Chapter 21
“Whoa there, buckaroo, where are you going?” I shouted after Remington as he bound up the stairs.
“Dad said to clean up so we could start dinner.”
Dad?
Wait. What?
Dad?
My legs trembled and my hand shot out to the countertop for balance.
Dad.
My breaths came out choppy, my heart pounded, butterflies erupted and fluttered in my stomach.
This was it. This was what I’d wanted. All of it.
This was what I was dreaming about as I stood in the kitchen of Rhode’s awesome cabin putting away groceries.
This was what I hoped Remy and I could have as I watched them throwing the football.
Rhode infinitely patient with Remy when he fumbled the ball, helping him arrange his little boy fingers on the giant football, teaching him how to throw. Rhode smiling when Remy got it right.
I thought back to our fishing trip and how Rhode let Remy help steer the boat.
Father and son cutting up, laughing at me when I reeled in a fish so small we had to throw it back.
Rhode ruffling Remy’s hair when he caught a big one, making a big deal about it, making Remy smile.
Rhode holding my hand in front of Remy and my son taking that in with a smile and rolling with the new change.
Rhode’s presence rocked our solid foundation in the best of ways.
He’d slid in and fit. I was living a fairy tale—well, minus the bullets, the threat of death, and a dirty, felonious MC.
But even with the dark pall of Kiki’s threats everything was perfect.
Too perfect. So perfect I was scared it couldn’t possibly be real.
Not since before my parents died had my life been this perfect.
I’d been so lost in thought I hadn’t heard Rhode come in so when I felt my hair being moved off my neck I startled but relaxed when warm lips pressed to the now exposed skin, and finally, I smiled when I saw a ragtag bouquet of mostly leafy stems with some budding weeds thrown in for color.
“What’s this?”
“Wasn’t lost on me you were pissed at me, Sugar.
Not sure what I did, but Remington advised when women are pissed a man brings them flowers.
Seeing as it would take an hour round trip to go down the mountain and I don’t have a green thumb so there’re no flowers up here this was the best I could do. ”
His best was perfect.
And I’d forgotten I was mad when Remy had dropped his verbal bomb but now I remembered.
“You quit your job.”
Rhode set the shabby posy of stems on the counter before he gently turned me to face him. Warm brown eyes locked onto mine and his hand came up to cradle my face. I knew this was one of those times he was preparing me so I braced for the onslaught.
But I would find my defenses were no match for the series of velvet blows Rhode landed.
“With everything going on we haven’t had much time alone, and the time we have had I used to keep you up to speed about what’s going on with Kiki and the Welshes.
I know they’re important to you and you’re up here cut off from them.
And it sucks, but that’s the way it has to be until we figure out what to do about Kiki.
On top of that, and more important, is the reason why you and Remington are up here.
My team’s split running two operations that are separate but connected.
They know getting my family safe is priority one but they’re having a mind to what you need, and that’s keeping the Welshes protected and that includes Kiki.
They’re out there not sleeping, busting their asses while I’m here with you and Remy.
They know this is where I need to be, where I want to be, and where I’m going to stay.
But that doesn’t mean that I still don’t need to kick in and help.
I’ve got work I gotta do tonight, a few hours of running checks on the victims we rescued.
“I’m telling you that so you’ll understand where my head’s at.
I wasn’t keeping quitting my job a secret.
I made the decision the day after I saw Remy at the bookstore.
It wasn’t something I needed to think about.
I knew I wasn’t going back to Arizona with my team and leaving you and Remington behind. ”
“You didn’t need to think about it?”
“Sugar, you and Remy are in Idaho.”
Rhode said that like his statement said it all, which in his mind I guess it did. But quitting a job and moving two states away even if you had a kickass mountaintop cabin you vacationed at in the state you were going to move to, required thought and planning.
“Don’t you think this is fast? Shouldn’t—”
“Fast? This move is five years overdue.”
I loved he thought that. Loved it down to my soul he wanted to be close to me and Remy. I wanted him here. But I didn’t want him to give up his job and grow to resent me.
“Do you like your job?”
“I love my job. But I love Remington more.”
That was sweet. No, that was perfect. But it sliced to the bone. I wasn’t stupid enough to think after two days Rhode would be head over heels in love with me. My heart was just dumb enough to wish for it.
“Sugar, you’re looking at me like I just told you I killed puppies for fun.”
“I just don’t want you to regret giving up your job and your life in Arizona.”
“Bullshit,” he rapped out. I jerked my head in surprise.
“I told you I have one regret and that’s letting you walk away.
Leaving a job I love for my family won’t be a mistake.
I said I loved Remington more than my job and that’s the damn truth.
I have been straight with you and that’s from the very beginning back in D.C.
I’ve never lied, I’ve never pretended to be someone I’m not, and I’d never lead you to believe something was true that wasn’t.
So believe me now when I tell you I know what I want.
I know what I feel. I know where I’m at with you.
And, baby, I know where you’re at with me.
I know what we have and what it will be as we build from here. ”
Rhode dropped his forehead and I closed my eyes.
“I love my son, Brooklyn, and I’m falling in love with his mom.
You need to know that so when I give you those words you’ll trust they’re real.
You’ll believe in them and you’ll give them back to me knowing I’ll want to hear them.
Right now, everything’s moving fast. You’ve got enough stress so I don’t want you worrying about my job.
But I do want you to think about something. ”
It wasn’t something I needed to think about.
You and Remy are in Idaho.
I’m falling in love with his mom.
Dad.
Rhode was right. Everything was moving fast and maybe I should’ve been worried about that but I wasn’t.
I was worried about Kiki and gunfire. I was worried about Michael and Tally.
I was worried about Letty and I hadn’t been able to talk to her.
I knew she would be freaking out about Smutties.
That bookstore was her baby, her pride and joy, and thinking about someone destroying all of her hard work made my heart hurt.
I should’ve been worried about my job and getting back to work but I was ahead of schedule and always had a built-in two-week buffer so I didn’t need to start worrying about that for another week.
And honestly, if the shooter still wasn’t caught by then I’d have more to worry about.
Then I started to wonder if the reason I wasn’t worried about how fast things were moving with Rhode was because everything else was taking up headspace.
But I knew that wasn’t right. I knew I wasn’t worried because he was Rhode and he said what he felt and meant what he said.
He could’ve lied and told me he loved me and Remy both but he didn’t. He told me the truth.
I’m falling in love.
That was all I needed to know. That was what I had to believe in.
“What do you want me to think about?”
“I’d love to know what goes on in that pretty head of yours when you close your eyes.”
“I was thinking that I hadn’t talked to Letty since her store was destroyed and she’s probably freaking out.
I was thinking that if this situation isn’t fixed in the next week I need to start thinking about work.
I was thinking that I liked how you’re always honest with me and it makes me trust what you say.
Oh, and I was thinking that I wasn’t worried about how fast we were moving and that Remington called you Dad. ”
Rhode’s forehead pressed deeper into mine and now I was thinking about how much I loved how he did the forehead touch when he wanted my attention.
And how much I loved that I was learning him—when he wanted me to listen, when he was preparing to soften a blow, and what his eyes said when they warmed.
“Straight up,” Rhode murmured. “No games, no hiding. I like that, Sugar.”
“What’d you want me to think about?”
“Remington asked if we could live up here.”
Rhode hadn’t even finished his question when my head jerked back.
“What?”
“I told him we couldn’t live up here because it was too far from town,” he explained.
“Do you want to live up here? Full-time I mean?”
Why did I ask that? Was I inviting myself to live on Rhode’s mountain? Did I want to live with him?
“No, baby. I love this cabin and I love the mountain. But the drive up in the winter is ass-clenching. And when the snow melts and the roads are mud, no way I want you driving down. Not to mention, this place runs on a generator. It’s a two-week-at-a-time getaway, not a full-time residence.
Which means I gotta find a place in town. ”
“Okay.”
“I want you to think about helping me find a place. I want a place with land. Lots of space for Remington to play.”
“He’d like that.”
“And you? Would you like that?”
Who wouldn’t like a house sitting on land?
“What exactly are you asking?”
“You’ve got a nice house, but you said you rented.”
I was trying to keep my heart from pounding out of control and my dumb imagination from running wild, and failing miserably at both.
“I do.”
“So while you’re looking for a house for me I’d like you to find one you’d wanna live in.”
It was fast.
Like, catch-your-hair-on-fire, Mach-one—fast.
“How ’bout I look at houses with you and in six months—”
“One month,” Rhode cut me off.
“Are you negotiating a timeframe for me and Remy to move in with you?”
“Yes.”
“Two months,” I countered.
“Three weeks.”
Rhode’s lips twitched at the same time I felt my lips tip up.
“That’s not how negotiating works,” I said through a smile.
“Move in with me, Brooklyn.”
“Like roommates?” I asked half-teasing.
“You can call it a roommate situation if that’s what it takes to get you to move in with me. But just so you know you’ll be in my bed.”
“Remy—”
“He asked me if I was going to marry you right after he asked if he could call me dad. And let's not forget he brought up all of us living together.”
“He what?” I screeched.
“Let’s just say your boy’s a vat of wisdom.”
“Fish!” Remy shouted from the steps. “Time to cook fish!”
“Inside voice!” I yelled back.
“Babe?” Rhode chuckled. “Move in with me.”
“Okay.”
Rhode looked stunned. Then his handsome face lit and he smiled and kissed me.
Unfortunately, it was quick and closed-mouthed but it was still awesome.
“I told you flowers worked!” Remy shouted.
“Seriously, kid, inside voice.”
“It was totally the flowers,” Rhode confirmed.
I’d never tell him it actually wasn’t the flowers, it was just him—and his smile, and his great laugh, and his warm eyes, and how he was with Remington, and how he treated me gently but still gave it to me straight.
“Don’t you guys have a fire to light or something?”
“Yes!” Remy took off toward the door. “Can I light the fire, Dad?”
Whoosh.
That was the sound my breath made as it evacuated my body.
And for the third time in my life, it happened…
Speechless.
Breath stolen.
Butterflies swarming.
I felt Rhode’s lips next to my ear then I felt them moving when he whispered, “Thank you, Sugar.”
Then he was gone.
And with him, he took my soul.