Chapter 15 – Rhett
The sound of her footsteps echoes in the hallway outside my office door, growing louder with each step.
I wish I could say I was nervous about her reaction after my run in with Owen, but I’m not. If anything, I’m eager to see her. Excited to see her sad eyes shine with something other than the lost memories and moments, even if that new thing is anger directed towards me.
And before I can even look up, the door flies open so hard it nearly comes off the hinges.
And there she is… the woman who’s always felt like mine. All wild brown hair and blazing green eyes, staring me down like I’m the worst kind of asshole. Which is fair enough. I probably am when it comes to her.
Because no matter how much she doesn’t want me to protect her, I’m always going to. I’ll always come to her defense. I’ll always want her even if she doesn’t want me back.
She’s in her scrubs, a forest green set that makes her eyes burn even brighter and deepens the summer tan of her skin.
She’s breathing hard, her chest rising and falling as she glares at me, and I don’t hate myself for noticing how good she looks even with her hair all a mess when I should be bracing for the storm that I’m sure she’s about to deliver to me.
“What the hell is your deal, Rhett?” she shouts, her voice sharp enough to rattle the walls of this old building.
I lift the bag of frozen peas that Cash dropped off from my cheek and lean back in my chair, sighing as I meet her fire with a calm I don’t really feel. My knuckles are still throbbing from earlier, I’m still pissed at Owen, and I know I’ve got this coming. Hell, I probably deserve worse.
But instead of looking away, I let my gaze rake over her, not even bothering to hide the admiration in my eyes.
This whole thing—all of this—is so fucking ridiculous.
The way we’re acting. The way I’m acting.
Like I can’t control myself. I don’t settle my problems with my fists.
That’s the kind of shit my dad pulled before he up and left me and my mom to fend for ourselves.
And yet, here I am, acting out of character, all because she decided to show back up in our town when she said she’d never be back here again. Maybe it’d be best if we just gave into what we both want and got it out of our system.
“I’m sure I deserve that,” I say finally, waving a hand in her direction. “But please, elaborate.”
I press the peas back to my cheek, the cold biting into my skin, but it doesn’t dull the weight of her glare. She plants herself in front of my desk, arms crossed tight over her chest, her fury practically vibrating off her.
It’s late, way past the time I usually stay to finish work. My admin’s already gone for the day, which is probably why no one stopped her from storming in here like a goddamn hurricane.
After dealing with Owen earlier—more like dealing Owen a well-deserved beating—I’d gone straight to the Marshall family farm with Cash.
He’d grabbed me some peas, Kent Marshall, the patriarch of the family, gave me a lecture about how to fight better next time then asked who the girl was, while Rae cleaned up my knuckles.
By the end of the whole thing, I had a fresh shirt from Cash, a promise from Colt that he’d killed Owen if he ever sees him looking at Jael again, and my half-brother Lawson calling me on the phone, telling me I needed to be more careful and if I needed a lawyer to call the oldest of the family, Troy.
I headed back to the office to finish up a few things that I hadn’t been able to get to because, once again, I’d been handling Jael’s business despite her not asking me to.
She doesn’t budge. Just stands there, fuming, her chest rising and falling like she’s trying to keep herself from lunging across the desk and choking me.
I wish she would.
Maybe then we can finish what we started downstairs in Lark’s basement.
“Why the hell did you go to Owen's worksite and punch him? Lainey just called me. You don’t even know what’s going on,” she says.
“Do you even want to hear my side of the story?”
“No. I don’t give a damn about sides of the story. Just leave me and my life alone. This isn’t high school. I don’t need you to save me from Owen.”
“If I remember correctly, in high school, Owen was bragging about taking your virginity. I, however, did the honorable thing by breaking his nose for talking about you so cavalierly in the same breath that he spoke about fucking another girl that night.”
She pinches the bridge of her nose tight. “Don’t act like you were doing me any favors, Rhett. I’m sure you were just dying to gloat about how you’d slept with me too.”
“Jael, I’ve never told a single person the truth, though I’m not sure why it’s so embarrassing to you that you lost it to me and not that jerk.”
She winces at my words, just the slightest flicker of pain crossing her face. Damn it. I didn’t mean to throw that back at her, to dig at old wounds like that, but here I am—being an asshole. Again. For the second time today.
No, scratch that. It’s probably closer to the fifth time today. I’ve lost count.
“You really still think that, Rhett?” Her voice is sharp, but there’s something in it that cuts deeper. It’s disappointment and maybe a touch of sadness, too. She shakes her head, and I can’t even blame her. It’s always been an insecurity of mine that I wasn’t good enough for Jael.
How the hell did we get here? How did Jael and I go from friends to enemies to lovers, then back to enemies again? Somewhere along the way, trust shattered, hearts broke, and she pushed me away.
When she called me from Virginia and told me that she was pregnant, I thought my whole life was over. And then when I asked if the baby was mine and she couldn’t say with confidence either way, I was still set on driving to Richmond to see her.
Because no matter what, I knew for sure that Owen would never take care of her or any child that he might father.
But she ignored me. She pushed me away, and before I could make it up there to visit, to hold her and tell her it didn’t matter and that I’d be there for her, she texted me that she’d lost the baby and then ghosted me.
Forever.
Now she’s back, and maybe I’m the one doing the pushing this time, because that fucked me up. The way that she ignored me and shut me down. It tore out my heart and broke me in a way I didn’t think was ever possible.
I don’t care about her sleeping with Owen after me, we weren’t together then.
We weren’t dating. I don’t care if she let Owen believe that he’d been the one to take her virginity.
Virginity is a trivial thing in the grand scheme of life.
But what I do care about is that she never saw me as her friend when she needed one the most. Someone who would be there for her through everything.
And instead, she discarded me just like she discarded everyone else and everything else in our hometown. That’s why I’ve held onto my anger for all these years. And maybe she’s felt the same way which is why she’s clung to hers.
“Just... please,” she says, her voice quieter now, but no less firm. “Don’t get involved in my life anymore. I don’t know what went down between you two, but it’s embarrassing to hear you’re starting fights with him over me again. I don’t need that.”
Her words are a blow, but she doesn’t stop at that.
“I’m just trying to spend these last three weeks working, keeping my head down, and then get out of here unscathed. Back to my old life in Virginia.” And with that, she turns on her heel and leaves, closing the door gently behind her.
I sit there, staring at the door long after she’s gone, the silence in the room heavy and suffocating.
If I ever needed a reminder that Jael isn’t here to stay, that Whitewood Creek is just a stop along the timeline of her life, that she hasn’t missed me the way that I’ve missed her, she just gave it to me.
She’s always put me in the past.
And maybe this time I should leave her there, too.