Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Rhodes

I knew it was a dick move, jumping at her kids’ invitation to dinner when Blythe so clearly didn’t want me to go, but I couldn’t help myself. When I rounded the corner and saw her standing in the middle of that aisle, it was like every nerve ending in my body sparked to life.

That magnetic pull latched onto me and wouldn’t let go. I’d been transfixed. There was nothing particularly sexy about the pale blue scrubs she was wearing, the boxy material hanging loose and hiding her figure, but she was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on. Even with the mascara streaked beneath her eyes.

I’d given myself a moment to soak her in before taking in the chaos swirling around her. Seeing her with her kids felt like taking a baseball bat to the chest. We’d been too young at the time to really understand what it took to be parents, but we’d been so infatuated with each other that we’d talked regularly about starting our life together and what that would look like, and kids had always been a part of the plan. Hell, we’d even gone so far as to pick out names. Seeing the four of them together then was a glaring reminder that she’d managed to do all the things we’d talked about. Only, she’d done them with someone else, because I’d tossed her away.

There was no denying that her kids were cute as hell though. It was obvious the older two took after their father, what with their dark hair and eyes. But there was still some of their mom wrapped up in their features. The youngest, however, was the spitting image of Blythe’s mother, Nona, only in toddler form.

I should have minded my own business and walked away right then, left them to their day, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want to. And I knew that made me an asshole because of everything she was currently dealing with, but I couldn’t help myself.

When she’d grudgingly given in to her kids’ pleading and invited me to dinner at seven, I’d jumped on the offer, said my goodbyes, and hightailed my ass out of there before she had a chance to change her mind or I had another run-in with Grace.

I’d never meant to hurt Grace. She was a good woman. I just didn’t feel the same way about her that she’d felt for me. I tried, really, but in the end, I called it off because I knew she deserved better. I never lied to her when we were together. Like the few other women I had attempted to get serious with, Grace knew about my past. And she knew about Blythe. We’d had more than one fight about her during the few months we dated. Grace accused me of keeping myself closed off and loved to throw out that I couldn’t give her more because I was still hung up on the past. I never once bothered denying it, because she’d been right. My heart had never stopped belonging to Blythe.

I could practically see the knife sinking into her chest earlier when Blythe introduced herself, and I hated that it caused her pain, but there wasn’t any way for me to take it away from her.

The problem with living and dating in a small town was there was really no escaping your ex, unless one of you picked up and moved away. Grace hadn’t hidden the fact that she’d taken the breakup hard, and I knew from the random texts I still received months after we ended that she was trying to keep herself in my mind, hoping I would eventually realize what I let go. Unfortunately, that was never going to happen, even before Blythe’s return.

I shook off thoughts of my ex as I pressed on the brake pedal, slowing my truck to a stop in front of Tristan Fanning’s house. Blythe had scrawled her brother’s address on the back of a receipt she dug out of her purse back at Fresh Foods, but I already knew exactly where he lived. I knew where all of Blythe’s family was. I knew it made me seem creepy as hell, but I’d even kept track of everyone important to her. I knew her parents’ address by heart. I knew that her step-brother, Shawn, was living in Arizona with his family, and that Hannah, her step-sister was over in Kentucky.

I’d been torturing myself for two fucking decades, asking Sunny questions I knew the answers to would kill me, but at this point, it was a compulsion. An addiction that had long since burrowed beneath my skin.

I’d taken the time to change before heading over, dressing in a pair of jeans that weren’t thread-bare and faded, and I’d traded my T-shirt in for a plaid button-down that I kept untucked and cuffed the sleeves up my forearms. The only thing that stayed were my motorcycle boots. Aside from my running shoes, they were the only other pair of shoes I owned. But as I glanced down at them I wished I would have at least taken the time to shine them up a bit.

“Oh, well,” I huffed out on a quiet breath. “Too late now.”

Grabbing the bottle of wine I’d picked up on my way here, I climbed out of my truck and beeped the locks before heading up the walkway.

As soon as I pressed the doorbell, I heard a burst of commotion from inside. A dog started barking like crazy, the sound growing closer before it ended with a heavy thud that rattled the door.

I heard a little boy voice call out, “I got it!” right before I heard the scrape of the deadbolt and the door was thrown open.

Blythe was clearly mid-lecture as her son opened the door for me, and I caught, “—told you over and over, you can’t open the door.” She jerked to a stop as she stepped into the living room, the dishtowel she’d been drying her hands with frozen in her grip as soon as she caught sight of me standing in the open doorway. “Uh, hi.”

“You came!” Avett exclaimed, oblivious to the chewing out he’d been getting from his mom only seconds earlier.

I grinned down at him. “Of course I came. Not gonna turn down an invitation from a guy as cool as you.”

His chest puffed out visibly, his shoulders pushing back as his cheeks bloomed red with pride. He shot me a snaggle-toothed grin that reminded me so much of my nephew Cooper’s, only he was missing more teeth and from different places.

“Ave, buddy. Why don’t you move out of the doorway and let Rhodes come in, huh? Unless you want him to eat dinner on the front stoop.”

“Oh, yeah.” He stepped back and to the side to make room for me. I reached down to ruffle his hair as I stepped inside. “Thanks, big man.”

The dog, probably suffering from head trauma, started sniffing at my shoes and jeans, most likely smelling my dog, Koda, on me.

I bent down to give it a pat, taking it in. “Jesus,” I grunted. It didn’t look like any dog I’d ever seen before. “What is that thing?”

“That’s Doc,” Avett stated. “He’s Uncle Tris’s dog. Mom says he’s a little sissy bi?—”

“Avett!” Blythe snapped before he could finish, her face red with embarrassment.

The kid looked back at his mom, a sheepish smile on his face. “Sorry, Momma.” Then he turned back to me with a serious expression. “But he kinda is. If he doesn’t eat at the same time every day, he rolls over on his back and howls like he’s dyin’, and when Uncle Tris tried to clip his claws, he passed out.”

I glanced in Blythe’s direction. “Didn’t realize dogs could pass out.”

She draped the dish towel over her shoulder and crossed her arms over her chest. “Neither did I. Until I met that stumpy little diva.”

Just then the tiny redhead came flying down the stairs at a speed that nearly gave me a heart attack. I took an instinctive step forward just as she jumped from the second to last step, worried about another head injury in this house. Fortunately, she landed safely on her tiny, bare feet.

She skidded to a stop in front of me and lifted her short arms over her head to show me the large, rainbow-colored stuffed animal in her hands. “I’m Ainsley, and this is my unicorn, Jerry,” she announced, pronouncing her THs as Ds and her Rs like Ws.

My brows went up at the same time my smile widened. “Jerry, huh? Is that a common name for a unicorn?”

She lifted her shoulders in a shrug and looked at me like that was the stupidest question she’d ever heard. “I dunno. He’s the only one I know.”

Christ, she was adorable. “Well, Jerry’s a very handsome unicorn.”

That seemed to make her happy, and she grinned so big her chubby cheeks nearly squished her eyes closed, then she was skipping off as quickly as she appeared, dragging Jerry along behind her.

I twisted my head to look at Blythe and raised my eyebrows. “ Jerry ?”

She shrugged, the mannerism the exact same as what her daughter had just done. “That one’s been headstrong since she came out of the womb. She gets something in her mind, she won’t be swayed. She heard the name Jerry somewhere, liked it, and that was that.” She came closer and lifted her hand, placing it on the top of her son’s head. “Why don’t you take Doc out to the backyard and let him run around a bit? Keep an eye out, make sure he didn’t give himself a concussion bashing into that door.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said before letting out a whistle and patting his thigh to get the stocky dog to chase after him.

“I brought this,” I said, lifting the bottle of wine I was still clutching as a wave of nerves crashed into me. It wasn’t lost on me that this was the closest Blythe and I had been in twenty years, and you would have thought by the way my stomach was twisting and my skin was tingling, like it was suddenly too tight for my skeleton, that I was a clueless virgin alone with a girl for the very first time.

“I, um, hope it’s okay. I wasn’t sure if you preferred red or white.”

“Yes,” she answered, snatching the bottle from me like a kid going after the last piece of cake. My mouth fell open on a rusty laugh. I hadn’t forgotten her dry sense of humor, but it was different, hearing it again for the first time in so long. “Come on in. I’ll open this up, and maybe I can be talked into sharing.”

I let loose another chuckle. “Sounds like you need that more than I do.”

She cast a glance at me over her shoulder, those turquoise eyes flashing. “It’s a day ending in Y, so, yeah, I need it.” She meant it to come off as a joke, but my chest still clenched as I remembered that she was doing this all alone and why, due to everything she’d lost recently. I didn’t know how the hell she was still standing, let along functioning. Then again, Blythe had always been so damn strong.

I closed the door and trailed after her, my gaze moving down and taking her in. She’d changed out of her scrubs into a pair of cropped jeans and a T-shirt that sported the name of the university she attended on the front in faded burgundy letters. Her denims looked at least a size too big for her, but I could still make out the roundness of her heart-shaped ass as I followed behind her like an eager puppy. I noticed her feet were bare and her toes were painted a vibrant, tropical pink. Her hair was down now, but untamed, the strands somewhere between wavy and curly, and all wild.

She was dressed for comfort, for a night at home with her family. Nothing about her screamed that she’d put much effort into her appearance because it wasn’t necessary. She was effortlessly beautiful, even with the faint smudges beneath her eyes that I could tell she tried to hide with a bit of makeup.

The house smelled like heaven. The scent of garlic and herbs permeated the air, creating an aroma that made my stomach growl, reminding me I hadn’t eaten anything since the protein shake and banana I had for breakfast.

Blythe had always been a master in the kitchen—her cooking rivaling even Detty’s—and I couldn’t believe I was finally getting the chance to taste it again.