Page 45 of Deserving Ryleigh
“Yup.”
“They aren’t good for you. As a former SEAL, you should know that.”
“I do know it. I’m not saying I want to eat a box for dinner every night, but every now and then, they’re a nice treat.”
“Whatever.”
He smiled at her, then took her hand in his and towed her toward the steps. They both stopped before they headed down, taking one last look around them. Then Ry thought of something. “Oh, wait! Can we take a picture?”
“We can do anything you want,” Tiny told her.
Feeling the sincerity of his words down to her bones, she smiled as she pulled out her phone. There was no reception this far out in the woods, but she didn’t need it in order to take a picture. She held up the camera and waited for Tiny to put his cheek against hers. She turned to look at him without lowering her arm, and smiled just before Tiny kissed her. She clicked the shutter as he kissed her hard and fast.
“Go stand back where we were sitting and let me take your picture,” Tiny told her.
She handed her phone over and went to stand where he’d suggested. Ten minutes and almost twenty pictures later—of her alone on the rock, then Tiny,thena few more of them together—Tiny finally led her down the stairs. He told her he was going first in case she lost her balance and fell…so he could catch her.
He was being sweet and attentive, and Ry could hardly believe the change in their relationship in such a short period of time. She realized that it had happened when she’d opened up. Her lies and subterfuge had been a main reason why he’d kept his distance from her, and why he’dbeen so mistrustful. Knowing more about his past made her understand what made him tick, and why he’d treated her the way he had.
And being honest felt so much better than keeping secrets. She’d spent her entire life in the darkness, hiding from others, sneaking around. It felt glorious to know that someone, thatTiny, knew all her secrets now. And he didn’t hold them against her. It gave her a confidence she wasn’t sure she’d ever had before.
As they walked back to The Refuge to check on things, make sure her father hadn’t done anything else crazy in the few hours they’d been gone, Ry made a vow to herself to always be as honest as she could be with Tiny. Even if it made her uncomfortable, she was done hiding. From herself, her father, her friends, other people. She was who she was, and for the first time in her life, she felt accepted as that woman.
CHAPTER TEN
“You seem…I don’t know…different,” Reese said. Ry was hanging out in Cora’s cabin with all the other women. Reese was nursing Dylan, and Lara was holding Henley’s baby.
“Is that bad?” Ry asked.
“No! Not at all. It’s good. Great. It’s just…you seem more sure of yourself or something.”
Ry smiled at the other woman. She loved that she saw her that way. Ever since her walk with Tiny, and their kiss, she’d made a conscious choice to be as honest as possible with people. Instead of trying to please everyone by agreeing to anything they suggested, she only did the thingsshewanted to do.
Like when Robert offered her a Christmas Tree Cake that morning, she’d politely declined. Before, she would’ve accepted and eaten it, just so Robert wouldn’t feel as if she was rejecting him. Or when Cora asked if she wanted to go with her to the grocery store in Los Alamos early one morning. Instead of agreeing and disrupting her schedule—mornings were now the time Ry dedicated to scouring the dark web for anything her father might have set up the night before to mess with The Refuge—she’d told Cora that she had work to do.
Those were probably such little things to most people, but saying no, not doing something because she was afraid someone wouldn’t like her, felt liberating.
“I wouldn’t say I’m more sure,” Ry admitted. “I just got to the point where I realized here at The Refuge, around you guys, I could be myself.”
Everyone immediately agreed. Enthusiastically.
“Of course you can be you!”
“Good for you!”
“Go girl!”
“Awesome!”
Their acceptance felt great.
“Thank you for all the stuff you ordered for me and Spike when we were in the hospital, by the way,” Reese told her.
“You’re welcome. How’re you feeling?” Ry asked, done talking about herself. It was one thing to turn over a new leaf by being exactly who she was, it was another thing altogether to talk about it with her friends. She wasn’tthatchanged. It would never be easy for her to talk about herself. So she was more than ready to change the subject, put the focus on someone else.
“Tired,” Reese said with a crooked smile. “Dylan’s not exactly the best sleeper, and anytime he moves, I wake up because I’m paranoid something’s wrong.”
“But the doctors say he’s doing okay, right?” Alaska asked.
