Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
Rhett
Brynlee’s lips on mine, her arms wrapped around me, feels like the greatest gift I’ve ever been given. Not only that, she wants to marry me. Start a life with me.
My need presses against her core through my sweatpants, and I love that she wears only a shirt and panties. Her hard nipples are visible through the white T-shirt, and I suck on them through the fabric, making it see-through.
“Rhett,” she pants as her hand reaches into my sweatpants to stroke me. “God, I’ve missed you.”
“I thought you wanted to take things slow,” I mumble, kicking myself as her hand stills.
“Is that what you want?”
Slipping my hand between us, I twist her clit between my fingers. “Not even a little bit.”
Her breath hitches, and I rub and flick and twist until her mouth drops open, sweet cries of pleasure coming from deep in her throat.
“I missed hearin’ you,” I murmur, feeling her soaking panties as she slides my sweatpants down my thighs and pumps me. “Oh God, baby, I need you.”
“Take me,” she whimpers. “I need you, too. So, so much. Please.”
Before I can give us what we both need, the doorbell rings. I groan and rest my head on her shoulder. “The universe hates me.”
“Not just you,” she pants. “Who’s that?”
Her hand releases me, and I stand, adjusting myself as I look out the window. “It’s Dr. Mackle.”
“He’s here?”
“I shot him a text and asked if we can get together to talk about your pops, and he said mornin’ works best. He didn’t mention it would be this mornin’. Or that he was five minutes away.”
She slips off the ring and hands it back to me. I feel a little hurt until she says, “Your family should know before a man I’ve never met before. And I need to get a little more presentable. Only you get to see the goods.”
Slipping the ring back into the box, I know she’s right. I shove it into my pocket and open the front door. “Dr. Mackle. Thanks for stoppin’ by.”
“I hope this isn’t too early,” he says and steps inside. “I have to get to the clinic at nine.”
I take his jacket, and he neatly takes off his boots. Bending down, I grab Brynlee’s boots she dropped and move them out of the way. “Not at all. Brynlee will be out in just a minute. I can make some coffee.”
Brynlee walks out wearing the same outfit as last night, and it doesn’t show one wrinkle.
No matter what, she always looks like she managed to step out of a magazine.
Whether it be a fashion magazine or a nudie one, she never fails to impress.
I don’t know what her secret is, but I know I have the rest of my life to learn.
“Dr. Mackle?” Brynlee asks as I step into the kitchen to get the coffee going. “It’s great to meet you.”
“Brynlee Carmichael, you are just as pretty as Joey always said you were. I have to admit, you have been the talk of the town, but no one did you justice. You look so much like your mama.”
I walk back in, curious how he’s never seen her before. “You haven’t seen her around town?”
“I don’t get out much. Somethin’ I thank your father for, Brynlee, is gettin’ me sober,” he says, and I stare at him, shocked.
“You had a problem?” I ask, hoping I don’t offend him.
Nodding, he sighs and looks at his hands.
“It wasn’t until I saw how out of control his life got that I realized my own spiral.
It wasn’t as bad as his, but if I’d kept goin’, I would have lost everythin’.
My attempts over the last twenty years weren’t successful.
Not until I had my last drink the day of his funeral.
I knew I didn’t want to end up the same way. ”
“Why don’t I help you with the coffee?” Brynlee offers, giving me a small smile.
She’s clearly overwhelmed, and I hold out my hand to her. “We’ll be right back. Please, make yourself comfortable.”
In the kitchen, I wrap my arms around her, and she clings to me. Nothing needs to be said, and we just stand there as we wait for the pot to finish.
“Cream and sugar?” she asks when the machine beeps.
“I’ll get it. Can you grab the mugs from the cabinet to the right of the sink?”
I take in the view of her reaching, her dress lifting just below her beautiful backside, and I wink when she turns around having felt my eyes on her. “Mr. Dillon, are you trying to sneak a peek?”
“What can I say? I love the view.”
This makes her smile and physically relax a little. “Thank you for doing this with me. I don’t know why I’m so nervous.”
“I’m here for you, baby. Always and forever.”
“I love you,” she whispers and sets the mugs on the tray I grabbed.
I laugh and set the rest of what we need on it. “Mom gave this to me as a housewarmin’ present, and I haven’t used it before now.”
“It’s perfect for serving breakfast in bed,” she says and takes the tray before I can stop her.
With nothing left to do, I follow her and clear off the coffee table. She sets it down, and we all take coffee and add in cream or sugar. In Brynlee’s case, she uses both, and I realize I’ve never seen her drink coffee. She’d make it and put it in my mug to take to work in the mornings.
“Dr. Mackle—”
“John, please,” he says. “We’re talkin’ about your father who was my best friend. I think we can be a little informal.”
She smiles, and I wrap my arm around her shoulders as her hands grip the mug. “John, Mama never told me Daddy had a drinking problem. Was that the reason they split up?”
Sighing, he looks at her with sad eyes. “It was such a terrible situation. Joey loved Kathy so much, and he honestly believed he could give her what she wanted. The longer it took, the more frustrated she became, and he couldn’t handle her disappointment.”
Disappointment for what? Not giving her a mansion in the hills?
“To numb his pain, he started drinkin’. Not bein’ able to make your mama happy was one of his biggest failures and regrets. His words, not mine. He never quite realized how his drinkin’ became a form of self-sabotage.”
“I only read the first letter, but what was the incident he mentions? The one about me.”
“He took you to practice, and he drank in the parkin’ lot.
He got into an accident on the way home, and you were taken to the ER with a concussion.
He called me in a panic, worried he’d irreparably injured you.
I talked him down, but he went to rehab once he realized he could have killed you.
Kathy couldn’t take the chance, and she left him while he was gone. ”
I rub her shoulder when I feel her body tense. “You don’t remember the accident?”
She shakes her head. “I remember the accident, but Mama said Daddy hit the tree when he avoided a deer. Which makes no sense when I think about it now because we were downtown. I just always believed it,” she says.
“I always thought Mama hated Daddy, but if she did, she wouldn’t have protected him. ”
“It might have been easier than tryin’ to explain that he chose alcohol and almost hurt you,” I say. “From what you’ve shared about your mom, I can’t say I’m exactly a fan, but that was top-notch parentin’.”
Dr. Mackle nods. “The few times you did see him were the only times he was sober for a minimum of six months. He’d go through small bursts, but he always relapsed.”
Gasping, Brynlee leans back on the couch. “I knew I saw him a few times, but Mama said I was dreaming.”
“He’d show up completely shit-faced—pardon my language—and she’d call him a cab to bring him home. He never got to see you like that, but after the third time it happened, she stopped all visitation.”
“Mama tried,” she whispers.
“As much as I have issues of my own with your mother, she did try. She kept tabs on him, which he learned shortly before he died. He never thought she knew he’d come to see your pageants, but she did. I think she always hoped he’d clean up his life.”
Tears fill her eyes, and I take the mug from her hands to stop her from burning herself. “Brynlee, are you okay?”
“It’s just… I always kind of blamed Mama for Daddy not being around, and she just did what she could to protect us both.
She had almost twenty years to tell me the truth, but she didn’t.
She chose to risk me hating her to protect him.
I just wish she was still here so I could tell her I understand now. ”
“I don’t want you to think your dad didn’t love you more than the world because he did.
When he’d fall off the wagon, it was usually the hope of being able to see you again that pulled him back up.
He just struggled too much when he lost everythin’, and he didn’t have much of a support system,” Dr. Mackle says.
She sniffles and wipes her cheeks with the back of her hands. “I wish he’d come to me when I was an adult. I know I blame Mama for some of my issues, but I think it might also have something to do with thinking Daddy didn’t want me. That I wasn’t enough for him to fight for me.”
Closing my eyes, I push down the guilt settling in my stomach. She thought the same thing about me. Not only that she wasn’t enough, but that I didn’t want her because I didn’t fight for her. I could have lost her like her father did, and I’d be completely lost for the rest of my life.
“It’s easy to develop a problem without realizin’ until it’s too late. It snuck up on Joey, and he drank to dull the pain. A copin’ mechanism he learned around here,” Dr. Mackle says.
My beer can tower from only days ago appears in my mind, and I completely understand where he’s coming from.
I don’t have a problem because I’m not itching to grab a beer right now, but it’s what I turn to when I’m upset or angry.
Or bored. The last thing Brynlee needs is to experience what her mother did, and I double down on my resolve to step back from drinking.
Maybe not forever, but I don’t want to disappoint her any more than I already have.
“He came to my first dance recital,” Brynlee says, wiping at her tears again. “I haven’t gotten past the first page of letters yet, but the pictures tell a lot. He was there even though I never knew.”