She was vulnerable, and she believed that he would protect her. He didn’t know why. He didn’t know why she had decided to come there. Why she had decided to come to him. But she had.

And then that night when he had been expecting her and she hadn’t come... And he’d just known something was wrong. Felt sick in his gut about it. And he’d found her father, pounding on her with his fists in her little trailer that she slept in on the edge of her parents’ property.

And Ryder...

Ryder had seen red.

And everything had made sense. That fear in her. That vulnerability. A man, a man she was supposed to trust had treated her with violence.

She trusted Ryder to protect her. And that day he had. Physically.

After that, she had moved the camper to Hope Springs.

Sometimes she’d still gotten in bed with him.

And it had been easy enough to take that thing inside him that wanted her, that felt sort of ravenous for her, and harden it. Turn it into a cold, dark obsidian. Sharp and unyielding. To put it between her and all the rest of the world.

Because he had experience enough with hardening the soft and weak things inside him. Because he had to do it the day that his parents had died. Because denying the things that he wanted had become second nature, and so he had simply done it with Sammy.

The idea of taking that and changing it now was unthinkable.

“It’s not like that,” Ryder said. “It’s not.”

“All right. I mean, aren’t you worried that she’s going to...do something stupid?”

“Yeah,” Ryder said. “I worry about that with all of you. All the time. Except for Iris. I don’t really have to worry about her.”

“You don’t have to worry about me, either,” Logan said. “You know, since I’m thirty-three years old.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ryder said. “Old habits.”

“We’re the same age now,” Logan said. “So to speak. And I know that it’s hard for you to take that on board. But we are.”

“That isn’t how it works,” Ryder said. “It just isn’t.”

“It can be, if you want it to be.”

“Seriously, Logan, did you want something?”

“Unclench,” he said.

“Really?”

“Yes. I mean, things are settled now. Pansy’s getting married and you don’t hate the guy, which seems ideal, really.”

“I don’t know that I would have chosen him.” Still, the idea that his sister was old enough to get married was... Well, since the entire thing seemed unappealing to him, it was difficult to wrap his head around it all. Pansy was the most like him. Out of everyone in the family.

She was a straight arrow. Somewhat serious. Committed to doing the right thing.

And there was nothing wrong with her getting married to West Caldwell. It was just... It made him feel slightly abandoned and that was just stupid.

So maybe he had an issue with change.