Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Blythe

“ W hoa!” Avett exclaimed as he threw the door open and jumped out of the car. “Check this place out. It’s huge!”

Adeline blinked, unbuckling her seatbelt and leaning between the front seats to stare out the windshield. “It’s really pretty,” she said in quiet awe, her reaction much more subdued than her older brother’s but no less excited.

“It is. And wait until you see the inside.”

She turned to look at me. “And I really get my own room?”

I smiled and reached up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear before caressing her cheek. My little thinker liked to have her own space, and there hadn’t been much of that in recent months. Having her own room would be a huge relief to her. “Yes, baby. You each have your own room.”

“You think he gots horses?” Ainsley practically shouted, bouncing up and down in her booster like she’s had pure sugar for breakfast.

“No, chickadee. No horses. But he does have a dog.”

It was a wonder her excited squeal didn’t shatter all the windows or burst my eardrums. “Lemme out! Lemme out! I wanna see!”

I didn’t make her wait any longer. Climbing out of the car, I moved to the back door and threw it open, helping Ainsley out of her seat so she and Adeline could climb out and explore like their brother.

“Don’t wander,” I called out as I moved around the car and opened the back hatch. “And stay where I can see you!”

“Yes, ma’am,” Adeline returned, taking her little sister’s hand as they jog-skipped toward the house for further investigation.

The sound of tires crunching on gravel caught my attention, and I spun around to see the line of vehicles coming down the drive. Rhodes’s truck was in the front, followed by Tristan’s. Behind him, Trick steered his Suburban while my mom sat in the passenger seat, with Sunny and her family bringing up the rear in a white sedan. It was moving day, and it looked like my crew had finally arrived.

Rhodes slammed the door to his truck and started toward me. The top half of his face was hidden by the shadow his baseball cap cast, but I could see the wide grin stretching his lips clear as day. I shouldn’t have taken notice of the way the sleeves of his white T-shirt bunched up above the swell of his biceps, like they couldn’t stretch over the muscles, but I did.

“Hey, Angel,” he greeted, stopping two feet in front of me and reaching up to twist his hat backward. Damn it . What was it about a backward ball cap that was so damn sexy? “Between Tris and me, we managed to get everything you had in storage packed up.”

I dragged my tongue across my dry lips, preparing to thank him, when Ainsley’s voice filled the air. “Mommy! I hear the dog!” Rhodes and I both turned in the direction of the front porch. My girls were standing at the door, their hands and ears pressed hard against the wood. “She’s sayin’ she wants to meet me!”

Rhodes let out a chuckle and started toward my daughters. “Is that what Koda’s sayin’?”

Ainsley nodded earnestly, her turquois eyes big. “Uh-huh. She’s so sad, bein’ locked in there all by herself.”

He smiled at my youngest with such tenderness and affection I felt it in my chest. “Then we shouldn’t keep her waitin’.”

My girls bounced in place, waiting to meet the dog of the house.

He pressed the code to the lock—one he’d already given me, along with the key for backup—but before he opened the door, he said, “Now, she’s a big girl, and she might look a little scary, but I promise she’s gentle as a kitten. She’d never hurt you. But watch out for her tail when it really gets goin’. It can pack a punch if she whacks you with it.”

My girls nodded, Adeline giving him a, “Yes, sir.”

Sure enough, as soon as he pushed the door open, the dog I met at the beginning of the week charged out, her rear end swinging wildly. Her claws clicked against the wooden planks of the porch as her paws scrabbled around like she was dancing.

Ainsley let out an ear-piercing shriek. “ Eeeeeee ! She’s so pretty!”

“Koda, calm,” Rhodes ordered, and just like last time, the dog did her best to rein in her enthusiasm. She stood in place, her whole body practically vibrating as my kids loved all over her.

Avett came over just then, abandoning his attempt to climb one of the trees that lined the driveway. “That dog looks so much cooler than Uncle Tristan’s!” he exclaimed before running up the steps to get in on the petting action.

“Christ,” my brother grunted as he came up beside me, crossing his arms over his chest. “How quickly they’re willin’ to toss a guy over for one with a bigger dog.”

I bumped my arm into his and laid my head on his shoulder, smiling at his grumpy tone. “Don’t worry. You’ll always be their favorite uncle.”

He twisted his head to look down at me, his expression deadpan. “I’m their only uncle.”

“See?” I chirped. “You’re already ahead of the game.”

“I’ll have you know, Doc’s incredibly smart.” He harrumphed as he watched Ainsley latch her arms around Koda’s neck. “Sure, he’s not tall... and he looks more like a box than a dog?—”

“I always thought he resembled a rump roast with stubby little legs.”

I had to curl my lips between my teeth to keep from laughing at my brother’s glare. “My dog’s just as good as that one.” He threw his chin in Koda’s direction with a sneer. “You’ll see. You’ll miss Doc in no time.”

I nodded. “Of course,” I said solemnly, all the while thinking I highly doubted that.

I set the box I was holding down on the bed and looked around the room I’d be calling my own for the foreseeable future. Puffing out my cheeks, I blew a hard breath out past my lips as I tried to convince myself that this was the right decision.

“Am I making a huge mistake?” I asked Sunny when she crossed the threshold and put the box she was carrying down on top of the dresser.

She placed her hands on her hips and followed my gaze as I traced it along the pale sage green walls. “Well, even if you are, I’d say it’s too late to back out now. The guys already have the heavy stuff set up, and that was the last box. I don’t think any of them are gonna want to hear that you changed your mind.”

I shot my best friend a killing look. “Thanks a lot. You’re a huge help.”

She laughed and came up beside me, throwing her arm around my shoulders. “This isn’t a mistake, babe. It’ll be an adjustment, sure, but it’s not a mistake. If you’re second guessing, think about your kids’ faces when they saw their new rooms.”

I knew she was right. I’d felt it in my bones when Rhodes opened the door to Adeline’s bedroom, and my girl moved inside, standing in the middle of the space with the kind of smile I hadn’t seen from her in months. She needed this. Even more than my other children, my middle girl needed to be where she could close everyone else out and get lost in the quiet for a little while.

“Besides,” Sunny spoke, pulling me from my thoughts, “I’m pretty sure if you tried to separate Koda and Ains now, there’d be a mutiny.”

“I’m just scared,” I admitted on a whisper, blinking against the burn forming in the backs of my eyes. “I know this was the right choice for my children, but I don’t know if it was the right one for me.”

Sunny dropped her arm, coming to stand in front of me so she could take my hands in hers. “Oh, honey.”

“I mean, it’s him, Sun. It’s Rhodes. I don’t know if—” I stopped, swallowing against the tightness in my throat. “I don’t know if I can go there again.”

“Hey.” She waited for me to lift my gaze to hers. “No one is saying you have to, okay? This move isn’t about that. You’ve been through more in the past six months than any person should have to go through in their entire life. This doesn’t have to be anything more than a fresh start.”

“But what if he?—?”

Her fingers clenched around mine. “He’ll respect that. I know he will. Whatever you want—or don’t want—he’ll respect.”

I could see something dancing in her gaze. The wheels in her head were spinning. “Why do I have a feeling there’s a ‘but’ coming?”

She grinned, letting out a little giggle. “ But ,” she said teasingly, “if you did decide you wanted to see where things went with my brother, you wouldn’t hear any complaints from me.”

“Sunny,” I said in a warning tone, stepping away and dropping my head back with an exasperated groan.

“I’m not trying to pressure you.” She held her hands up in surrender. “I’m not even going to mention how I always wished you could be my sister.”

A sound a lot like a small grown rumbled from my chest. “You really aren’t helping.”

“I’m kidding!” she laughed, then, a second later, the humor died away. “Neither of you are the same people you were back then, B. I’m not going to make excuses for what he did when you were younger. I still want to kick his ass whenever I think about it. But he’s changed. So have you. You were the softness he needed back then to round out his hard edges, but... maybe, this time around, he can be the softness you need.”

I raised my brows. “Are you saying I’ve gotten hard?”

Her eyes filled with sympathy. “Honey, there’s no way a person can live through what you’ve lived through and not harden at least a little.”

I sniffled, hating how right she was. I didn’t feel like the same person I’d been before Elliott died. “But... what if I can’t bring myself to trust him again?”

“There isn’t a woman in the world who wouldn’t understand that. But you don’t have to give that out freely. It’s his job to earn it.”

For the millionth time in my life, I thanked whatever higher power had brought Sunny into my life and made her my best friend.

“When did you get so damn smart?”

“Puberty, I think. It was the strangest thing. It makes us girls smarter, but it turns boys into dumbasses.”

I let out a laugh and pulled her into a hug, grateful beyond belief that she had the power to make me laugh, even in the hard times when I didn’t think it was possible.