Chapter 21 Rhett
Chapter twenty-one
Rhett
Iguess I could’ve been embarrassed I was sitting at my kitchen table, serving homemade barbecue my mom dropped off in a casserole dish to Audrey. I loved my mom; that wasn’t the issue.
But after Dad died, she started needing me more.
She found so much joy in cooking, and with my work schedule, most days I forget to even eat, so she made it her mission to bring meals to me.
I knew it was good for her to stay busy, so I relented.
I also never intended to share a meal my mom made for me with a beautiful woman.
But hey, it’s better to just lay it all out as it is, right? No hiding shit.
And seeing Audrey sit across from me in my kitchen was stirring up things in me I dismissed years ago. She brought a lightness to this house I never thought I’d find.
But maybe I was getting ahead of myself.
“Please tell your mom this the best cornbread I’ve ever had.” Audrey's eyes rolled back in her head as she took another bite of the homemade meal, and I let out a breathy chuckle.
“I will.” I took another bite myself. “If I tell her I shared dinner with someone though, I highly doubt she’ll care about the taste of the food.”
“Oh, yeah? Why’s that?” Audrey sets down her fork, her hazel eyes locking in on me.
“I think she’s beginning to worry that my only remaining friends are Mabel and Ky—who I’ll never be introducing you to, by the way. He knows too much about me and has no filter, which makes him a wild card,” I half joked.
“I like wild cards,” Audrey said, and I shook my head.
“Exactly why you won’t be meeting him for a while.”
“Well, I’d have to keep seeing you for that to happen,” she adds dryly as she tucks her hair behind her ear, her eyes cast down.
“Is this your way of telling me it’s over?” I tease but my heart races in a way it has no business doing.
“I’d have to know what this is to decide if it was over.”
I sit up straighter, leaning back in my chair so I can get a better gauge on Audrey, though it’s nearly useless. She is unreadable at times. But my god, do I want to crack her code.
“This is dinner,” I start and as she rolls her eyes, her lips curling up in an annoyed smirk, I continue.
“Just dinner for two people who can’t seem to stay apart from each other for whatever reason.
This is me, trying to figure out how to stretch this meal out as long as I can because the moment your car pulls out of my driveway, I’ll be left wondering how the hell I can convince you to see me again. That’s what this is.”
A tiny smile creeps up on her face, and her eyes soften.
“Can I be painfully honest with you?” Audrey asks, and I hold my breath, eagerly leaning towards her. Hoping this means she is learning to trust me. I want to be a safe space for her to land.
“Of course.”
“I don’t know what I'm doing…” She lets out a humorless laugh. “Like in every aspect of my life. I feel like I’ve lost control of everything lately. And I’m only telling you this because I don’t want you to have too many expectations.”
It’s not what I expected to hear, but I place my hand on her knee, scooting my chair closer so my legs are barricading hers. She was honest with me, and now it’s my turn.
“That makes two of us. I have been drifting through life, one day at a time, just getting by. But I know ever since I saw you on that rooftop, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”
She smiles shyly, tilting her head towards me, getting closer and closer. It’s just us in this kitchen, but when I look into her eyes, it’s like we are the only two people in this world.
“Maybe…maybe we can be lost together?” she offers, reaching right into my chest and grabbing the fragments of my beating heart.
My heart is hers. Even if I tried to stop it, it’s already hers.
Our foreheads touch gently before Audrey speaks the words I’d been waiting to hear since she got here.
“Will you kiss me now?”