Rex #2
“You do?” Wynter asked, her tone wary as she clearly spotted Rachel’s reaction to my comment.
“One of the—” I hesitated. “We…”
Rachel cleared her throat. “We’re having a baby, Wynter.”
Her mouth worked, then her gaze drifted between us. “Are you happy about that?”
Rachel sniffled. “I’m very happy. I’m… I’m scared, but I’m happy.”
“Why are you scared?”
“I don’t like hospitals or doctors, and just going to the appointments is rough.
” She sucked in a breath. “I don’t like my body, I don’t like being sick, and it’s all really difficult, but I’m…
I’m stronger now.” She stared at Wynter, and I could see her silently pleading with our daughter for her to understand. “I’m, we, you… I just—”
“Is this why you’re getting back together?” Wynter asked cautiously before Rachel could stutter through the dictionary.
“No. I found out before Christmas, but I didn’t tell Rex until the night of the gala.”
Wynter winced. “Oh. I’m sorry. I ruined that—”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m just so glad you’re safe.” Rachel’s mouth trembled. “I don’t want you to hate me for this.”
I’d stayed quiet until now, but I couldn’t hold back from saying, “Wynter won’t hate you, will you?”
She licked her lips. “You still want to talk to me, don’t you?”
Rachel sniffled again, but this time it warranted me getting up and grabbing the box of tissues so she could blow her nose. That required some awkward shuffling so Wynter didn’t have to see her dad’s junk. I really should just have put my jeans on.
“Of course I do,” Rachel whispered. “I want nothing more than that. It’s my fault you don’t want to talk to me as much as you do with Rex because I know I’m so awkward, but I promise I’m trying.”
Wynter shot me a pleading look, and hiding a smile as she waggled her hands, silently telling me to do something to fix this, I hauled Rachel into my side. “Rach is crying more than usual.” After spending a single afternoon with her, I already knew that to be a fact.
“I don’t do tears,” she said with a haughtiness that was spoiled by a hiccup.
Wynter hunched her shoulders. “If you don’t want to stop talking to me, then I’m happy for you.” A notification sounded on her phone, and I could tell she wasn’t sorry to say, “I need to go.”
I sighed. “You don’t.”
“No, I do. I need to visit Dad.”
Gnawing the inside of her cheek, Rach blurted out, “We can do this again when you have a moment. I-I really hope you want to.”
Wynter’s smile was genuinely relieved. “I’d love that,” she said earnestly.
“Wynter?” I asked, buoyed by her reply.
“Yeah?”
“Why, if your dad is someone you’d consider to be a bad man, are you staying down there to be with him?”
Her gaze collided with mine. “Because everyone deserves a chance.”
Before I could argue that her giving me a chance wasn’t the same as her sticking around her toxic fucker of a father, she gave us a quick wave and ended the video call.
I got to my feet the moment the screen went black and I strolled over to the jeans I’d dumped on the floor.
“I’m gonna be about twenty minutes,” I ground out, any joy at Wynter’s acceptance of the baby diminishing after she compared me to that bastard.
Rach didn’t reply, but I could feel her eyes on me.
Just like I knew they were still on me when I stormed out of the house and went to the pile of logs she had out there.
This was clearly one of Rain’s chores because the stack was nice and high but that didn’t mean I couldn’t get in on this.
I had to do something to burn off the sudden surge of my temper.
I hefted the ax in my hand, plunked down a log on the stand, then sent the blade flying.
Over and over I chopped the wood, until ten minutes had passed and I was throwing my shirt off and tossing it onto the ground.
Burning off the negative energy felt good because there was no way I was about to start an argument with Rach, not on my first day back.
We did bicker. That was fine. But arguing wasn’t something I wanted. That had been our common ground over the last twenty years. It was our fail-safe. I didn’t want that anymore.
A wolf whistle sounded behind me, and though I was still riled up, my lips quirked at the corners.
I gave her a couple back flexes to tease her, and she mumbled, “Good Lord.”
That definitely smoothed over my bad mood.
Turning to stare at her over my shoulder, I demanded, “Enjoying the show?”
She grinned at me. “Definitely.”
“You got dressed,” I groused.
“So did you. Plus you left the house to have a hissy fit.”
I sniffed. “I don’t do hissy fits. I have—”
“Temper breakdowns?”
Quickly rolling my eyes, I derided, “That’s just a synonym.”
“A manly synonym, when really what I should have called it was a temper tantrum,” she teased.
Her hand settled on the small of my back where sweat had beaded.
She surprised me by not grunting in disgust but by twirling her fingers there.
“You can’t get mad at her for giving him the chance she gave you. ”
I grumbled, “I deserved the chance. He doesn’t.”
“She didn’t know that.”
“She knows how bad Kinnock is.”
“She’s got a lot of good memories too. They outweigh the bad, I reckon. They must. Otherwise, I don’t think she’d even be trying.” She tilted her head and rested it against my arm. “She’s a good kid, Rex.”
“Too good. She’ll get hurt.”
She placed her other hand on my belly as she patted me there. “We all get hurt, baby. At least she has us to keep her from the worst hurts.”
I sucked in a breath. “She has private bodyguards watching over her.”
“I’m sure she does but I wasn’t just talking physically.” She kissed my shoulder. “At least she knows about the baby now. That’s something. Anyway, come inside. It’s cold out here and we have enough wood cut for the next year at least.”
I snorted. “Hardly.”
“This is the outer stockpile. Rain’s got a whole bunch stored in the garage. He’s like you, works out his tension on innocent dead trees.”
She backed off to let me lodge the ax in the log on the ground, and I turned to face her after I grabbed my shirt.
“Did you work out when you were in LA?” she queried, her eyes all over me.
I grinned at the heat in that stare. “What else did I have to do with my time?”
I didn’t let her speak, just put those extra muscles to good use and hauled her over my shoulder.