Lost and Lassoed

”I watched my daughter collide with the woman I loved, and I watched the woman I loved catch her. I watched them laugh and smile at each other, and then I watched them clasp hands and start walking toward me—the luckiest man alive.”

“I watched my daughter collide with the woman I loved, and I watched the woman I loved catch her. I watched them laugh and smile at each other, and then I watched them clasp hands and start walking toward me— the luckiest man alive.”

“Wanting used to scare me so much, because I didn’t think I had the space to want anything more than what I’ve got. But wanting a future with you is the easiest thing in the world. And I want it all, with you.”

“Wanting used to scare me so much, because I didn’t think I had the space to want anything more than what I’ve got. But wanting a future with you is the easiest thing in the world. And I want it all, with you.”

“Wanting used to scare me so much, because I didn’t think I had the space to want anything more than what I’ve got. But wanting a future with you is the easiest thing in the world. And I want it all, with you.”

╰┈➤ read this if you like:
★ single dad x nanny
★ enemies to lovers
★ small town romance
★ forced proximity
★ best friend’s brother
★ grumpy x sunshine
★ spicy spice

i’d been waiting for this moment for so long and i can’t wait to get my hands on dusty and cam’s story. but let’s talk about gussy and teddy🤠

the book starts really great, lots of funny scenes thanks to our mcs bunter! however—and it pains me to say it—, in the middle something was missing. i can’t pinpoint WHAT exactly was missing, but i would’ve loved more of their banters, more of them with riley, more Ryder family moments—which i adore. it also reminds me too much of heartless by elsie silver.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ teddy & gussy
teddy is funny as hell, istg i love that woman. she makes me laugh so much, i had tears in my eyes. she’s creative and smart, she loves clothing and painting. she’s loud and fearless. but i loved to see a different side from the funny one. her character portrays perfectly the feeling of being stuck in life, while watching others growing and chasing their new dreams.

”And in Meadowlark, I shone. People loved me, and I loved to be loved. There was only one Teddy Andersen. Here, I was ahead of the game. So how did I get so behind? I’d always been happy in Meadowlark, but over the past few months, I had begun to wonder if I had started to resent it at the same time. It felt as if Meadowlark was taking care of everyone but me. Everyone I loved in Meadowlark seemed to be doing big things—getting married, renovating houses, having babies, falling in love. It was a silly thing to feel—like the place I lived didn’t care about me, even though I loved it so deeply—but I felt it anyway.”

“Clementine Ryder and Theodora Andersen are written in the stars,” I said with a chuckle. “Doesn’t get more cosmic than that.”

”I didn’t regret any of the decisions I had made in my life so far, but I couldn’t help but worry that I’d missed my shot at something bigger because I had always been so content with what I had. Those pieces that I always thought would eventually fall into place when I was ready—a partner of my own to share my life with, the family we’d build—were no longer waiting for me on the horizon.”

“Riley slipped her hand into Teddy’s, and they walked hand in hand up to Teddy’s front door, and I thought I might collapse. I wanted to see that sight over and over again for the rest of my life.”

He was just so… grumpy. Men who are that good-looking should not be allowed to be such assholes. It was false advertising.

Last year, he had started sporting a mustache instead of the short, neatly trimmed beard he’d adopted in his twenties. The mustache was still going strong, and even though I thought it looked good on him, the first thing out of my mouth was “Hey, pornstache. Nice of you to join us.”
“Fuck off, Theodora,” he said without even glancing my way.

The point is that I know Teddy is pretty. Beautiful, even. But beautiful like a lion or an elk or any other large and dangerous animal. Beautiful to look at, but you didn’t want to get too close because it’d rip your throat out or trample you or spear you to death with its giant horns. So yeah. Teddy was beautiful or whatever. But I wasn’t looking to get eaten alive.

Before I could think about it, I put my hand on his back and rubbed it up and down a few times. “You are many things, August Ryder, and some of those things aren’t great, I’ll be honest,” I said. “But a bad father isn’t one of them.”

She started digging through her purse for something, I couldn’t tell what. She pulled out pepper spray, a pocketknife, a lighter, a small sewing kit, a half-empty plastic water bottle, a protein bar, a bunch of gum wrappers, and Jesus Christ, it didn’t look like the inventory was going to end any time soon. “Do you live in there or something?” I asked. Why did she have so much stuff? And why was she throwing it all over my clean kitchen table? “What the fuck are you looking for?” I asked.
“A pen and some paper,” she responded.
She kept digging—now elbow-deep in her purse. She pulled out a small pink rectangle that looked like—“Are you carrying a taser?” I asked. Teddy gave me a terrifying smile and pushed a button on the side of the hot pink rectangle, and two electric currents zapped between the metal points on the end. I wiped my hand over my face.
This is the woman I was trusting with my child?

Seeing them like that—already so comfortable—almost convinced me that this was a good idea. But as I was walking out, I heard Teddy say, “So when’s the last time you were arrested?”
“Never?” Riley said.
“Well, tomorrow you’re going to say yesterday,” Teddy said. “Lucky your mom’s a lawyer.”
Jesus Christ, what had I done?

“Hey,” I said.
Gus looked up. He looked surprised to see me, and then concerned. “Are you okay?” he asked. “You look like shit.”
“Thank you,” I said sarcastically. “It’s so hard to believe you’re single.”

I was focused on Teddy’s freckles and her laugh that sounded like wind chimes on a summer day.

I’d been a little preoccupied with, what, realizing my enemy is maybe actually the thing I’ve wanted in my life this whole time?

Teddy was sitting cross-legged in front of the sheet and Riley was sitting on her lap. They were both wide-eyed and smiley. My girls, I thought.

“I think you are miraculous, Teddy. I think that your existence—the way you care and fight and love and live—is a miracle. There is no one else like you, and I am so sorry for making you feel like I didn’t know that—that I didn’t see that. I’m sorry for treating you like I didn’t know you the way that I do. I know that you feel things deeply, that you would do anything for the people you care about, and that you love hard.” Emmy hugged me again.

It was Teddy who saw them first. “Wait,” I heard her say. “Is that…? Riley, look!”
And then Riley shouted, loud enough for all of Meadowlark to hear: “It’s rock fucking jasmine!”
And I had no one to blame but myself for her impeccable use of the F word.

“I don’t have much to offer,” he went on softly. “Just a quiet life with a grumpy man from a small town, but I can promise to love you every day.”