Chapter 16 – Jael
It’s been a week since I barged into Rhett’s office and told him to leave me alone. And to his credit, he’s better at following instructions now than he was when we were kids.
Communication has been radio silent, and even Molly said she hasn’t seen or heard from him in days.
Since then, I’ve thrown myself into work at the Whitewood Creek Emergency Department, tending to burn victims who couldn’t wait for the Fourth of July to set off fireworks, and catching up with Molly, Regan, and Lainey.
I’ve spent hours at the Marshalls’ egg farm, hanging out with the chicks, the fresh air a much-needed reprieve from the chaos at work and in my life as I prepare for the big meeting with my mom and my father’s lawyer.
The town’s chief of medicine, Doctor Hayes Walker, an ex-professional bull rider and Regan’s husband and I have been making improvements to the new wing of the hospital that’ll house the ICU.
He’s skilled, kind, and has that rugged charm that seems almost mandatory in these parts.
Especially when he’s talking about his wife and their baby girl.
I can already tell his presence will smooth over the ICU’s grand opening when it’s ready because all the nurses and other personnel at the hospital respect him.
“You sure I can’t convince you to stay on permanently?” he asks me when my shifts starting to run down.
“I don’t think you could pay men enough.”
Doctor Walker nods kindly. “We might be able to change that once the ICU is functional. I think everyone would like to have you stick around.” I can see in his expression that he’s talked to his wife which means he knows about me and Rhett’s past and our abrasive run-in last week.
And what I want to tell him is that he’s got it all wrong. Everyone has it wrong. Rhett and I are like oil and water. We don’t mix. He wants me to stay in town as much as I want to.
I just smile and nod. “I’m not sure I’m cut out for Whitewood Creek long term.”
Now, it’s just after two in the morning.
The night rush has finally slowed down, and my stomach is growling as I head for the vending machine in the lobby for a quick snack dinner.
I’m already debating between stale peanut butter crackers or pretzels when Rhett bursts through the front doors of the emergency department.
Lark’s leaning heavily on him, one of Rhett’s arms slung around his shoulders for support. My eyes immediately land on the blood splattered across Rhett’s white shirt.
“Hey!” I call out, my voice sharp as I hurry toward them. “What happened? Are you hurt?”
“That’s Lark’s blood,” Rhett replies, his tone calm despite the situation.
“The courthouse sprung a leak that needed new piping. I sent him over there, but it was dark, and he cut himself badly on his leg using a hacksaw. He called me because he couldn’t drive, and an ambulance would’ve cost a fortune. ”
I nod, already waving for my patient coordinator to grab a wheelchair. “Let’s get him seated so I can take a look.”
The coordinator is quick, helping Lark into the chair as I kneel beside him to assess the wound.
“Okay. We’ll take you to a room and check how deep the cut is,” I tell him, my voice steady, but my hands moving fast. It’s a lot of blood but from what I can tell, a couple stitches and some pressure should fix him up.
Rhett stays close as we wheel Lark into a free exam room, and for the next thirty minutes, I’m fully focused on my job. I work to stop the bleeding, clean the wound, and assess the damage.
The cut’s as deep as I thought it was which means he needs a few stitches but no surgery and the only doctor on call is Doctor Walker, who’s currently in the middle of an emergency C-section surgery.
I page him again, but when his nurse finally responds, she tells me the same thing: he’s tied up in surgery. Then, she adds, “He said he trusts you to handle it, Jael.”
My stomach flips. Stitches aren’t new territory for me, but there’s always that moment of doubt before you take the leap to put needle to flesh. That and I still feel new to this hospital despite having years of experience.
I glance at Lark, who’s cracking a weak joke about his leg “looking like a steak” to one of my assistants, and then at Rhett, who’s standing quietly in the corner, his eyes never leaving mine.
“So, you’ve done this before?” Lark asks me a little too nervously.
“Plenty of times,” I reassure him with a smile. “Have you called Lainey yet to let her know what happened?”
“She’d freak out. She was just up here for Nathan today. I figured I’ll just show her once I’m stitched up and back to normal,” he says with another easy chuckle.
I squeeze his arm. “Okay. You’re in good hands and I’m going to take care of this. Let’s go ahead and get started then.”
Rhett shifts to the other side of the room, leaning against the wall with that casual, too-cool stance of his that somehow still manages to put me on edge.
I can feel his gaze on me tracking my every move as I work.
It’s like he’s itching to say something but holding back, and the weight of his silence makes my pulse quicken in a way I wish it didn’t.
Sure, I told him to leave me alone, and he’s done exactly that. But can I admit something? I’ve missed him bugging me.
Coming back here, seeing him, catching up—it all felt so natural and good.
Too good. Like slipping into something familiar and warm, only to remember why you walked away in the first place.
And yet, I can’t stop wishing he’d throw my words out the window, break the distance between us, and make me laugh the way he used to.
I don’t want to live my life knowing we’re enemies, but I also know that I did this to myself. I’m the one who pushed him away… again.
I force my focus back to Lark, working quickly but carefully as I stitch up his leg. My hands move with practiced precision, but my mind’s a mess and it doesn’t help that my assistant who I’m supposed to be training is currently in the corner, not helping me but flirting with Rhett instead.
I keep replaying what I’d said to him earlier about Owen. God, I shouldn’t have unloaded on him like that. I was frustrated, sure, but hearing he’d hit Owen, again, dragged me straight back to my teenage years.
The embarrassment. The anger. The shame over what I’d done so recklessly. That I’d cheated on Owen with Rhett, even if he’d been cheating on me all along. And after what happened in Lark’s basement, the emotions all tangled up and raw, it just spilled out. I’m hurting still, and I’m sure he is too.
Now, as I finish the last stitch and gently pat Lark’s leg with gauze, I can’t help glancing at Rhett out of the corner of my eye. He’s still watching, still silent while my assistant continues to yap away in his ear, and it’s all driving me crazy.
“Okay,” I turn to Lark with a smile who is grinning at both of us like he realizes there’s something going on between us. “I’ll go grab you some pain relievers and be right back, but that should heal nicely. I bet you’ll have barely any scar.”
“Thank you,” Lark says as I step out into the hallway to retrieve the medication, but I’m not alone in my exit.
Rhett’s behind me, his hand gently reaching out to cup my elbow as he turns me to face him. And when he makes contact with my skin it feels like someone flipped a switched in my control panel.
“Hey, thanks, Jael.”
“No problem. It’s my job,” I smile nervously, trying to look bold but failing as soon as my eyes meet his.
He winces and I realize I’m once again being short with him. I run my fingers through my hair and shake my head.
“I’m sorry, Rhett. I’m… sometimes I struggle with how to talk to you anymore,” I start.
“I’m sorry for losing it on you over the whole Owen thing.
I didn’t realize that Owen was going around telling people that we’d hooked up after our date at the football game.
Lainey told me what he’d said to Della after the fact.
I should have listened to you and got all the details before blowing up. ”
He watches me closely then slowly nods his head.
“You were just trying to defend me, I get it.”
He gives a slow nod, a crooked grin tugging at his mouth. “If I’m being honest, there were selfish reasons too. Never hurts having an excuse to kick his ass.”
I laugh lightly. “You know we didn’t, by the way. It’s embarrassing that he lied about that and even more embarrassing that I let it get to the point where we could have.”
“So… you guys didn’t hook up after the high school football game?” he asks carefully.
I shake my head no and sigh. “Look, I know you think I have zero self-control when it comes to Owen and that he still has his ‘claws’ in me, or whatever you said at my mom’s house, but I swear, it was a momentary lapse in judgment even going to the football game with him.
I shouldn’t have. I had a horrible time.
I don’t know what the hell I was thinking.
” I run my fingers through my thick hair.
“I think I just came back to town, and he was the first person that I ran into, and I thought it was a sign. It brought back old memories, and it felt like a good way to reconnect with the people that I left behind. But when we got back to his place, and he started sucking on my face... let’s just say it reminded me why I’d broken up with him ten years ago and so I stopped things before they went any further. ”
He nods again, his gaze softening slightly as he watches me.
“It certainly didn’t help that he called me a bitch on my way out of his house. I’m sure that’s part of why he’s spreading another rumor about sleeping with me. He wasn’t happy that I turned him down.”
“He called you a what?” Rhett says, his eyes darkening as he steps toward me.
“It’s fine,” I say, waving him off. “I gave him an earful about how disappointing his dick was anyway.” I bite my bottom lip and glance behind him at the quiet waiting room.
“I think the problem with time and distance when it comes to old relationships is you start to only remember the good moments and you forget all the bad parts. You romanticize what you had.”
He nods slowly. “I see… And do you think you remember our relationship through rose-colored glasses? Or have you only been focused on the hard parts?”
That question takes me by surprise. When I first got back to Whitewood Creek, I tried to focus on the good—the memories that didn’t sting.
But ever since Lark’s basement, all I’ve been able to think about is the pain.
The heartbreak. The ache that settled between Rhett and me and never really left.
I’ve been heavily focusing on the bad parts.
When we were younger, Rhett and I fought constantly.
Petty, childish stuff that didn’t mean anything.
But as we got older, we became each other’s safe place.
We had each other’s backs, no matter what, just like his mom had predicted.
And for that one fleeting summer after graduation, we were everything to each other.
Rhett was always my protector, tender in ways that I didn’t know boys could be. He looked out for me, stood up for me, and that summer he showed me what love was supposed to feel like. What it meant to be cared for by a good man. To be respected.
Rhett set the bar too damn high and ruined me for everyone else.
And frankly, I’m not sure how I ever let myself get engaged to Christopher in the first place. Because everything about him is the exact opposite of Rhett. The way he treated me, the way he spoke to me, it could have never held a candle to the way Rhett that had made me feel.
Maybe, deep down, I’ve spent all these years chasing after someone who treated me poorly because I was trying to convince myself that’s what I deserved. That way, I wouldn’t have to admit that I still missed Rhett, and I was the reason that we weren’t together anymore.
He’d been the boy who’d been my first real friend in Whitewood Creek. And the man who stole my heart that summer under the hot, sticky North Carolina sun.
“I think I remember our relationship exactly how it was,” I say, biting my lip nervously. “It was beautiful and heart breaking in its own ways and at separate times. Maybe I have been focusing on the negative. But now, I want to think about all the good parts.”
His eyes grow more seriously as he steps closer until my back is against the cold, hospital wall and his chest is practically pressed to mine. “I couldn’t agree more. So, you won’t be seeing Owen anymore?”
“I haven't seen him since that football game and will not be making any attempts to ever see him again.” My voice drops to almost a whisper. “Like I said, it was a momentary lapse in judgement and reminded me just how disappointing everything about being with him was. You can trust me, Rhett.”
I know that will make Rhett feel better to hear, but I hadn’t expected those words to send a wide grin spreading across his handsome face that takes me back to the boy I’d once loved.
“I told you—once you’ve been with me, no one else will ever compare.”
I roll my eyes but laugh easily, smiling back at him.
“Hey, what time do you get off work?” he asks.
“Five.”
“Do you want to get food and try to have a civilized conversation where we properly catch up and don’t bring up the past?” he asks. His gaze is more intent now and I can tell we’ve crossed some sort of imaginary hurdle in this conversation and are moving in the right direction.
I don’t even have to think for a second, the sleep deprivation, frustration towards Owen’s lies, and the flame that I’ve always held for Rhett drives me forward.
“I’m going to need some strong coffee if you aren’t going to let me get a nap first.”
He chuckles. “Go back to your hotel, get some rest, and then call me when you wake up to start your day. I own my own business, remember? I can be flexible, and the wait is worth it for you.”
Then he bends down and kisses my cheek gently before reopening Lark’s hospital room and slipping inside.