“Indoor plumbing,” he said immediately. That made us all laugh.
“I have to say, I’m really proud of you, Ryder,” Lucah said.
“Thanks, brother. I hope that pride will continue. I think it will this time,” he said. I had a few tears in my eyes as Lucah patted him on the shoulder. I loved when they were like this.
“I think so, too,” Lucah said.
“How’s April?” I asked. Lucah laughed.
“She’s not liking bed rest too much. Tate has threatened to handcuff her, but not in a sexy way,” he said.
“Yeah, I'm guessing sex is not on the agenda when you’re on bed rest,” I said.
“I think I’d probably go crazy,” Rory said. I bet she would. Without the ability to pace around when she was stressed, she might go nuts.
“Oh, I think I could find other ways to amuse you,” Lucah said, wiggling his eyebrows. Ryder made a disgusted sound and Lucah pretend-punched him in the shoulder.
“Oh, by the way, I talked to Gil the other day,” Ryder said to me.
“Oh yeah? How’s the art business? Has he done any Dumpster diving lately?”
“Yup. He’s now working on a project with old light bulbs. He explained it, but he was all artsy and existential. I pretended I was getting it, but I definitely didn’t.” Yeah, I wouldn’t get it either.
“Sounds about right,” I said. I hoped that Ryder would hang out with Gil more often. He seemed to be a good sort of guy.
“He also said that if I wanted, he’d hire me on as a part-time assistant. I’d basically be standing next to him in the dumpster, holding the bag, or getting him chai lattes, but it would still be a job. And who knows? Maybe I could be an artist?”
Now there was an idea. I knew Ryder had an amazing brain and tons of imagination. He just needed an outlet for it.
“We do need an artist in this family,” Lucah said. Both he and Tate were more bookish than artsy.
“I’d rather do that than be the family fuck-up,” Ryder said.
“Hey, we’ve all been the fuck-up. Tate and I are well overdue for our turns,” Lucah said.
“Good. I’m happy to pass the baton,” Ryder said.
“What if you’re an only child? Does that mean you don’t get to be a fuck-up?” Rory asked.
“It means that no matter what, you’re never the fuck-up,” Lucah said, kissing her cheek.
She grinned at him. “Good answer.”
“Well, I’d have to fail pretty epically to be the fuck-up in my family. Like, it would require a lot of effort to be worse than my siblings,” I said.
“Truth,” Rory said. She’d met all my siblings at one time or another. “No offense, but your family is kind of the worst.”
“Hey, the only thing I share with those people is a last name and some DNA. And really, I don’t even know if my father is really my father.” I don’t look much like my siblings, and I knew my mother had cheated. They both had. The only reason I’d never bothered to look for him was because I figured any man who had slept with my mother was a loser, so I’d just be trading one for another.
“Really?” Ryder said. He was always trying to get me to talk about my family, and I never wanted to. But I’d had a few glasses of wine and I wasn’t going to get to talk to him in a while. Unless it was an emergency, we weren’t allowed to contact Ryder. He could send letters out, but we couldn’t respond.
“I got you a present,” I said, pulling the small gift out of my bag. I’d wanted to give it to him when we were alone, but I couldn’t wait any longer.
“A present? Hand it over,” he said, reaching for it.
“It’s nothing exciting,” I said, suddenly feeling self-conscious. Ryder ripped into the paper and found a stationery set, a box of pens, and a box of pencils.
“I wasn’t sure what you’d want to write with,” I said. “So I got you both.” It wasn’t easy to find a somewhat masculine set of stationery, let me tell you. But I found a set that had simple ivory paper with a black border. Ryder stared down at it and smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling a little. He rarely smiled exactly like that.