“What’d he say?”
“He’s angry at us,” Ian said, petting Cosy’s growing-out pixie cut. “For forcing her on him. Said he knew this was going to happen, he didn’t want it. He’s leaving.”
The blow that struck was so intense, he felt the need to double-over but he couldn’t because his teapot was asleep in his arms. While she was pretty good at playing indestructible, he knew better. Still, he felt like his belly had been hollowed out, like he had no insides.
“Where’s he gonna go?”
Ian raised a shoulder.
“Dunno,” he said, not taking his eyes off Cosy. “I told him to let us know where he ends up. You know he’s not going to hole up with anyone we know.”
Yeah, Ryker had spent a night or two with Eric or Jethro when they’d had a full house or when he knew Ian and Hudson were going to be having a days-long fuckfest with a partner or three, but he wouldn’t dare call those guys now. Not when he was running out on Cosy.
If Sable didn’t claw his eyes out—which knowing Posey as well as Hudson did, he knew she fucking well would for hurting her friend—Jethro would probably punch him, and Eric would give him one of those cross-armed glares that let you know he was extremely disappointed. Hudson shivered just thinking about it; he hated that look. So no, Ryker wasn’t going to stay with anyone they knew.
“What’re we gonna do?” he asked his friend, hoping against hope Ian had some brilliant idea. Sometimes he did. But the way a line formed between his brows and his chin puckered said this wasn’t one of those times.
“Dunno. Do the best we can for her, I guess. If Ry wants to leave we can’t stop him.”
“I know, but—”
Ian finally met his gaze. “I don’t know that there’re any buts this time. I’m not giving her up and neither are you. He’s a grown-ass man, it’s not like we can put him in the corner and tell him to think about what he’s done.”
There was a beat and they gave each other wan smiles. It was true that they regularly put grown-ass adults in the corner. But Ryker wasn’t their little, he wasn’t their sub, and he wasn’t one of their students.
“So you’re saying we should just let him go and hope he comes to his senses?”
“It’s not what I want to do but I don’t think fighting’s gonna do any good at this point. I’ll think about it more—”
The knowing look they gave each other said they’d both be poring over this situation constantly, trying to figure out a way to fix it. For someone who prided himself on fixing broken things, Hudson sure felt like he was doing a shit job at this. Although maybe when he and Ian had brought Cosy into their home, they’d shattered what the two of them had with Ryker and while they’d been busy putting their babygirl back together they hadn’t left any space for Ryker.
“Hey, we’ll figure it out. We always figure something out.”
That had been true so far, but past performance was no indication of future results so who the fuck knew.
“What should we do now?”
“Go to bed,” Ian pronounced, climbing off the bed before leaning down to touch his toes and then stretching his arms overhead. “We’re gonna climb in next to Coco, snuggle the fuck out of her, and try to figure out what to say so she doesn’t up and leave us too.”