Chapter 3
I’d messed up again.
A week ago I found him. Rhode Daley.
Rhode Daley. I rolled his name around in my head.
I had a name. I’d thought about it a lot through the years—what his name was.
John or Pete or Samuel. But those were too boring, so Letty had guessed his name had to be something cool like Bjorn, Magus, or Ragnar.
When I’d reminded her the stranger wasn’t a Viking, she’d smirked and reminded me he had pillaged, and she continued to come up with a bevy of Viking names for the stranger.
It wasn’t until two months later the name-guessing and joking had stopped. Real life had smacked me in the face. I didn’t know his name, and I really, really wished I had asked.
So in all of the guessing, I had never considered Rhode. Without a name to call him, I settled on Dulles. That would’ve been embarrassing if it wasn’t so pathetic.
But now I knew his real name, and in the chaos and heartbreak of the day, I let him walk away again.
I had no choice. Tally and Michael had been beside themselves. Letty was near broken. Kiki had been missing a week—now she’d been gone two weeks—but that horrible day, the Welshes thought a miracle had happened, and Kiki had been found.
But she hadn’t been. Kiki’s friend Desi Cunns had lied to the police and said she was Kiki.
And her excuse was piss poor, in my opinion.
But seeing as Michael and Tallulah Welsh were good people—the best actually—once the shock had worn off, they’d forgiven her.
And when Desi explained she was estranged from her family, scared, and knew the Welshes would help her, they’d done exactly that and had taken her in.
Michael and Tally had been the ones to call her family and smooth things over.
And yesterday, Michael and Tally sat next to Desi while she reconnected with her mom and dad.
Unfortunately, she was in a bad way. Fortunately, her family was committed to helping her heal and had checked her into a mental health facility.
This was not done as a way to wash their hands of Desi; it was done out of great concern.
The Cunns understood their daughter needed more help than they could provide, and they were getting her the help she needed.
All of that was good. What wasn’t good was that Tally hearing what Desi had gone through sent her into a tailspin.
I could imagine on a small scale the terror Tally was going through.
Not knowing where her child was, who had her, if she was being harmed, if she was already dead.
The thoughts ran through my head on a constant loop and made me sick to my stomach.
I’d known Kiki all her life. I moved in with the Welshes after my parents died when I was sixteen.
But even before that, my parents were best friends with Tally and Michael.
Our families had been close. Every holiday, every vacation, every special occasion we were with the Welshes.
They had always been my second family. Letty and I had been best friends since forever. Kiki was like my little sister.
What those thoughts must be doing to Tally and Michael wrenched my gut. What Letty was going through, not knowing where her sister was—earth-shattering.
“Sorry we’re late,” Letty called out as soon as she entered the door.
It was Saturday. I was working the bookstore alone while Letty ran errands for her parents.
“Mommy! We brought you a milkshake!” the sweet little boy squealed and ran full speed across the store. Hearing my son’s excitement never got old.
Remington. The real life that happened after my night with Rhode.
“Hey, there, buddy, did you have fun with Auntie Letty?”
I took in my boy’s chocolate-stained shirt and I had my answer.
“Yup.”
Remington popped the P and smiled big and bright. His dark brown eyes twinkled as he handed me the milkshake.
“I drank mine in the car,” Remy informed me. “Auntie Letty said I could if I sat in the baby seat.”
“Booster seat,” I corrected. “Go wash your hands, would ya, bud?”
“It’s a baby seat,” Remy argued. “Pop says I’m big enough to ride a dirt bike.”
“You’re not,” I told my son.
My gaze went to Letty and she shrugged.
“Don’t look at me like that. We were—”
“Buddy, please go wash your hands,” I cut Letty off and gave her squinty eyes.
Being as she was Letty, therefore not easily dissuaded, she didn’t take in my narrowed eyes and keep quiet. No, she pushed.
“You know Dad would never put him on a bike if he wasn’t ready. He’s almost five.”
“He’s not almost five. He’s barely four and a half.”
“Whatever, same thing.”
It wasn’t, but I wasn’t going to argue. I also wasn’t going to allow Remy to start riding dirt bikes, but that was a discussion for another day, so I changed the subject.
“A customer came in with a few requests. I wrote them down and put the list on your desk.”
Letty glanced to the back of the store where a few customers were perusing the shelves and asked, “Have you been busy?”
“Steady stream all day.”
“Awesome. And we’re still on for tonight. Mom said she’s good with Remy coming over.”
“Letty—”
“It helps, Brook,” Letty whispered. “You know her having Remy gives her something good. She and Dad both need this.”
There was no doubt Tally and Michael needed all the goodness around them they could get, and Remington was a bright ray of sunshine in all of our lives. But Letty needed me, too. And tonight, she needed me by her side at this month’s book club meeting.
“Okay, then I’m gonna take Remy home and clean him up. I’ll be back in a few hours.”
Letty’s gaze dropped to my son, then her eyes came back to me, and I sucked in a breath when I saw her expression.
No one had brought it up.
There were more pressing issues.
But I’d known it was only a matter of time before the elephant in the room would be addressed.
“We need to talk about Rhode Daley.”
“We will after Kiki’s home.”
“Brooklyn.”
Letty glanced at Remy coming out of the backroom, and I knew what she saw. Dark hair, dark eyes, a beautiful face, tall for his age—a spitting image of his father.
A man I’d only been able to describe. A man that Letty had now seen.
“I can’t talk about it yet.”
“It’s been a week. You need to talk about it.”
“I will. As soon as Kiki’s home, I’ll find him. I have every intention of doing what’s right. He needs to know. You know this. You know how much guilt I’ve carried. I just can’t right now.”
“Okay,” she gave in.
Then she smiled and shook her head and lowered her voice. “I thought you were exaggerating.”
“About what?”
“How hot he was. I mean, no one’s that hot. But you weren’t lying. Even in the middle of that shitshow and my mom coming apart, I didn’t miss how good-looking he was.”
“Told you so.”
“And Remy looks just like him.”
“Told you that, too.”
“Thanks for being the best friend I could ever have and putting your life on hold.”
The pain I heard in Letty’s voice was precisely why I couldn’t look for Rhode. I’d waited five years. A little more time wouldn’t hurt. I owed the Welshes everything. But even if I didn’t, there was no way I’d turn my back on my best friend. She needed me more than ever.
Guilt assailed me hard and fast, just like it always did.
But this time, it was worse because I desperately wanted to look him up.
Not only for Remington but for me. Five years was a long time to dream about a man you’d only had a few hours with.
Sure, I couldn’t forget him. We shared a son.
But it was more than that—I could never forget the man himself.
“We’re gonna find her, Lets. She’ll be home soon.”
“Mommy.” Remy stopped next to me and tugged my hand. “If you’re not gonna drink yours, can I have it?”
“No way, Jose, you already had one. Chocolate by the looks of what’s on your shirt, and you know Grams and Pop will let you have a treat.”
“That’s because they love me,” Remy proudly declared.
“They do.”
“Don’t you love me?”
Letty huffed, and the sadness was gone when she picked up her nephew and swung him around.
A ray of sunshine. That was Remy.
“You’re a master manipulator. I think you’re gonna be a lawyer when you grow up.”
“No way. I’m gonna be an Army man and paint my face and crawl through mud and sneak up on bad guys.”
“Jesus.”
At the sound of a male voice, my head snapped to the door.
Jesus was right.
My time was up.
It was not Rhode who spoke—I’d know his voice anywhere. It was the man standing next to him who’d uttered the clipped statement.
Rhode’s gaze was glued to Remington. His lips pinched together. His face tight.
My eyes drifted closed and my stomach clenched.
This was not how I wanted him to find out.