16. RHETT
RHETT
In all the years I’ve lived in Silverlark Harbor, I have never visited the aquarium.
In fact, I think the last time I visited an aquarium was when Rowan and I were kids.
Walking around the dark and quiet tunnels has a nostalgic whim to it.
The atmosphere is so relaxing, and it’s sort of awing seeing Avery in her element.
Hmm, maybe I should get a tank…
Avery could come over and take care of it, and Iris would be so enthralled by it that I might be able to kiss her mom some more.
Because, damn, now that I’ve had a taste, I’m salivating for the next.
Obviously, now that we are on a kissing level, every fucker and their friend keeps worming their way into our “alone” time.
Especially since Callie and Rowan got back from DC last week.
Where Scarlett and Iris entertain each other, it would appear that my usually supercool and independent sister-in-law has had a personality transplant and is constantly hogging Avery to herself.
I should be sharing with her, not the other way around.
To make it worse, Spencer and Olivia are visiting, and our aquarium plan got hijacked.
It was meant to be a low-key, no-pressure, non-date date.
“If you keep looking at her like that, she’s going to think you’re a serial killer.” Rowan pauses beside me as we get to the main tank, laughing at me as though he’s aware of my jealousy.
Something else that’s new.
“You look like someone’s stolen your puppy,” he teases some more much to Spencer’s amusement.
“Well, if your puppies stopped monopolizing my puppy—” I stop as they both burst out laughing.
Assholes!
I fucking hate Rowan and his ability to stealth ninja his way into my head. He does it all the time, something I’ll never thank Callie for, and with Spencer around, he always takes it to the next level, like he always did when we were kids.
“You want to talk about it, Doc?” Rowan sticks his hands in his pockets, plumping his chest as though we’re about to have a moment or something.
“I’m not coming to Jesus, dickhead, so you can deflate your ego and swallow down whatever funny shit you’re dying to spit out.”
“Oooo, someone has his panties in a twist,” Rowan snickers quickly followed by Spencer’s sigh. “If either of you start with Pam, I’ll smash your heads together.”
“Seriously, man, don’t.”
“Fine, we can have a come-to-Rowan conversation instead.”
Fuck my ever-loving life. Of all the brothers I could’ve had, I got this jerk.
“She’s different to your usual MO.” He nods at where Avery is standing with the girls and the kids.
Spencer gives me his quiet smirk. Technically we were friends first, but that counts for shit these days.
“She is different,” Spencer finally says, catching his youngest daughter, Kennedy, as she tries to make a getaway.
“I want to go back to Nemo,” she pouts at him, and without a second thought, he hitches her over his shoulder and heads back to one of the smaller tanks.
“Do you even really know what to do with a kid?” Rowan asks as we follow behind him.
“I’m a doctor—I was around kids before you started making them.”
“Hmm…I guess,” he hums. “But still, she’s different, you know?”
“No, I don’t!” My defensive outburst takes Spencer by surprise because his brows hitch right up, and his blue eyes narrow on me. He’s uberprotective of the girls; raised voices aren’t his and Olivia’s style. “Just spit it out, whatever it is…”
Cracking his knuckles with a shit-eating grin, Rowan says, “Well, you know, Avery has dark hair…light eyes…she’s not that much taller than Callie…”
“Wait, most people are taller than your wife,” Spencer laughs in an obvious attempt to lighten the mood.
“True. I swear to God she’s part dwarf.”
“That’s mean,” Kennedy spins, marking him with the cutest glare. Her hands are on her hips, and she looks ready to go at him.
“Jeez, relax, it was a joke.”
“Not if no one else is laughing.”
“Your daddy laughed.”
“I don’t think he did,” I tell her. “Did you hear him?”
“Nope.”
“Don’t incite her, A-H.” Rowan abbreviates the cuss so she doesn’t repeat it—something that’s a guarantee with her. She’s all sass and smart-ass.
“What’s incite, Daddy?”
Spencer makes quick work of appeasing all her sudden curiosities, managing to avoid the cuss. He’s getting better at untwisting himself from all the circles she runs around him.
“You want to go hold Callie’s hand in the shark tunnel?” Spencer nudges her toward the others.
Caleb and Scarlett are trying to pull her onto the autowalk, while Olivia and Avery are treading the thing in fits of laughter.
“We’re going to be here for hours. Last time we came here, I had to throw her over my shoulder and take her through the damn thing.”
“I used to think she was the most rational of the two of you. Now…” Spencer crosses his arms over his chest, watching the comedy sketch in front of us much like his older daughter, Erin. “Anyway, I think what Rowan’s trying to say is that Avery’s not your usual type.”
“You put her and Callie beside one another and… What happened to the peroxide blonde, silicone tits, and Botox addiction you normally go for?” He rests his hand on my shoulder, squeezing as he keeps a distance.
Spencer looks between us, clearly trying to decipher what the fuck Rowan’s doing with the holding me at bay thing.
“We’ve got to be careful with him now—he’s throwing punches.” He snickers.
When I spoke to him on the phone the afternoon the shit with Carl went down, he wasn’t so jovial about it. But I guess he worries that Carl would use my actions against Avery have subsided. Regardless, he was right. I am smarter than that.
Rowan didn’t see the extent of what he did to Avery.
Soft, gentle Avery with her kind smile and sunshine-filled soul.
The fucker had it coming to him, and he was lucky that Iris was there; otherwise, I wouldn’t have stopped until the only way he could’ve left was by being towed away in his dick mobile.
“I know you look up to me, Doc, but you don’t have to copy my excellent taste for us to be friends.”
There are moments where I’m really unsure how we came from the same gene pool, because he has a way of twisting shit in really fucked-up ways.
“I don’t know why I expected you to be serious about something for once.
” I bat his hand away and take a step forward, but his belittling remark pulls me back.
Turning to look at him, I add, “What if I just like Avery for being Avery? Because she’s smart and sweet?
What if I don’t care about the color of her hair or her eyes or whether she can reach the top shelf for herself or not?
Ever thought of that? Ever thought that maybe you don’t know jack shit about anything? ”
“Fair enough.” He nods after a silent beat, taking a step back as I turn and walk away.
“He’s trying to watch your back,” Spencer murmurs, falling into step beside me. “And if there’s anything he doesn’t know, it’s because you haven’t told him. That’s on you, not Rowan. He’s working on the intel he’s got.”
“Not everything is a joke.”
“No, it’s not, and I don’t think he finds it funny that if things go to shit with Avery, if you step out of line, Callie will crucify him.” Stepping in front of me, he stops me in my tracks. “He’s still got your back.”
“And I know I don’t deserve that, but…” I don’t know how to tell him how I feel about them without blurting it all out.
And I want Avery to be the first person to know that I’ve never felt like this about anyone or anything.
They’re all I want. Everything I’ve ever searched or longed for.
When I’m with them, I’m whole, and my need for more is all about them.
I want more of them. More time and memories and laughs.
“She’s got a kid,” Spencer repeats, holding my gaze as though he’s trying to see into me and all my intentions.
“You can’t be all in one day and screw her over the next,” Rowan adds in a quieter tone from behind. “It doesn’t work like that.”
“I know that, and I’ll tell you the same thing I told her.” I take a deep breath, turning so that they’re both in my line of sight. “I want everything.”
“You told her that?” Rowan looks at me with surprise.
“Yeah, I did.”
Rowan opens his mouth to reply, but Spencer gets there first. “They’re a big responsibility. Look at Mitchell with Aaron and Aarabelle—it’s not easy having to father another man’s child. Especially if the first thing you do is beat the crap out of him.”
“If you were in my shoes and Avery was Olivia, what would you do?”
“I will beat the shit out of any asshole that lays a bad finger on my girls, and I won’t stop until they’re begging me for a grave,” Spencer answers without a second of thought.
“Well, they’re my girls.” The words leave me in an unexpected breath. So easy. Free. So very true.
“Okay, well, just remember who’s ordained.” Rowan slaps my back while Spencer groans, “Jesus, slow the fuck down, man.”
“I was checking how serious he was. My brother would’ve shot out of here.” He smirks at me, sobering at my scowl. “Don’t look at me like I fucked with your great titty porn stash.”
“Joy, here it goes, and I’m out, ladies and gentlemen.” Spencer bats his hand in our direction as he joins the commotion at the mouth of the shark tunnel.
“Why do you bring that shit up every time?”
“Because you scarred me.”
“Blonde, silicone tits, Botox addiction…” I mirror his words from earlier.
“You’re sick,” he spits at me. “Pam was a natural goddess back then. Anyway, you’re just doing that thing where you try to flip things so you feel better about yourself.”
“It’s called projecting, dumbass, and that’s not what I’m doing at all.”
“Whatever, four eyes.”
“Mom must’ve dropped you on your head or something.” I walk away as he pulls a fucking stupid crybaby face.
What an ass!
“Doc?” Iris sits up when I close the book.