes strutting out of the bathroom wearing one of my best shirts stretched out across her chest and a full face of make-up or at least the things she could get to work for her. She’s wearing her jeans that must have dried overnight. She stoically ignores Rider and Ink who’ve stopped talking and bends down to tell Colton good morning. After she’s done ruffling his hair and telling him to have a good day, she stands and looks at Rider. “I’m ready now.”

Rider hands her car keys over to Ink and without saying a word, Ink turns his back to all of us and moves towards the front door. When I think he’s going to stop to say something or wait for Carmen he pushes through the front door and out it he goes. I look back and forth between Carmen and the door, wondering how she’s going to handle this. She’s clearly into him, and if my intuition is right, Ink’s clearly pissed off about the other night. Before Rider can even speak she walks towards the front door and tells us bye over her shoulder.

“I’ll see you later at work!” I yelled to her before the door closed. I shake my head thinking of her and Ink in that car together. Carmen can be like a stick of dynamite so that should make for an interesting morning.

I walked over to Colton and Rider who still had his eyes on the door. “Care to share your thoughts on that?”

Rider scoffed. “Yeah, he’s into her but since he doesn’t want to pick lead out of his ass he’ll probably shy away from that one.”

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