Chapter 24
Sloane
A couple of hours later, I sat in the passenger seat of Rhys’s Audi, my whole body tense. I was jumpy and on edge, and Rhys had picked up on it the moment he walked through the door.
But I kept quiet. Insisting that nothing was wrong.
I knew he saw right through it, just as he did any other time something was bothering me.
I could tell it was bothering him that he couldn’t figure out what happened between the time he left for practice and the time he got back, and I hoped he didn’t.
The whole reason we were involved in the first place was to improve his public appearance. It had absolutely morphed into something more, but telling him about Stu could make him lose his cool, and the last thing I wanted was him getting in more trouble, especially where Stu was involved.
The drive to Marblehead was short, but it felt painstakingly long, given the awkward silence that had settled between us.
Rhys kept the radio on, turning it up every ten minutes, as if he were trying to drown out the silence or elicit some kind of conversation between us, which started with me asking him to turn it down.
Forty-eight minutes later, we pulled into Lisa’s driveway, my childhood home sitting next door, completely unchanged—except for the door color.
My mother altered something about it at least once every three months.
Today, it was a soft pink color. The next time we ended up here in Marblehead, it would be a different color.
The tire swing I’d spent my summers on was still hanging from the large oak tree in the front yard, but the rope was worn and fraying, pieces of the tire peeling off and collecting in a pile underneath.
I’d told my dad years ago to take it down, and that even if any of us had kids soon, it was far too dangerous and too old to swing on. But my mother insisted it needed to stay. So it did.
Rhys had already gotten out of the car and circled the hood to pull my door open. He stood in the driveway, his brows furrowed with concern as I sat in my seat and stared at the old house.
I reached down to undo my seatbelt and turned to climb out, Rhys angling his body in front of me the second my shoes hit the ground.
He cupped my cheek, staring down at me with worry written all over his face.
“Just—I need you to be honest, okay? Is this—was it too much? Are we going back to how it was before last night? I just need to know.”
My shoulders fell, and I melted into him, my arms wrapping tightly around his middle. “No. God, no. I’m so sorry, I don’t want to go back to how things were. I like things how they are,” I mumbled into his shirt, completely taken off guard by the tears that burned against my eyelids.
When I sniffled, Rhys gently pulled away, large hands moving to frame my face. “What happened?”
I stared up at him, guilt forming a pit in my stomach. I felt so fucking bad for bringing him into this. A defeated sigh fell from my lips. “Stu.”
His nostrils flared, a muscle in his jaw ticking as he clamped his mouth shut. “What happened?” he asked again, this time through clenched teeth. I knew his frustration and anger weren’t with me, but it still felt like it was my fault.
Stretching up, my lips brushed against his, lingering for a few seconds and only pulling away once the rigid line of his mouth had softened enough to kiss me back.
“Please, Pip. I need to know what happened,” he said, his voice pleading and significantly softer than before.
Rhys’s thumb swiped a stray tear from my cheek. “He was waiting for me on my walk back from brunch.”
He tried to control the anger that boiled his blood, but the flush that crept up his neck gave away what he was trying so hard to hide. He was pissed. “What did he say?” Rhys released his grip on my face like he was afraid his anger would cause him to hold me too tight.
I considered lying, telling him something silly or insignificant that wouldn’t piss him off even more.
But if Stu actually tried to make good on his threat, Rhys deserved to be prepared.
Not that I would let anything happen. I might only be a sports lawyer, but there was no way I would let Rhys get put away for something Stu was framing him for.
I had connections. I would pull every single string, cash in every favor I could to make sure nothing stuck to Rhys.
“He threatened you. He said if I didn’t leave you for him, he would put you away for something to get you out of the way.”
Rhys took a slow breath. “He can’t do anything to me, Sloane.”
“He can, Rhys,” I whimpered. “I can’t protect you from him. I couldn’t even protect myself.”
“Hey,” he said softly, wrapping his hands around my waist. “You did protect yourself. You got yourself out of there. You got help, and you left.”
If he was worried, he was doing a good job at hiding it.
I buried my face into the crook of his neck, throwing my arms around him.
“I don’t need you to protect me. Everything will be fine. He’s just bluffing, baby.”
My heart fluttered at the pet name. It wasn’t the first time he’d called me that, but hearing it in bed was one thing. Hearing it now meant something so much different, just like when he picked me up at the airport and whispered it against my temple. It made me feel safe. Protected.
“And if he’s not?”
Rhys shrugged. “Then I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. But he’s not taking you away from me.”
“Not without one hell of a fight,” I replied.
He smiled and kissed my temple before pulling away. “Come on, everyone’s probably watching us.”
I sniffed and spared a glance toward Lisa’s living room window. Sure enough, the curtains quickly shut, people scattering behind them like they hadn’t already been spotted.
Rhys reached down, lacing our fingers together and tugging softly. “Come on.”
“Shit.” I pulled him to a stop, catching the door before it closed. “The hydrangeas. I told our moms I’d grab a couple of blue ones from the nursery. I totally forgot after… everything.”
He smiled, kissed my temple again, then gently nudged me out of the way. “Go, I’ll run to the nursery.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very. Save me a seat.”
“Always.” I smiled and released his hand as he winked and walked back around his car to climb in.
As soon as he pulled out of the driveway, I wished I had gone with him. This was the first time we’d been around our families since Rhys and I started dating. I wasn’t entirely sure I was ready to face them, let alone by myself.
But he would be gone for at least fifteen minutes, and it wasn’t like I could just stand in the yard by myself and wait for him.
Also… it was just my family. And Rhys’s. Who were essentially an extension of my family. It was fine. I could do it.
I took a deep breath and walked through the front yard toward the door, which was already open, of course. My mother waited patiently on the inside.
She grinned as I got closer, kicking the screen door open with her foot. “Hello, child.”
“Hello, mother,” I laughed, shouldering the screen door and wrapping my mom into a hug. After today, I needed a mom hug.
Her arms hugged my waist, the light scent of the perfume she’d been wearing for my entire life wafted through the air, and I made a mental note to visit more often.
I missed my family. My older sister, Zoey, was the only one who knew about my deal with Rhys. Everyone else was clueless. My parents, my younger sister Lani… Completely in the dark.
Initially, I planned to ignore our families as much as possible for the next six months. I wasn’t even in the door, and I was ready to toss that plan into the wind.
Being at Lisa’s, with the smell of the grill in the air and the heat of the summer sun beating down, was nostalgic. I was almost kicking myself for leaving my swimsuit at home. Tonight would’ve been the perfect night for a swim.
“How are you, my darling?”
I took a deep breath and squeezed her tighter, the faint smell of tobacco just barely poking through her perfume. Pulling away, I narrowed my eyes. “I thought Dad quit smoking?”
She rolled her eyes, swatting at me with the dishtowel draped over her shoulder. “You’ve got a nose like a damn bloodhound. He's trying, Sloane.”
I made a noise of disapproval, stepping into Lisa’s home. Reagan’s kids were somewhere toward the back of the house; her daughter Nora’s loud laughter carried quite easily to the front room.
There was still a blanket ladder in the corner of the room, behind Lisa’s knitting chair, that held a t-shirt blanket Rhys and I had made for her in high school.
Her record player was still in the adjacent corner, covered in dust, because she preferred the radio in the kitchen to her mother’s old vinyl records.
It hadn’t been that long since I was last here; the living room was still painted the same beige color, and the mantel over the fireplace still had a million pictures of everyone scattered throughout it. The only significant difference was the lack of holiday décor.
The realization hit hard.
The last time I was here, it was around the holidays. It was cold, fresh snow on the ground, and a fire blazing inside the fireplace.
I hated that I let Stu control my life so much. I hadn’t visited my family or the family that helped raise me as one of their own since December.
My mom must’ve recognized the hurt and sadness that tore through my chest because her small hand cupped my shoulder lightly. “You’re here now.”
“I love you,” I responded quietly, reaching up to gently pat her hand a few times.
She smiled softly. “I love you right back.”
Lisa came into the room, her ‘I like big buns, and I cannot lie’ apron secured around her waist. She grinned widely, opening her arms for a hug. “Sloaney Bug! We were just talking about you. C’mere!”
I walked right into her arms, squeezing her just as tight as I had my own mother. “Hey, Lees.”
She kissed my cheek and pulled away. “Where’d my son go?”
“Oh, he ran to the nursery for the hydrangeas. It slipped my mind earlier, so he’s saving the day.”