Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

I woke up warm.

Very, very warm.

Mostly because I was cuddled up against Rhodes’s back. My arms were crossed, my forehead was tucked between his shoulder blades, and my toes were hiding under his calves. Rhodes, thankfully, was oblivious.

The memory of our conversation last night had me eyeing the smooth skin in front of my eyes. The urge to stroke those sleek muscles was right there. But I kept my hands to myself. Because he was right. I wanted more time. For all my big talk last night, I didn’t want to rush into anything yet. I wasn’t going anywhere, and from what he had said, he wasn’t either.

Not that I wouldn’t mind seeing him naked. Because I would sign up for that in a heartbeat.

Carefully, so that I wouldn’t wake him, I scooted away slowly and exhaled. Then I rolled out of bed and peeked at the sleeping figure some more. On his side, that smooth skin of his peeked out from where the heavy comforter lay tucked right beneath his armpits. He was breathing deeply.

You know . . . I was pretty sure I was in love with him.

And I was pretty sure he might be a little in love with me too.

I opened the door as quietly as possible and snuck out of the room, closing it behind me with the softest click. Creeping down the stairs, I stopped right at the bottom.

Amos was in his pajamas, sitting at the table eating a bowl of cereal. He gave me a sleepy look. I lifted my hand and tipped up my head.

“Your dad told me to sleep up there,” I muttered as I made my way to get a glass for some water.

The kid gave me a sleepy but funny look as he muttered, “Uh-huh,” just as my phone started vibrating. “It’s done that like three times in the last ten minutes.” He sighed, sounding disgruntled.

Picking it up from where I’d left it charging on the counter last night, I peeked at the unknown number calling. It was seven in the morning. Who could it be? Only about twenty people had my number, and I had every person’s contact information stored on it. The area code was local too.

I answered. “Hello?”

“Aurora?” the familiar voice replied.

My whole body jerked in place. “Mrs. Jones?”

The Antichrist barreled on like she went through everything in her life: with no regard for anyone but herself and her children. “Look here, I know how stubborn you’re being about all this—”

“What?”It was too early for this shit. It was way too early. What was she doing contacting me? “How the hell did you get my number? Why are you calling?” I spat in sheer disbelief this was happening.

Her pause was too short. “I really need to speak to you if you won’t respond to Kaden.”

I remembered then. I remembered right in that moment that I didn’t need to take her bullshit anymore. So I hung up.

And I smirked.

And Amos asked in his sleepy voice, “Why do you look like that?”

“I forgot how much I like hanging up on people,” I answered him, feeling pretty damn pleased with myself as I processed what I’d done. Damn, did that feel good.

He frowned like he thought I was nuts just as my phone started vibrating again. The same number flashed on the screen. I hit ignore.

“Who is that?”

“Did you know the devil is really a woman?” I asked.

My phone started vibrating again, and I cursed. She wasn’t going to let this go. Why would I expect otherwise from someone who thought we were all around to serve her? The urge to keep playing this game—ignoring her calls—pulsed deeply in my chest . . . but the urge to never have this shit happen again was even stronger once I thought about it. That surprised me a lot.

I didn’t actually want to keep doing this with her. With any of them, really. I didn’t even want to waste my time thinking about them anymore.

I knew damn well I needed to end this once and for all, and there was only one way to do that.

I answered the call and went right into it. “Mrs. Jones, it’s seven in the morning, and this is—”

“I’m in town, Aurora. Please meet me.”

And that’s why the number was local. Son of a bitch. I was still tired enough I hadn’t put two and two together. I was lucky I didn’t have anything in my mouth because I would’ve spit it out. “You’re in town where?” I pretty much demanded.

“In this . . . town. At the resort with the springs,” she replied, sounding totally put out by the nicest hotel in town. “I need to speak to you. Clear some things up that I think may have gotten . . . out of hand,” she said way too carefully compared to how she used to speak to me.

I glanced at Amos to find him staring blearily at his phone, but I knew this sneaky kid was listening.

“Please,” the older woman said, “for old times’ sake.”

“The ‘old times’ sake’ thing won’t work on me, ma’am,” I told her honestly.

Yeah, I knew that was going to go down real well with her. She was probably shooting me the middle finger in her head because she thought she was way too classy to actually do it. And to me, that just made it a hell of a lot worse.

“Please,” she insisted. “I will never contact you again if you don’t want me to.”

Liar.

The urge to hang up was still there, pulsing and pounding and telling me to move on with my life. There was nothing I wanted to hear from her mouth. But . . . there were things I wanted to tell her. Specific things that needed to be said so I would never have to go through this again. Speaking to them, I meant. Because ultimately, that was what I needed more than anything now. To fucking move on. To not have the Joneses hanging over my head anymore.

What I wanted was my current life. The man in bed upstairs. And I couldn’t have those things with these damn ghosts still haunting me when they felt like it.

I thought about what I knew about this woman, which was just about everything, and cursed. “Fine. There’s a restaurant on the main street that’s in walking distance. I’ll meet you there in an hour.”

“Which restaurant?”

“There’s only one open this early. The front desk can give you directions.” And it was usually busy with tourists and retired locals, so I figured it was the best place for us to meet so that she wouldn’t throw a fit. I hadn’t eaten breakfast there yet, but I drove by it every morning and knew what kind of traffic they got. It would be perfect.

“I’ll meet you there,” she said after a moment, her voice strained, and I knew this was costing her.

I rolled my eyes so well, Amos would have been proud. And the fact that he snickered cheered me up even though I didn’t look at him. He didn’t need to know I knew what he was doing.

“See you in an hour,” I said before hanging up, not bothering to wait for her to make another comment. I let out a deep breath to release the tension in my stomach. Once and for all, I told myself.

“You okay?” Amos asked.

“Yeah,” I told him. “My old mother-in-law is in town and wants to meet up.”

He yawned.

“I’m going to get ready in your bathroom and then head out,” I said. “Need anything? Why are you awake this early?”

“After Dad woke us up, I stayed up and haven’t gone to sleep yet.” He paused. “What does she want?”

“The Antichrist? I’m not sure. Either to get me to go back to work for them or . . .” I shrugged, not willing to say it out loud, not even thinking about what I’d admitted. That I had worked for my ex. Of all the things we’d talked about, neither father nor son had asked about what I used to do for a living. I’d told them I’d been an assistant when we’d first met, but they’d never asked for more information.

And he either didn’t care or was too tired to notice or pay attention because all he did was nod, his gaze bleary.

I cursed under my breath at what the hell I was about to do. “I won’t take too long in the bathroom, Mini Eric Clapton. If you fall asleep before I get out, I’ll see you later. Tell your dad I’ll be back.”

I got to the diner early. It was a cute, very small restaurant wedged between a retail store that had been around for over a hundred years and a real estate company. It was tourist central, even though the only people visiting this time of year were hunters from Texas and California mostly.

But I knew that everything with Mrs. Jones was a power play, and that would include getting to the diner ahead of time and picking out her seat.

Fortunately, I managed to snag a table—waving at a couple I recognized who frequented the Outdoor Experience—and picked my seat facing the door. Sure enough, five minutes after sitting down and ten minutes before we were supposed to meet, I spotted her by the door—thin, tan, and slimmer than ever. Then I noticed the way she was clinging to her thirty-five-thousand-dollar purse like if it brushed against something in the diner, she’d get cooties.

I knew for a fact she’d worked at a Waffle House back in the day.

God, help me with this family.

The best thing I ever did was get kicked out of it. And that knowledge made me straighten my spine. I was happy. Healthy. I had my whole future ahead of me. I had friends and loved ones. Maybe I still had no clue what I was going to be doing a year from now, much less five or ten, but I was happy. Happier and more secure than I’d been in a long, long time.

And that was why I was smiling as I stood up and caught Mrs. Jones’s attention. She frowned, upset at being got, and made her way over as I sat back down. Just as she took the seat across from me, I held my hand out to her.

Did I want to be the bigger person? No. Would it irritate her if I was? Yes. And that’s why I did it.

She looked at it with surprise. She sniffed as she shook it, her hand cool and almost clammy. Either somebody was nervous or irritated. I hoped both.

“Hello, Aurora,” she said.

“Hi, Mrs. Jones.” I felt some more of that lingering bitterness slip away. I opened my menu, regretting leaving my overnight oatmeal in the fridge at Rhodes’s so I’d have time to get ready.

I had thought about not putting makeup on or doing my hair but decided against it. I wanted her to see with her own eyes that I was kicking ass and taking names. Kind of.

You know what? I was kicking ass. I was fine. Better than ever, and that was the absolute truth. My hair was healthy since it was totally grown out after a decade of frying it to get it the pale blonde it had been. I was tan from all the time I still managed to spend outside, and I was better mentally and physically than I had been in forever.

And I felt like I wore my sense of peace over me like a cloak.

Life didn’t have to be perfect for you to be happy. Because what was perfect really, anyway?

“How are you?” I asked her, my attention still on the menu.

Ooh, French toast. I hadn’t had that in . . . months, not since before I’d gotten here.

“Well, I’d be doing better if I was home, Aurora,” the older woman bitched.

I let it go in one ear and out the other. Maybe I’d just have coffee, actually, and go back to Rhodes’s and eat breakfast with them. This honestly wouldn’t last too long by the way it was looking. And I only had enough cash to pay for a coffee and leave a tip, so that I wouldn’t have to be awkward and wait around for a waitress to take my debit card if I decided to bounce quickly.

Actually, that sounded like a plan. Breakfast with people who made me happy or with a demon? Like that was even a choice.

With that settled, I closed my menu and focused back on the woman who hadn’t even opened hers, confirming maybe this wasn’t going to be a long conversation. Perfect. Well, that and Mrs. Jones wouldn’t lower herself to eating at a diner. My God. No eggs Benedict? A mango power smoothie? God forbid. That shit was delicious, but the way she demanded things made them obnoxious.

With a deep breath, I leaned back and watched her sitting there, her beautiful green purse on her lap, manicured fingers resting on the strap.

“You look well,” I told her honestly.

“You look . . . tan” was the nicest thing she managed to get out of her mouth.

I laughed and shrugged. Like that was an insult.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, pinching her lips together.

I didn’t know what to do with my hands, so I set them on top of the table, tapping the plastic-covered menu with my fingernails. “I live here,” I told her, hopefully with a “duh” tone in my voice.

Her nostrils flared a little. “It took us a long time to find you. We had to hire a few private investigators.”

I lifted a shoulder. “I wasn’t hiding, and it wasn’t like Kaden didn’t know I grew up here.” He’d just forgotten or never processed it enough in the first place.

What a fucker, now that I thought about it.

Mrs. Jones’s nostrils flared again, and I could tell it was taking everything in her not to make a smart-ass comment. “You know how busy he is; he always has so many things going on in his head.”

I wasn’t going to make excuses or believe that same line I’d told myself over and over again during the length of our relationship. Poor wittle Kaden. So busy. So many things to do.

No, he didn’t. His mom did everything for him. I’d done everything for him. He had other people who did everything for him. I bet he had no idea how much money he paid in taxes or how much his mortgage was.

“Is that why he’s not here?” I asked her, barely repressing smiling sarcastically. “Because he’s so busy?”

I didn’t miss the way the corners of her mouth went white before she collected herself and said, “Yes.” Mrs. Jones cleared her throat lightly, just barely. “Aurora . . .”

“Look, Mrs. Jones, I’m sure you have better things to do than hang around Pagosa trying to catch up with me, because I know I do. What do you want?”

She gasped. “That’s incredibly rude.”

“It’s not rude if it’s the truth, because I really do have things to do.” It was my day off. I had breakfast to eat. A life to keep living.

She huffed in her seat, that thin, pink mouth pressing tight before she set her shoulders in a way that reminded me of all the times she’d had to be the bad guy with someone in honor of her son. “Fine.” She sat up straighter than she’d been before, collecting her words and possibly even bracing herself. “Kaden made a mistake.”

Maybe they would end up with that shit pie eventually, after all. “He’s made a lot of mistakes.”

Bless her heart, she tried not to sneer, but I knew her too well to fall for it. “I’d like to know what all these ‘a lot’ of mistakes are,” she snapped before she could stop herself.

I kept my mouth closed and gave her a look that I’d learned from the best, the man whose bed I’d left that morning. That was what I would have rather been thinking about. What was happening there. What could happen there. It sent a thrill through me.

“With you, Aurora. I’m talking about the mistake he made . . . leaving you.”

Bingo. I bet that cost her to say. “Oh, that. Okay. A) He didn’t leave me. You two kicked me out. B) I knew he’d regret it someday, so that’s nothing new, Mrs. Jones. But what does that have to do with me?” I had to coax her into saying what I was already totally aware of.

She couldn’t think I was so stupid to not know, right?

Then again, she probably did.

She let out an exasperated sound, her dark brown eyes moving across the diner quickly before returning to me. I knew what she saw. People in T-shirts and flannels, camouflaged coveralls, old jackets, and pullover Columbia sweaters. Nothing fancy or flashy.

“It has everything to do with you,” she whispered, stressing her words. “He never should have ended the relationship. You know he was under a lot of pressure with the way the Trivium album went, and you were making all these demands.”

Demands. Me asking him when we could get married. Really married because it mattered to me. When we could have kids because I had always wanted them and he knew it, and I wasn’t getting any younger.

I’d been his most faithful friend for fourteen years, and I had made demands.

But I kept the comments to myself and kept my face even. I let her keep going.

“He was in a bad place.”

In his ten-million-dollar house, traveling around in a two-million-dollar tour bus, flying around in a private jet that his record label owned.

He hadn’t been in a “bad place.” I knew Kaden better than anyone and knew that, apart from a time after his grandfather had died, he had never been devastated a day in his life. He had been bummed and disappointed after his Trivium album had gotten reamed by music reviewers, but he’d shrugged it off and said he was lucky it had taken him six albums to finally have a flop. It happens to everybody, he’d insisted. His mom on the other hand had been furious . . . but it had been her idea to stop using my songs so . . .

He slept soundly every night, fueled by the countless people who brushed off the failure and kept reassuring him with butter-covered words that would go up his butt easier. He had lived in a fantasy world of love. Part of it was my fault but not all of it.

“And you’d been together so long, he needed to get his head straight. Make sure.”

Make sure?

I almost choked, but she didn’t deserve that.

Make sure.Wowee wowsers.

I wanted to laugh too but held that back as well. Just . . . wow. She was digging herself into a deeper and deeper hole, and she had no idea. I should’ve been insulted by how dumb and desperate she assumed I would be to fall for this.

But I could play this game. I was good at it. I’d had fourteen years to perfect this with her. I’d even practiced on Randall Rhodes. I should’ve invited him over and unleashed him on her.

“He had so many options. Wouldn’t you rather he be totally confident than question everything later on?” she asked.

I nodded seriously.

She bared her teeth in something that tried to resemble a smile but actually made her look like she was being tortured. Which this probably was for her. “He misses you, Aurora. Very much. He wants you back.”

She emphasized that “back” like it was some sort of fucking Christmas miracle—no, not a Christmas miracle, an immaculate conception. Like I should fall to my knees and be grateful.

Instead, I just nodded seriously some more.

“He’s tried calling everyone he knows to get them to give him your new number. He’s begged Yuki and that sister of hers.”

They might have gotten along while we’d been together, but I was their friend. A real friend who cared about them and worried about them and loved them for no reason other than they were great people. Not because they could do something for me.

“One of the private investigators we hired had to get creative to get your phone number once he located you. He has tried getting back in contact with you. I know he’s emailed you and you haven’t had the decency to respond.”

And that’s when I snapped.

Decency.

“Decency” was a strong word that usually people the furthest away from being decent would use. Because decent people didn’t use the word as a weapon. Decent people understood that there were reasons for everything and that there were two sides to every story.

And I was a decent person. Fuck it. I was a good person. These motherfuckers were the ones who wouldn’t know what decent meant if it backhanded them.

And I wasn’t going to get dragged through the mud more than I already had. So that’s when I stopped her.

I leaned forward across the table, reached toward the woman who I had never really loved but had cared about because someone I’d loved adored her, and set my hand on top of hers, the hand she had sitting on top of her Hermès purse. And I smiled at her, even though I absolutely didn’t feel like smiling at all.

My smile was the only weapon I needed then.

“I didn’t respond, not because I wasn’t decent, because I am, and the next time you approach someone to try and get them to listen to you, maybe don’t disrespect them. There is literally nothing I want from Kaden. Not six months ago, not a year ago, and definitely not today. I told him, Mrs. Jones, when he showed up at our house after spending the night at yours, that he didn’t mean what he said. That he would regret ending our relationship. And I was right.”

I exhaled through my nose and pulled my hand back, aiming another one of those deadly smiles at her so she would know her time for talking was done. She was done. “I don’t give a shit if he actually misses me or if he misses what I did for him and that’s why he wants me back. I know he loved me, at least he did genuinely for a while, and I hope he knows I loved him. But that’s the thing, I don’t anymore, and I haven’t in a long time. He killed every inch of the love I felt for him. You helped kill every inch of the love I felt for him too.”

I met her gaze and asked her as seriously as possible, “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? Because he regrets ending our relationship? More like he regrets letting you talk him into it, right? Is he mad at you now? Are you here trying to clean up his mess because he blames you for this happening instead of being an adult and taking responsibility for his actions? I bet that’s exactly what it is. That should tell you everything though. Why your spoiled kid won’t get what he suddenly decided he wants again. Why I will never, ever go back.

“You all shunned me. Embarrassed me. You turned people against me, and that’s on them too, but it’s on you two for putting them into that position in the first place. At this point, I don’t wish bad things on either of you, but if you’re looking for a blood transfusion or an organ donor, don’t bother looking in my direction. I’ve moved on. I’m happy, and I’m not letting you or Kaden or any of your lackeys take that away from me.”

I was glad the waitress still hadn’t come. I was glad I could leave. I started to get up, taking in the furious but astonished expression that had taken over her entire face.

“Please don’t bother me anymore. And I’m only saying please to be polite because I really want to tell you to leave me the fuck alone. You always saw me as some worthless piece of crap that should kiss your son’s feet, but you forget what his career was like before I came around. Before I gave him all of my best songs. Before he took advantage of how much I had loved him. I will never go back. There isn’t enough money in the world that you could pay me to do so.”

I stood up straight and kept on going just as she opened her mouth to tell me I was a useless bitch, like she had once before when she’d been drunk after an awards show I hadn’t been allowed to go to.

“I wish that I could tell you that I hope you’ll both find peace and happiness in your lives, but I’m not that good of a person. What I hope for is that you’ll leave me alone. That’s what I hope. Those ten million you transferred into my account were enough to get me to shut up, and I’m going to take advantage of them. I’m going to put my kids through college with them, kids I’m going to have with someone that isn’t your son and will never be your son. You don’t have to worry about me running after Kaden begging for scraps, ma’am. Find someone else who doesn’t mind being in eleventh place, because it sure as hell isn’t going to be me.”

There were two last things left that needed to be said, and I knew my time was up, so I told her the words carefully, looking right into her soulless eyes as I did. “I can’t write anymore. I haven’t in over a year. Maybe one day the words will come back to me, but they’re not here now, and part of me hopes they don’t return. But even without my notebooks and without my songs, I was worth a lot. Worth more than all that money you paid me. So, please, leave me alone. All of you. If I see you or Kaden again, I’ll make sure you regret it.”

I leaned forward so she wouldn’t mistake how dead serious I was. “If any of you contact me, and I mean any of you, I will tell everyone about that lie we were all part of. I know people, and you know that. After that, I’ll spend every dollar of those millions you sent me taking you to court, Mrs. Jones. Every single penny. I’ve got nothing better to do. I would rather spend it on people that make me happy, but I won’t lose sleep using it on other things. So I want you to think long and hard about knowing where I live, knowing what my phone number is, if your little baby ever decides he wants to get in contact with me again.”

Her neck had started to turn pink, and I could see her fingers shaking, but before she could collect herself, I dipped my head at her, and said what I hoped would be the last thing I ever told her.

“Goodbye, Mrs. Jones.”

And I walked out of there.

I had a low-level headache on the drive home, just this faint buzzing thing from the tension of being around the Antichrist. She had that effect on people. A small part of me still couldn’t believe the bullshit she’d tried to spill.

Decent people.

Make sure.

That was the way to win someone over.

Yeah, right.

I snorted and shook my head at least ten times, rewinding her words and then speeding through them again. I wanted to call Aunt Carolina and tell her. I wanted to call Yuki. Or Clara.

But more than all of that, I just wanted to get back to the life I knew now. The one that had built me back up from the place of indecision and confusion and fear that I had once been in. To the people who mattered.

I didn’t even realize there were a couple of tears popping out of the corners of my eyes until I sniffed back a watery nose and realized it wasn’t actually coming from there. Wiping at them with the back of my hand, I just wanted a hug.

I was done with that life. So fucking done it felt like a hundred pounds had fallen off my chest. The second I turned into the driveway, I was ready.

I didn’t know for what exactly, but for something.

For the future more than ever. For everything, maybe.

A whoosh of air left my lungs as I turned the car into Rhodes’s driveway. Determination reinforced my spine as I drove onward, ready to park, to get out, and to continue appreciating everything I had. Because of the Joneses in part. But still, always and forever, mostly thanks to my mom. I had no idea where I’d be or how I’d feel if I didn’t have this place.

But as I approached the garage apartment, I spotted Rhodes himself coming out of his house, this tight expression on his face that lasted about a second before he focused on my car. Then and only then did some of the tension ease off his features. Like relief. Was he relieved?

His flannel shirt was buttoned halfway up, his undershirt, as always, clinging to his chest. There were keys in his hand too, I realized as I parked my car in the usual spot and got out.

He was coming down the deck stairs as I circled around the front. That purple-gray gaze was on me. “You all right?” he called out, a frown coming over his mouth again.

But it didn’t stay there for long.

Because I said, “I’m great,” about a split second before I went for him the moment he was within reaching distance. Going up to the tips of my toes, I put my arms around the back of his neck, my chest plastering itself against his, and I went for it.

I pressed my lips against Rhodes’s.

His body went rock solid for all of a second before his upper body relaxed and one of his arms wrapped around the middle of my back, the other forearm settling just above my butt. Rhodes crushed me against him, tilting his head to the side, a warm kiss his reply to mine.

And it was only a freaking miracle that I didn’t try to scale him like a wall and wrap my legs around his waist because his mouth was warm, his lips firm and soft at the same time. It was sweet and gentle . . . It was everything I had ever wanted and more.

His breath washed over my mouth, eyebrows knitting together. He licked his lips, looked right into my eyes for a single moment, and then dipped for another kiss before he pulled back and focused down on me some more with his intense face. “And here I was worried you were coming back and telling me you were moving out.”

I shook my head, taking in the fine lines at his eyes, the ones across his forehead, the sharp color of his eyes, and all that incredible silver hair.

“Are you all right?” he murmured, kneading my hip with his big hand, still staring at me like if he looked away I would suddenly disappear.

“Yeah,” I answered. “I met up with my ex’s mom.”

“Am told me,” he breathed. “I was debating whether to go be your backup or let you handle it alone.”

I couldn’t help but smile at him, taking in his care and tucking it in deeply along my heart. “I’m fine,” I told him quietly. “She just riled me up, and all I wanted was to come back here.” I swallowed. “I want no part of them anymore. Not even a little bit.”

“I hope not,” he said, watching me carefully. “You sure you’re all right?”

“Yeah, but I’m even better now,” I admitted, because it was 100 percent the truth. And that was exactly when I realized what I’d done. What I’d started and where we were. “I’m sorry I jumped you like that. I know we just talked about taking our time and being sure, but all I could think about was how lucky I am to have you guys, and you’re so handsome, and you make me feel safe, and you always believe in me and—”

That full mouth cracked into the slowest smile I’d ever seen, his eyebrows going up at the same time. But it wasn’t words that cut me off. It was the sweet press of his lips against mine once more. Slow and tender, his lips only lingered over mine for a moment, but it might have been the greatest moment of my life.

If I liked kissing him this much with my mouth closed, how much would I like his tongue?

I needed to calm the hell down, that was what I needed to do.

Rhodes pulled back, that lingering soft smile still taking over his mouth as he said, “Whenever you’re ready, you’ll tell me?”

I nodded, and that was when I whispered, “I don’t kiss just anybody.”

The way he said “good” was probably going to be etched into my soul for the rest of my life.

“Ora!” a yell came from the house, surprising us both.

I peeked over Rhodes’s shoulder to find Amos standing at the doorway, still in his pajamas and looking even more sleepy.

“You okay?” he asked, confirming exactly why I’d come here.

Because it was a place where a sixteen-year-old and a forty-two-year-old who I’d only known for about six months worried about me more than people I had known for over a decade.

It was my place of comfort. The place where my mom had wanted me to be. Somewhere that lifted me up and kept me up, even on the crappy days.

“I’m good!” I yelled back. “Are you?”

“Scarred for life watching you grab Dad’s butt like that, but I’ll get over it. Thanks for wondering!” he hollered sarcastically before shaking his head and closing the door.

Rhodes and I both froze. Our eyes met, and we both started cracking up.

Yeah, I was right where I wanted to be. Where I was happy. Thank you, Mom.