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He turned his gaze back to the road, and it was a good half mile before he finally said, “Our father was KIA because a spy drone inadvertently gave away their position. The motor noise.”
It only took her a moment. “So he’s working on a silent one?”
“Yes.”
“Is that even possible?”
“For military use, at distances beyond battery power? I don’t know. I do know if it is, Cody will figure it out.”
“And won’t that be a wonderful tribute,” she said softly. “But then, all of you are. To what an amazing man he was.”
“He was,” Ry said, and found to his surprise he could barely get the words out. Before she had arrived, it had been a while since his throat tightened up like this about his father, but when she said things like that, all the old emotions had come roiling back. Maybe because he knew she meant it in all the ways they did, for all the same reasons. What she’d said to Mom proved that.
His service, this place, that genius…what a combination. How fascinating he must have been.
Yes, she got it.
They were on the outskirts of Austin—he was intentionally avoiding Interstate 35 until they were north of the city because this was as close as he wanted to get even early on a Saturday morning—when, as she started tapping a finger nervously on the armrest, he said, “He’ll be all right. It’ll help him.”
“He will. I just…” Her voice trailed off.
“I know what he means to you.”
“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him,” she said in a rush. “I was on a really bad path.”
He hesitated, then said it. “I’ve walked that path.”
He felt her quick glance, saw it out of the corner of his eye. “I know,” she said.
He frowned. Then it hit him. “Keller,” he said with a grimace.
“Afraid so,” she admitted.
He lapsed into silence, wondering what had brought that discussion on. Had that been why Keller and Mom had been insistent that he pick her up yesterday? Had they decided she needed to be warned about him? That he was too weird for someone like her?
When that thought hit, he stared straight ahead, only the necessary focus on his driving. Because that thought was based on an assumption they had no way of knowing. He’d never indicated she…got to him. So there was no way they’d know that Kaitlyn Miller had him thinking things he hadn’t thought in a long time. No, that wasn’t true either. She had him thinking things he’d never thought. Things like together and forever, linked.
But they couldn’t know that. He’d never told them.
Maybe you didn’t have to.
He groaned inwardly. Mom. How often had they all joked about her capacity for mind-reading? How she seemed to know things they’d never, ever told her. As if when she’d carried them some sort of mental connection had been formed, and it hadn’t ended when they’d been born. But no, she’d been able to do it with Dad, too.
Don’t ever try and put one over on your mother, Rylan. I’ve tried. She’ll know. She always knows.
Kaitlyn had lapsed into total silence, and he wondered if she regretted telling him that. And had to bite his lip to keep himself from asking how and why the subject had come up at all with Keller.
“Ever done a shoot in Austin?” he asked instead.
“Some. For a couple of music shoots. And the Congress Street bridge.”
He grinned at that. “The bats. I saw your shot of them. Great stuff.”
“They’re amazing, the way they take off all at once like that. I’m glad people have left them alone.”
“They’re a tourist attraction.” He wanted to keep her talking, and he was curious, so he asked, “What’s been your favorite ever shoot?”
She hesitated a moment, and he had the feeling she was staring at him, but was too busy watching the little silver car that had just cut in front of them to make sure.
