6. Rhodes
6
RHODES
This woman is going to kill me. She’s got sass, class, and damn, that ass. It’s a dangerous trifecta of hot.
After a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, where I made the spaghetti and she made the meatballs and sauce, then eaten in front of the fire with a bottle of wine that she kept pouring, I’m feeling a little… wooed ?
Unfortunately, I’ve been here before.
I start to feel for a woman, start to fall and believe we can have a future, and then they up and leave when they realize that in many ways I’m struggling. It’s a repeated part of my past that only reiterates that I’m better off alone.
But there’s always the hope that this one could be different. Could be something special.
My phone buzzes and I realize our bigger problem. It’s dying and I don’t have a power bank to charge it. The only people who know we’re up here are Shane and I think our parents, but since they’re seeing our grandparents in Arizona for the holidays, they may not even know.
Shane.
Fuck.
It’s clear this was a set up. Me. Leesa. The perfect little family that I don’t have but always wanted.
Well, I’m not falling for it, brother.
He believes he knows what’s best for people, but he doesn’t always know what people are really experiencing.
Jazzy yawns. “Mommy, I’m sleepy.”
I stand up. “What if we build a fort for you to sleep in tonight here in the family room near the fireplace?”
Jazzy peps up just a little. “I’ve never slept in a fort. I don’t know how to make one.”
“I can show you.”
We bring every chair from the dining and eat-in-kitchen tables into the large living room and I start collecting blankets from rooms with King-sized beds and then all the blankets from the kids’ rooms. Something colorful and soft. They collect about thirty pillows making the floor softer than if we were in the actual custom beds. I grab some clothes pins from the laundry room and a few more batteries for the flashlights from the garage and get to work making a tented structure over all of the fluff and stuff.
I show Jazzy how to make sure it’s not going to fall by inserting the tallest two bar chairs back-to-back in the middle and strap them down together with a bungee cord. I found some of what my mother calls “fairy lights” that run on batteries and I string them inside on the ceiling.
“Oooh, that’s pretty! How did you learn this?” Jazzy asks, the light sparkling in her eyes.
“I was in the military and part of my job was making sure my soldiers had a place to sleep that was safe and building tents was part of that.”
“If I get good at building forts, could I go help soldiers, too?” she asks.
I nod. “Absolutely, Jazzy. It’s all about making a commitment to be there when you’re needed to protect people.”
Just hearing the words coming from my mouth burns in my chest. I couldn’t be there when my soldiers and friends needed me the most. My failure hangs over my head like a dark cloud.
I finish up by making a doorway and with a flourish of my hand, I usher them inside.
They take a spot staring up at the twinkling ceiling.
“I’ll just go grab a bed over?—”
Jazzy reaches out to me. “No, please stay. Can you protect us from the man in the window?”
My knees weaken.
Can I protect them?
I kneel down before taking a place an arm’s length away from them. Jazzy snuggles between her mother and me and it seems like only a minute and she’s asleep.
I whisper to Leesa, “She’s adorable.”
“Thanks.”
“You tired?” I ask staring up at those lights. They are kinda cool.
“Not really. Kinda freaked out.”
I roll to my side to face her and she does the same.
“What did you do in the Army?”
“Ranger. Lots of things.” I can feel the tension rising. “Nothing I really want to talk about.”
“War is hard?”
“Understatement.”
“And you’re out?”
“A soldier’s never done with war, but yes, honorably discharged. But the past lives rent-free in my heart and my head.”
Her long auburn lashes flicker. “My ex lives in mine.”
“That’s not cool. If memories of him are half as disturbing as mine, I can understand why you’re worried.”
“You know, I was thinking about the ride up here… and I think I remember seeing a dark SUV off one of the roads, sitting there.”
“Could be a neighbor.”
“But it pulled out and followed us for about a mile and then just… stopped.”
I lean in. “Can you describe it?”
“SUV, large, maybe Tahoe or Escalade, jet black, really dark windows. My ex drove a red Ford pickup, so I don’t think it’s him.”
“Rental?”
She shakes her head. “He’s too cheap to do that,” she lowers her voice, “and too ridiculous. If he’s going to do something, he’ll want credit, eventually at least. He’s narcissistic in the worst but he’d say best ways.”
“Sounds like it would be hard to live with someone like that.”
“It wasn’t easy.”
I start to move to crawl out, but Jazzy rolls into me for warmth.
She shivers, twisting my long sleeve t-shirt in her tiny hand, and says, “Don’t go.”
I freeze. It would be so easy to fall in love with these two. To let my guard down and tumble down the hill into being something more.
“I’ve got her.” Leesa moves into her and rolls her over.
We’re only inches away and I can feel that same pull from the kitchen. I swear she leans toward me.
I move quickly. “I’ll be right back.”
I get to the front porch before I take another breath. Leaning back against the house and pulling my phone from my pocket.
I won’t get distracted.
I must stay vigilant.
I can’t let my guard down and then have something happen to them.
I pull my phone out, but instantly see that the towers near us are down due to the storm, not to mention that I have ten percent power and it’s draining fast due to trying to look for signal. It happens and there’s a satellite phone somewhere in the house, but I wonder if it’s been charged in the last thirty days. I’ll have to start searching for it.
The chill of winter settles into me, sinking into my body, but it feels refreshing in some ways. I feel a little different tonight. I think back on the day and how I went from fucking grumpy to almost… I don’t want to say it… chill ?
But this feeling surely isn’t here to stay. My past has a hold on me and being grumpy is my go-to emotion.
But as I think about it, I hear rustling in the leaves covered by half a foot of snow. I pull the flashlight from my back pocket and shine it into the forest, but as quickly as the light flickers on it dies out. And then I remember that my tranq gun is in my truck. Me and my attitude had me all kinds of frustrated when I got here, not to mention the beautiful woman standing up to me making my body light up like a Fourth of July firework.
I hear the noise again. This time a couple of branches breaking.
My phone buzzes and I look down. A signal?
I answer whispering, “Shane, hey, I need your help.”
“What’s wrong? I saw you on the front porch on the security system and you look shaken.”
I spin. “There’s a security system? And how’s it working?”
“Yeah, we had it installed last year. It has its own battery bank backup that the internet’s on, too. Why what’s going on? Why’s it so dark out there?”
“Listen to me. My phone is dying and I have shit to take care of.”
“Okay…”
“The power is out, the house electric banks in the garage have been destroyed by someone, check the security footage. I think someone is out here that isn’t Leesa, Jazzy, or me.”
“Her ex?”
“Maybe. Does the company have any grumpy employees or anyone you’ve done your lawyerly ways to that could be pissed?”
“Not that I can think of.”
“Well, someone wasn’t happy and totally trashed it. We’re doing okay with the heat from the big fireplace in the living room.”
“Fuck. I’ll call the sheriff right now and I’ll check the security footage from last week.”
“You can try, but the sheriff won’t be able to get out here because of the snow.”
My phone beeps, the battery telling me that I have only at most a minute, maybe seconds.
“How are Leesa and Jazzy?” he asks. I can hear the concern in his voice.
“I’ve got them. You don’t have to worry.”
“I’m more worried about you than them. She’s been through shit, but you’ve been through hell. I know you’re still struggling, but please don’t let anything happen to them. Your nieces love them. We love them.”
I swallow hard. “I won’t. I promise.”
“Thank—”
And my phone goes dead.