42. Chapter 42
Chapter 42
Arlo
They separate us at the station, and I feel like I’m crawling out of my damn skin. I’ve been away from Rina too long, and I know everything that happened is going to hit her all at once. Because she’s so damn stubborn, she’ll hold it all in and wait until she feels safe to breakdown, and I don’t want her to hold that in at all. I need to get her home.
“I think that should do it. Thanks for the co-operation. I’m sure Lieutenant Kempe will call you if he needs anything else,” the officer who interviewed me for the last thirty minutes says. I didn’t even catch his name, too focused on wrapping this up quickly.
I see Oakley sitting in the lobby as I’m walked out, but no sign of Rina.
“Is Rina not done?” I ask as I continue to look around like I somehow missed her.
“Not yet, and I’m about to give them hell. She shouldn’t need to be kept that long. Take her statement and let her go. If they need more, call one of us,” he grumbles, knee bouncing.
I’m so fucking glad he found Willow and started opening up to us all. His friendship and fierce support are something I didn’t realize I was missing. I gave him a lot of shit about not having friends not all that long ago, but that was hypocritical considering my lack of friendships .
But everything’s changed in the last few months. All thanks to the woman I will forever call my wife.
Oakley abruptly stands, and I turn to what he’s looking at. Rina walking out in all her beautiful, stressed-out glory. She shoots Oakley a small smile before looking at me with eyes that scream to get her out of here. I can see the threads holding her together are barely hanging on.
She reaches us, cuddling into my side as I hold out my arm for her.
“Can we get out of here?” she whispers. I look up at the officer who walked her out, and he nods, letting me know we’re good to go. I’m glad to have their approval, but they couldn’t stop me even if they wanted to. Rina wants to go home, and I’ll make it happen no matter what it takes.
Leading her out of the building, not taking my arm off of her, I walk the three of us over to my truck in the parking lot across the street.
“Shit. My truck is still at the steakhouse.” Rina stops in her tracks.
I look at Oakley over her head, and he nods at my unspoken question.
“I’ll drop Oakley off, and he’ll drive it back to your house.”
“You don’t have to do that. I can drive home,” Rina argues.
“Nope. I’ll drive it back. You ride with Arlo.” God bless Oakley for understanding my need to be by her side right now.
“Thank you.” Rina nods in appreciation as we make it to my truck. Oakley jumps in the back, and I help Rina into the passenger side. The drive over to the steakhouse is fast thanks to everything being downtown. Oakley hops out after taking Rina’s keys and waves to us as we pull out and hit the highway.
I’m waiting for her to take the lead on our conversation. I don’t want to push her or say something that will trigger anything for her. I’m a mostly patient man, and whenever she wants to talk about what happened, I’ll be here to hear every word .
It doesn’t lessen my worry and uncertainty about what exactly happened in that house.
Her hand slides down my forearm and intertwines our fingers. It instantly calms the noise in my head, and I’m grateful.
“Thank you for having my back.” Her small voice echoes in the cabin of the truck.
“Oh, Emmerdeur, never thank me for that.” I squeeze the hand holding mine.
“I promise to never think I can pull something like that off ever again. I am not the badass I thought I was.”
“You are more of a badass than you give yourself credit for, but I will tie you to the fucking bed if you decide you want to do something like this again.” I glance over at her and see a small smile on her pretty face. She looks exhausted, but she also looks like the weight of the world is off her shoulders.
She scoots as close as she can to the center console before leaning her head on my shoulder, content to ride the forty minutes home in silent, safe company.
Pulling into her driveway, I didn’t even realize this is where I drove us. It’s where she feels the most comfortable. It’s where I feel like home too, so it was a no-brainer.
“Alright, we’re here,” I murmur, not sure if she fell asleep or not.
She jolts up, looking around to get her bearings before her shoulders drop in relief. I climb out of the truck, walking around to open the door for her to find she’s already out and walking to her front door. She opens it, still not saying anything, and I follow her as she walks back to her bedroom .
Without changing her clothes or stripping down to just her underwear, she collapses face first onto her bed.
“What the actual fuck just happened?” The comforter muffles her words, and I have to laugh at her response to this whole day. Only Rina wouldn’t be completely freaking out. I’m sure she’s shaken by what happened, but it’s not breaking her. She isn’t letting it take over her life or her happiness. And even if she does, if she has a moment where she needs to break, I’ll be right by her side through it all, piecing her back together.
“What can I do?” Helplessness is still prevalent in my chest. I hope she’ll tell me when or if she needs anything because right now, I’m not sure what to do to make things better.
“Ugh,” she groans and moves her head to the side so I can hear her. “Food, probably a shower, and sleep. I’m open to the order of those, though.”
I smile at her, amazed that she’s mine. It’s been a hard day, and somehow just being here with her, doing mundane shit like figuring out dinner, makes me so damn happy.
“I’ll work on dinner if you just want to stay here and rest,” I offer.
“Yeah, that sounds good. I’ll lie here for a few minutes then help you,” she mumbles, then turns her head into the mattress again.
Walking closer to the bed, I intertwine my fingers in her hair, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head before whispering, “I’ll handle it. Just relax.”
I’m going to have to call in a couple of favors, but it’s worth it if I don’t have to leave Rina right now. Pulling out my phone, I call Sal’s diner.
“Sal’s, how can I help you?” Kelly answers on the second ring .
“Hey, Kelly, it’s Arlo. I was hoping you could help me. I need to see if someone can bring some food over to Rina’s house. Is Jim or any of the Huttons there by chance?”
Kelly chuckles into the receiver. “Oh, man, I love that this is happening. Do you both want your usual?”
“That’s perfect.” I don’t acknowledge her other statement.
“Let me put you on hold while I put this in really fast.” I hear the click of her doing just that, and I hear a truck pulling into the driveway at the same time. Heading out to make sure it’s who I think it is, I see Oakley climbing out just as Willow pulls in behind him to pick him up. I wave my thanks to them both as he quickly jumps in, leaning over to kiss her before she pulls out and they disappear as quickly as they came.
“Well, well, well, Sheriff. I hear you are in need of some food delivery,” Old Man Walters says over the phone.
“Yes, sir, I am. Are there any Huttons, or perhaps Jim is there?” I ask again, praying someone has a car that can help me.
“There are, but I’ll be helping you out today, son.”
“I appreciate that, but I don’t want to impose.”
“Nonsense. You’re at Miss Rina’s place?”
“We are.” It’s easier not to fight him. I learned a long time ago, when I took over for him as sheriff, that he’s as stubborn as they come and he will always get what he wants.
“Great. Looks like your food will be up soon, then I’ll head that way. And Arlo?”
“Yes, sir?”
“I’m glad you finally grew half a brain and went after that girl again.”
I freeze in place, rendered speechless by his words as he hangs up on me. I’m not sure if Rina and I were really not that sneaky back in the day, or if it was just his nature as sheriff to know everything that goes on in this town. Either way, he somehow knew of our history and managed to keep it to himself all these years. I’m grateful, but knowing how much time I wasted still kills me inside.
The rocking chairs on Rina’s front porch are too inviting, and I want to give her some time to decompress without any pressure, so I sit in one as I wait for Old Man Walters to deliver our dinner.
My mind wanders to the future and what I want to do differently this time with Rina. Sure, we’ve recommitted to each other, but we’re mostly still hidden away, still keeping so much a secret. All I want to do is shout to the world that Rina is mine, and I vow to make it happen. I think about the little box still in my pocket and start devising a plan I think will show Rina how much I love her.
The rumble of his old truck comes down the driveway, and I stand to go meet Old Man Walters. He rolls down his window as I reach his truck and hands me a huge bag of food.
“Miss Kelly says it’s on the house.” He winks. It suddenly feels like everyone in town has been secretly hoping Rina and I would get together, and I have to laugh at how our obvious discontent for each other didn’t hide our feelings very well.
“I appreciate that, and you for driving it all the way here.”
“I just wanted to give you some advice from an old man who just wants to see you happy. Hold on to her, fight her fights, and stand by her side. The two of you were destined to be together, and you both deserve all the happiness in the world. You both pushed aside your own lives in order to take care of other people, and as admirable as that is, it’s your turn. I’m proud of you, Arlo. Now, stop living at the damn office and go love on your woman.” He smirks .
“Yes, sir.” I nod and hold out my hand to shake his. “Thank you. For everything.” I’m not usually sentimental, but if he hadn’t given me this job, I fear I would have been lost for far longer than I was. He brought me back to the town I love and the woman I was meant to be with, and in a way, I owe him so much.
“I expect a wedding invitation soon.” He manually rolls up his window with a chuckle, and I shake my head at his blatant assumption.
It does reinforce my idea, though.
Walking back into Rina’s house with our bag of food, I find her right where I left her.
“Hey, Emmerdeur, food’s here.” She groans, but rolls over, rubbing her eyes as she wakes up from her catnap.
“Tell me Kelly put a burger in there.” She groans as she sits up.
“Why don’t you find out, and I’ll get us some drinks.” I hand her the bag and grab some water for both of us before joining her in bed again.
She hands me a Styrofoam container, and I open it to find a club and fries, and I practically drool, realizing I haven’t eaten since breakfast.
We demolish all the food in the bag without saying a word, both of us feeling a little more human after eating.
“Oh my God, I think that was the best burger I’ve ever eaten.” Rina groans as she rubs her stomach, an action so cute I just want to kiss her. Instead, I grab all of our trash.
“How about I clean up and you jump in the shower?” I ask, trying hard to give her time with no pressure for anything from me.
“Thank you, that sounds amazing.” She climbs out of the bed and starts stripping before she reaches the bathroom, and I have to bite my lip to quiet the groan threatening to come out .
She looks over her shoulder with a smirk, and I arch my brow at her in return. Little minx knows exactly what she’s doing.
“Careful, Marina.”
“I think I like living a little on the edge,” she retorts, then starts the shower and climbs in once it’s warm enough.
As much as I want to join her, I need to clean up and change her sheets. I know she’s not focused on it right now, but having clean sheets that she didn’t wear outside clothes on will help her brain settle down and hopefully help her sleep better.
I make quick work of throwing them in the washing machine and finding a clean set to throw on. Is it perfectly made? No, but it’s clean, and I think that’s what’s important here.
I strip out of my clothes and walk to the bathroom, leaning on the doorjamb to watch her. Her head is on the tile in front of her as she lets the water sluice over her. The sound of my feet padding across the floor is the only sound before opening the glass door and sliding in behind her. My hand spreads across the expanse of her stomach as I pull her back against me. Her head tips back against my shoulder as she releases a heavy breath.
“It’s over, right?” she murmurs.
“It’s over. You did so fucking good, even if it almost gave me a damn heart attack.”
“I think I gave myself one honestly. That room… The one with all the pictures. I think it may haunt my nightmares for a while.”
“I’ll be right here to hold you through it.”
“This whole stalker thing has me questioning how I run my business.” Her hand slips over mine, intertwining our fingers against her stomach. “Maybe cut back on deliveries or hire out to do them. I know this isn’t a direct correlation to me doing deliveries, but it makes me nervous to think about something like this happening again.”
“We can make a plan and figure it out. I can make deliveries with you, or if the company can handle it, you can certainly hire out. You don’t need to decide right this second.” I don’t know if she wants options, solutions, or just to vent, so I’m trying not to barge in with my opinion on things that don’t need to be settled right this second.
“I was really scared,” she whispers.
“I know. I said I’d protect you, and I didn’t. I failed you on many levels today.” I don’t realize how much guilt I feel until I say the words. I’ve been so focused on making sure she has what she needs, I never stopped to think about how little I helped her today.
“It was no one but Tyler’s fault, and you know that. I was just so desperate to figure this out and catch him that I was willing to do stupid shit to make it happen.” She turns in my hold, wrapping her arms around my neck. “I promise to try to not be a willful know-it-all and land myself in a fucked-up situation like that again.”
“I promise to protect you so that you never have to think about putting yourself in a position like that again,” I counter. And I mean it; this is something that shouldn’t have happened in the first place, but I also realize I can’t control the actions of other people either.
“You might need to set up an office in my workshop if you’re bound and determined to protect me all the time.” She smirks.
“Don’t tempt me, Marina.”
“You are very easy to rile up. It’s super cute.” She places her head on my chest, right over my heart, and we stand there until the water goes cold .
“Alright, let’s get you dried and in bed so you can sleep off the stressful day.” I drag her out of the shower, grabbing a towel as I do and drying her off thoroughly before letting her go find some clothes to put on. I make quick work of drying myself off and realize I have no spare clothes here. I don’t really want to put on any clothes that were in that fucker’s house.
“Hey, Rina?” I call out from the bathroom. Silence greets me, and I panic for no logical reason.
“Rina!” I call out as I rush into her room buck-ass naked.
I find her standing in front of her bed in underwear and a tank top.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, confused as to what just happened.
“You changed the sheets?” Her voice is so small that I wonder if I fucked up.
“I did. Was that the wrong move?” “No, it was the best move ever.” She spins around and jumps on me, wrapping her legs around my waist as I hold her up. She presses a gentle kiss to my lips before pulling back with glistening eyes. “Thank you.”
“You are very welcome. I just wanted to make sure you got some good sleep tonight.”
“Very thoughtful, my love. How about I throw your clothes in the washer so you have something to wear tomorrow, unless you want to do a very awkward walk of shame back home?”
“That’s probably a good idea, but I’ll take care of it. And it wouldn’t be a walk of shame with you. Nothing ever done with you is shameful.” I press a soft kiss to her lips before walking her to the bed and gently setting her down, making sure she’s covered up before I grab my clothes and take care of them .
Once I return, she’s fast asleep. I crawl under the covers and slide against her, wrapping my arm around her middle.
Today was messy and hard, but we endured it, and now it’s time to live the life we always should have.