10. RHETT
RHETT
I’ve barely made it up the porch steps when Iris comes tumbling through the front door with Breeze running circles ahead of her and Cap following behind.
Her blonde hair is twisted into two knots on either side of her head, and a broad grin cuts her face in half as Avery calls her back into the house.
“Hi, Doc,” she chirps sheepishly.
“Hey, champ.”
High-fiving me, she turns back inside. For someone so young, she’s one hell of a whirlwind. I can see why Scarlett loves her so much, and why Iris is missing her so terribly.
“You’re not wearing your doctor clothes again.” She inspects me as I take off my shoes, her eyes pausing on my lilac chino shorts and quirking higher. “Snap! I’m wearing purple too!”
“Good color.”
“We got five chicks now.” Iris holds up her hand.
“Yeah, so we’ve got Marvin, Milky, Mustard, Maisy and…?”
“Moo.” She shrugs. “This one is so fluffy and spotty. It has black and yellow feathers.”
“Are we going to call Scout tonight so we can show her?” Without warning, she takes my hand and guides me toward the kitchen where Avery is clearing up. “Can we, Doc?”
“Are you going to eat your dinner?” Avery asks her before adding a soft “Hi” over her shoulder.
Her long, dark hair is up in a ponytail that falls to the middle of her back, grazing the low scoop of her blouse. When she turns to look at me, I notice the makeup she’s wearing.
Beautiful doesn’t cut it. Avery is heart-stoppingly stunning with her big eyes and the faintest of freckles sprinkled over her nose and apples of her cheeks. And when she smiles, it’s pure sunshine.
Pure. Fucking. Sunshine. The ultimate drug. A holy grail of hope.
“Hey,” I manage to croak.
My heart is hammering so hard in my chest that I can’t hear anything over it.
Not the alarm bells, not the warning jibes or the tug for victory of the angel and devil on my shoulders.
Avery is all there is, and the sunshine she doesn’t realize she has inside her. The goddamn sunshine I’m addicted to.
“I think I’ve cracked the apple pie,” she tells me with another light chuckle.
“It’s pretty good.” Iris tugs at my hand at the same time as she tries to find purchase on the counter with the other.
“It only took me eight days of making it too!” Avery picks Iris up and sets her on the counter.
“You’re gonna love it!”
“Are you sure about that?” I tease Iris.
“Yeah, because my mommy made it and you like her, don’t you?”
Whoever said that kids have a creepy sixth sense and the ability to see through you was spot-on. This kid surprises me at every turn with her toothy grin, smart-ass insight, and old-soul rationale.
“You have the greatest mommy,” I reply, trying not to say something that will scare the hell out of Avery. She looks petrified enough with her wide eyes and flushed face. “What’s so great about this pie, then?”
“It’s a secret!” Iris pretends to zip her mouth, lock it, and throw away the key.
“Hardly. It’s all in the hands.” Avery holds them up, wiggling her fingers.
My mind instantly translates that into something completely inappropriate and dirty. It takes all of my control to shut it down and the reaction my body has to the thoughts of just how good Avery might be with her dainty hands.
“So…” I take a deep breath to gather my wits around her.
As hard as it is, I need to remind myself that her life is complicated. She’s been hurt, and she needs someone that can give her all that she deserves. No complications. No past. Fuck, her life is so complicated right now that she might never want to let another man near her again.
Stop thinking about it.
“Okay, how can I help with dinner?” Trying to distract myself from the whirlwind of juxtaposing thoughts in my head is almost impossible as Avery walks past me to the oven, her scent lingering behind her.
“Mommy and Jo made dinner already,” Iris tells me. “And I helped set the table while Mommy was talking to her boss on the phone.”
My gut twists at the possibility that she’s thinking of going back. I don’t like it at all. A part of me wants to be as close as possible so that I can make sure they’re okay. Avery and Iris.
“Come on now!” Jo claps her hands from the table as Avery puts a casserole dish down. “Dinnertime, sugar!”
“Wash your hands,” Avery reminds Iris.
Jo hasn’t been this content in a long time. She’s genuinely smiling; even her snark has been lighter.
When both Iris and I have washed our hands in the sink, we settle for dinner.
It’s louder than what it usually is when I stay with Jo, but it feels different to when Rowan and his family are here.
There’s no chaos, no one trying to talk over each other or constant joking around.
I love them, but Rowan and Callie are full-on.
As fun as it is being around them, there’s no chill. Not like this.
“Can we go to the beach tomorrow?” Iris changes the conversation from the apple picking and new chicks. “Jojo said that we could have a picnic and I can go swimming.”
“Maybe Rhett can teach you how to surf too!” Jo winks at me, I’m not sure why, but there are certain things I’ve given up trying to understand when it comes to her. It’s easier to go along with it.
“Sure, I can take you out on my board if your mom says it’s okay.”
“Is it safe?” Avery starts collecting our plates.
“I can swim. I got a medal for it, so I’m pretty good. Right, Mommy?”
“That doesn’t mean it’s safe.”
Taking the plates from her, I put them in the sink as she dishes up the apple pie and caramel ice cream.
“We can get you surfing too. It’s therapeutic.”
Combing back the loose tendrils that have fallen in front of her face, she looks up at me. The green in her eyes is so bright in contrast to the amber swirling in it. Dark, thick lashes flutter as she looks back down at the counter with a downturn of her lips.
“I don’t think my body is ready for it.”
When her gaze flits back to mine, the light dims in her eyes, and I hate it. It’s something so uniquely precious to her.
A dark chestnut strand falls to one side of her face.
The temptation to brush it back with my fingers is too great to ignore, and when I tuck it behind her ear, I can’t stop myself from thumbing over her cheek.
The swelling is gone, and the remnants of the bruising are disguised by her makeup, leaving only the glow of her flushed cheeks and the warmth of her bashfulness seeping into my fingertips.
Wrapping her arms tight around herself, Avery takes a step back.
A look of confusion and guilt twists her face as she puts the lid on the ice cream and turns to put it back in the freezer.
Without so much as a glance, she grabs the dessert spoons from the drawer beside me, careful not to touch me, before she takes Jo and Iris their pie.
I need to work on my control. I need to make sure that I’m not another selfish asshole when I’m around her, and to do that, I need to keep my distance.
Having cleared up the kitchen, I check on the horses and then the chick nursery in the small barn by the coop, snapping a picture to send to Rowan like I promised Scarlett I would.
Tomorrow I can come back and clean out the stable and coop while Avery takes Iris and Jo to the beach.
It’ll stop me from doing stupid shit when it comes to any of them.
Having them around is bringing Jo back, and I can’t be the person that ruins it for her.
It’s what I wanted, for her to find something to make her want to fight harder. Avery and Iris could be it.
Getting into my Jag, I catch a glimpse of Iris behind the front door screen. She hops down the porch steps in her pink fairy pajamas and with a rag doll clutched to her chest, stopping only when she’s in front of me.
“Do I need a special suit for surfing?” My chest squeezes at the flutter of her long lashes. “I can’t wait!”
How can I let her down when she’s looking at me like I’m Santa Claus about to deliver her a lifetime’s worth of presents? A thousand excuses cross my mind, but none make it to my lips.
“Doc?”
“You can wear whatever you like, champ.”
“I’m so excited!” Her squeal is muffled by her tight hug, so different to the little girl I met almost a month ago that was scared to even look at me.
Lifting her into my arms, I take her back up the porch, setting her inside the front door.
Avery pauses halfway down the stairs, still drying the lengths of her hair with a small towel.
Her makeup is all gone, and she looks even better with her hair a tangled mess and an oversized T-shirt falling to the tops of her thighs over her shorts.
“What happened to having your milk and going to bed, missy?” She comes down and stops behind Iris, the sugar-and-almond scent of her damp hair filling my lungs.
I’m salivating at the smell of a woman, something completely new and frustrating when she’s out of bounds.
“I had to ask Rhett about my bathing suit.” Giving me another hug, Iris tips her head to grin up at me. “And I had to say good night.”
“Night, champ.” Hugging her back, I realize that it’s not just Avery that’s trouble.
This little girl is something beyond special with all her quirks and sass. She’s as difficult to push away as her mom. There are no boundaries or walls that I can put up that will withstand her. If I’m honest with myself, I don’t want to. Not when they’re so easy to be around.
“You want pancakes for breakfast?”
“Chocolate chip?” There’s that eyelash-batting grin that tells me the only answer I can give her is “Of course.”
“All right, time for bed.” Avery nudges her up the stairs with a kiss to the top of her head.
Iris trudges up a few steps before she turns and squeals into her doll again, “I can’t wait!”
“You can’t surf if you don’t sleep.” Avery claps her up the stairs until all we can hear is her running on the old creaky boards to one of the rooms at the back of the house.
Making me wonder which bed Avery’s sleeping in.
Knowing Jo, she would’ve given her the bedroom with the suite and the view over the lake and the hills. The room I normally stay in.
We’re standing in silence, when Jo comes out of her own room at the far side of the house. Both of us take a step back, Avery turning toward her.
“Why are you outside?” Jo asks me, looking between the two of us.
“Leaving,” I say at the same time as Avery tells her, “Saying good night. Ummm, goodbye. I mean goodb…night.” She shakes her head in a fluster as though we’ve been caught red-handed.
“Iris was saying good night, and Avery was saying goodbye.”
“I thought you were staying. No? It’s the weekend, Rowan’s away…isn’t that what you normally do?”
“You have guests, and I got some things to see to at the clinic.”
“Right…” Jo nods, waving at me as she ambles toward the kitchen. “Good night and goodbye, Rhett.”
Her tone is a mixture of disappointment and annoyance. Although it bothers me, I shake it off.
“Get your beauty sleep for tomorrow, Josie. You never know who you might meet at beach.” At my teasing remark, she turns and sticks her tongue out at me with a glare before indicating with her fingers that she’s watching me.
Of course she is. Jo watches everything and everyone.
“See you tomorrow, sunshine.”
“Good night,” Avery murmurs with a small wave.
Taking a few steps back, I look around the dimly lit porch and the drive. The ranch is secluded enough that it isn’t the easiest to find unless you know where you’re heading, but I don’t feel right leaving without making sure they’ve locked up for the night.
“I locked the back doors.”
“I saw.” She nods, rolling onto her tiptoes as she holds on to the doorframe.
Her towel is draped over one shoulder, and from the way it pulls the T-shirt taut to her chest, making her nipples poke through the worn white cotton, it’s obvious she’s not wearing a bra.
“Make sure you lock the door and bolt it, and you know what Jo is like with leaving the kitchen window by the cooker open.”
“Yeah.” Avery nods again, her tongue licking over her lips. “I’ll check.”
“Lock the door, Avery.”
“Yes, Doc.”
She doesn’t make a single move to close the door with her eyes flickering up and down my body to the deep rise and fall of her chest.
My staying-away spiel didn’t last two seconds, and it’s already backfiring with every step I take closer to her. Big eyes widen like saucers with every raspy breath.
Avery shudders at the lightest of touches as I urge her back inside the house so she can close the door. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to control myself with her standing in front of me with legs for days and her T-shirt leaving almost nothing to the imagination.
She’s so damn close that her breath warms through my shirt. The lure of her lightly tanned skin and the softness of her curves…
“You need to get inside.”
She nods. Yet neither of us takes a step back. Fuck, I know she wants something, but I can’t be the asshole that takes advantage of her. She’s been through enough as it is. She has Iris.
Avery’s still nodding when I force myself to pull away from her.
“It’s late and dark,” I groan at the loss of her closeness. At the magnitude of my need to be near her. “I want to hear that lock turn before I leave.”
“Yes.” She nods as I close the screen.
“Good night, sunshine.”
As they always do, her eyes widen, taking on a teary sheen at the endearment that I can’t seem to stop from rolling off my tongue. It’s her smile that tells me she likes it. It’s always there when I say it, more so than when I use her name. And I like that she prefers my endearment to her own name.
“Close the door.”
She does so with a light chuckle and shake of her head, and I don’t take a single step until the lock turns and I hear the bolt slide across.