CHAPTER 20
HELEN
Walking into The Goose next to Rhodes feels like I’m entering the gauntlet. Dramatic? Maybe. But still, that’s how it feels.
Everyone’s eyes turn toward us the moment we step through the door. My nervousness takes flight inside of me like a bird who wants to escape its cage but can’t find the door. The only thing grounding me is the warmth and weight of the hand at the small of my back.
As we sit, I try not to obviously glance around, but I can’t help myself.
I can’t shake the feeling of being trapped prey.
I’m not used to spending time in Sweetwater Valley and it feels like there’s a giant neon sign above my head letting everyone know I belong in Dogwood Ridge and not here.
Not on this side of the ridge where the air is, allegedly, cleaner.
But I know it’s not.
It’s fresh on both sides of the ridge. The ridgeline is just a feat of nature and time.
Rhodes and I have talked about how the tension between the two towns is all fabricated nonsense made up by high school team rivalries and the need for humanity to find an enemy they can label as the other. Rationally, I know this feeling is silly. I still want to run for the hills.
Even though it feels like it takes forever, people go back to their meals, their conversations, their shared history woven through with laughter and memories. I almost breathe a sigh of relief, but I hold it back.
Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe I shouldn’t have agreed to this.
Because being out in public with Rhodes is a declaration. It means this is something we’ll have no chance of hiding.
But do I even want to hide it? I’ve fallen in love with this man and we don’t deserve to be kept sequestered to some dark corner. We deserve to be open, to exist in the light.
When I showed up at his place after work today, looking forward to another weekend in the arms of my man where I wouldn’t have to worry about anyone else’s expectations, he welcomed me with open arms. But there was something underneath the surface, a tension maybe.
I was instantly worried and a little scared. All my insecurities roared to the forefront of my mind. I couldn’t stop the deluge of questions swirling in my gut.
Had he gotten tired of me already? Was he tired of slumming it with a girl from the other side of the ridge? Did he want space, something I was almost desperate to close between us instead of widening, and to cool things off between us?
Every question felt like a knife to the gut. Realizing I was the one wielding the blade tipped in fear didn’t help matters.
Once he took my overnight bag from my shoulder and gently placed it deeper inside, he pulled me into his chest with one arm around my waist as his other hand found the curve of my cheek. He touched me with reverence and awe.
“I missed you,” he murmured.
Even as all the things I fear were encroaching my thoughts, I couldn’t help but smile. “You saw me just this morning,” I pointed out with a teasing tone in my voice.
“Still,” he deadpanned and my grin grew even wider.
“I missed you, too,” I whispered.
He kisses me so damn softly. Like he was reintroducing himself to me or recalibrating to us being so close after feeling our connection stretch across the distance that work required of us all day. I melted into him and he held me up, held me steady.
“Go on a date with me,” he murmured against my lips.
“I’m pretty sure I’d go anywhere with you.”
Admittedly, the words slipped out before I even realized what I was saying. That doesn’t make them untrue; they were unguarded for sure.
Rhodes’s eyes lit up and now I’m at The Goose to have dinner with my man. And it feels like half the town is here to witness our first public declaration. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think a spotlight is illuminating only us right now.
A waiter approaches and I think I croak out a request for a glass of sweet tea, but I could have hallucinated that. The waiter chuckles slightly, but it’s not him I look at. No, I look towards Rhodes.
He’s looking at me with soft eyes and an understanding little smile. It’s adorable. And kind of infuriating.
“I think you might have missed it earlier,” the waiter says with a smile on his face that doesn’t feel forced, “but I’m Bowen. I haven’t seen you here before, do you have any questions about the menu?”
When I look down at the menu in my hands, I realize I haven’t been looking at it. Not really.
“Hi,” my voice comes out soft, too soft, too tentative.
“I don’t think burgers and normal American food is all that complicated, Bowen,” Rhodes interjects with a roll of his eyes that have my shoulders relaxing.
“Fine, fine.” Bowne holds his hands up in surrender. “I’ll give you a few more minutes, but I definitely recommend a burger. They’re the best in the state.”
As he walks away, my eyebrows pull together. As I look at Rhodes with a raised eyebrow, I echo, “Best in the state? Was there a contest they won or something?”
“I think it’s more of an honorary title,” he admits with a grimace that has nothing to do with the quality of the food.
I can’t help the laughter that bubbles out of me, part amusement and part hysteria. Rhodes watches me with sparkling eyes filled with adoration. I love it when he looks at me like that.
“What do you normally get?”
“A burger. The bacon one,” he points toward my menu as if he knows I’m already looking at that section even though he can’t see it.
“With double the crispy bacon and bacon jam,” I read from the menu and glance back up at Rhodes to find him licking his lips.
“Everything is better with bacon,” he admits with a shrug.
“That does sound good,” I whisper, my eyes locked on his lips.
When I look back into his eyes, I find them half-lidded with lust. Yeah, he’s thinking the same thing as I am.
Normally when I show up at his place, we spend the first little while mapping each other’s bodies. Tonight, it didn’t happen because he wanted to take me out on a date. Now it feels like every breath is foreplay.
I take a sip of my drink because looking at my man and thinking about all the pleasure he can give me has made my mouth dry. Not taking the edge off before we came out was a mistake.
The tension zings between us and becomes a physical thing. I clench my thighs together because being near him has my entire body yearning for him.
“Rhodes,” a man calls out as he strides toward us with a huge smile on his face as his eyes ping back and forth between us.
When he stops next to the table, I take in his tall frame, mahogany colored hair and the way his eyes are dancing with mirth.
He looks at me curiously while asking out of the side of his mouth, “Is this the woman you’ve been stalking in Dogwood Ridge. ”
Rhodes lets out a groan while I can’t help but giggle before looking at my man as innocently as possible. “Maverick,” he growls, “I have not been stalking her.” He looks at me and smiles. “Helen, this is Maverick, he’s one of the owners of The Goose.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” I offer Maverick politely, but I find I can’t look at him too long. My eyes keep straying to my man. I glance his way again with a small smile. “You have a great place here. I’m very curious about this claim about your burgers being the best in the state.”
“Uh-oh,” there’s a tease in Maverick’s voice, “you’re giving me shit about that already? My wife did that too.” He looks at Rhodes, his tone surprisingly serious, “Don’t fuck this up.”
They share a look, one I’m not sure I completely understand. But it’s weighted and wrapped in a warning. Rhodes sits up a little straighter and gives a nod.
Men.
Maverick’s attention shifts and the smile on his face is stunning.
I blink at him a few times and then look over my shoulder to see a gorgeous woman with curls like a crown.
The three kids with her are walking in like they own the place.
The group is trailed by two people who must be the woman’s parents.
“Helen,” Maverick sounds distracted and he doesn’t look at me, “it was lovely to meet you. Dinner is on me tonight because I’m all about romance and The Goose being the place for it. Excuse me, it’s time for me to have dinner with my family.”
He doesn’t wait for a response and starts striding away while Rhodes chuckles under his breath. I watch as he grins at the kids but doesn’t stop until he’s taken the woman in his arms and kissed her softly. She melts against him.
“That’s Lark. When she moved here a few years ago with her two kids after the death of their father it was because her parents already lived here. They run a family practice in town,” he informs me and I soak up the information like I’m tuning in for my favorite telenovela.
After Maverick releases his wife, he greets each child with love and interest while smoothly leading them to a table on the other side of the room.
He does it easily and Lark looks on with love and peace written all over her face.
If Rhodes hadn’t just told me that they aren’t all his kids, I would never have guessed, there’s just that much love there.
As I turn back towards Rhodes, I have a big grin on my face. “It’s clear that they love each other. It’s sweet.”
“There’s one more thing you should know about Lark, it’s a town secret that isn’t a secret at all,” he tells me as he leans over the table. “She’s a romance author.”
I gasp, “No!”
The smile he gives me is sinful as he nods. “The spicy kind.”
“I’m going to need a lot more information about that.”
Before he can tell me more, two chairs come out of nowhere and land on the sides of our table right before two men slide into seats which they have procured themselves. My jaw drops as I look between the men.
“Fucking hell,” Rhodes grits out under his breath while wiping a hand down his face. “Now it’s you two.”
“Bowie,” one of the men calls out and when our waiter looks our way he continues, “we’ve joined this table.”
“You have not joined this table,” Rhodes hisses.