“He was broken,” Ryder said. “The reasons you can’t love come from inside you.”

There was something hollow and empty in his voice, and it made her want to ask another question, but she feared the answer far too much. So she didn’t ask. Instead, she kissed his forearm, and rested herself more deeply against him. No good came from asking questions you didn’t want the answers to.

She had done her best to make a life where she didn’t need to ask those kinds of questions. And she didn’t.

She didn’t need to.

She had him. He was committed to her. To taking care of her, to taking care of the baby. There was no reason ever to ask for more. No reason to hope for more. So she wouldn’t. And she would be all the happier for it.

She had his arms. And they would always protect her.

What more could she possibly need?

* * *

THE FAMILY FOURTH of July picnic was interesting this year. West and his half brother, Emmett, made for a fascinating new addition. West was the subject of much interrogation from Colt and Jake, who had come back from the circuit for the event.

But they took a break from interrogating West just long enough to corner Ryder and shove a beer in his hand. “Getting married, huh?” Colt asked.

“To Sammy,” Jake added.

“And having a baby,” Logan added.

“Are you congratulating me or accusing me of something?” Ryder asked.

“Both,” Jake said, looking at Colt, who nodded in agreement. “Definitely both.”

“Seriously?”

“If you hurt her,” Jake said.

“We will tear you apart,” Colt added.

“Limb from limb,” Jake finished, then took a swallow of beer.

“I’m sorry,” Ryder said. “Have I stepped into an alternate dimension? I have been taking care of Sammy for the past seventeen years. I’ll keep doing it now.”

“She doesn’t have a father who will threaten you. She doesn’t have brothers to do it. She has us.”

“I’m your brother, you assholes.”

“Technically our cousin,” Colt said.

“No relation,” Logan said.

“This is the thanks I get?” he asked. “For taking care of you fools for all those years?”

Colt shrugged. “Sammy’s a nice woman.”

“I’m nice,” Ryder said.

Colt shook his head. “You’re a lot of things, but nice isn’t really one of them. Decent. Good. But not nice.”

“Ungrateful fuckhead,” Ryder grumbled.

“See, my point,” he said.

“I’m taking responsibility,” Ryder said. “Doing what any good man would do.”

“Oh, I hope that you used that in your proposal,” Jake said. “Height of romance.”

“I didn’t say it was romance.” He and Sammy were deeper than that anyway. He didn’t need to put labels on it. Wasn’t Sammy the one who was so averse to labels anyway? It all made sense. It really did. There was no point being a fool about it.

He remembered what she had told him this morning, in the early hours, as he had held her on the bathroom floor. About how she’d asked her father why he didn’t love her.