“It’s small, but it works,” she offered with a shrug as she tossed her keys onto the countertop that served as a table with two barstools on one side. I watched as she pulled out two glasses and placed them on the counter before grabbing a bottle of wine from the fridge.
I didn’t know how to decline without actually revealing the truth, so I just went for it. “Can I have just water please?”
As expected, I got that confused, “are you crazy” look. “From the looks of you, and the fact that you’ve shown up late at night without notice, I think you need to relax a bit. It’s wine or whiskey. Pick your poison, because the last thing you need is water.”
“I can’t drink alcohol.”
“Since when? It’s not like you’re gonna be driving, and believe me, alcohol will make you feel better, at least for tonight anyway.” She started to pour the wine in both glasses.
“I’m pregnant,” I blurted out and instantly noticed the way her hand froze mid-air, with the bottle of wine extended, ready to add more to the first glass. I also picked up on the way her eyes had widened and her mouth now lay slack. “No one knows yet.”
“Does Rhett?” She finally lowered the bottle to the counter at her side and lifted the first glass with the smallest amount of wine and downed it.
“He knows that I took a test, but he doesn’t know the results yet.”
“Why?” she asked as she lowered the first glass and picked up the next, sipping this one slower.
“I just took the test today, and I planned to tell him what it said, but then the night sort of went in a completely different direction.” When she didn’t ask, just watched me with a curious stare, I continued, “Harley’s back in Brooklet.”
“What?” Her nostrils flared. “Are you telling me that he actually went to her?”
“I’m not sure exactly what took place.” I wasn’t lying, the problem was I let my fears get the best of me. “She showed up yesterday and I guess they talked at Gran’s house. But he never told me she was here, or that they talked.”
“Then how do you know it’s true?”
“Grace told me.” Maddison leaned back against the counter, her arms crossed over her chest. “She thought he’d already told me. Then I found a large envelope in his drawer filled with pictures and letters, cards even, that she’s been sending him over the last seven months or more.”
“He kept them?” I nodded, and she narrowed her eyes.
“So it’s not stupid that the idea of that bothers me?”
“Hell no.” Maddison uncrossed her arms and took a step forward. “I would’ve been upset about that too.”
“This whole thing, it’s just confusing,” I confessed. “I think I just needed to get away so that I could clear my head.”
“I think that was a good idea.” I watched as she opened her fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, handing it to me. “Does he know where you are?”
“I told him I was going to Raven’s.”
She nodded as she lifted her wine glass once more. “Okay, well let’s get you settled. I think you need a night’s rest, because I have a feeling that tomorrow will most likely be just as emotionally draining. I can vouch for the fact that Rhett doesn’t give up easily. If I know him like I think I do, keeping him away isn’t gonna be easy.”
Just about then my phone chirped inside my bag with a notification of a new text message. My heart raced as I pulled it out and read the screen.
Rhett: I’ll give you tonight, but all bets are off tomorrow. You are mine AJ, and I’m yours. There is no fucking way I’m walking away from us.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Rhett
“She’s here.” I held the phone to my ear and listened to Maddison’s hushed whispers. “Raven’s on the night shift, and I just wanted you to know she’s here at my place and she’s safe.”
I stood in front of our window as I stared out at the lake in the distance. It would always be ours, no matter what, because AJ and I had shared so much over the last seven months in this very space. Hell, it was she who made this space mean so much to me because she loved it so much.
“I don’t want Harley,” I confessed, feeling that familiar burn return in my chest. “I know a part of me will always love her, but only because she was my first love, my first of a lot of things. I used to think that what I felt for her was it, it was that big epic love that I’ve seen with my dad and my mom, hell, with Gavin and Maria and even your mom and Uncle Colt.”
Maddison didn’t say anything in return, only listened.
“I still remember that day in the shop when you told me that if I wasn’t sure about AJ I should just walk away. I’ll admit that at that moment I considered it, because I didn’t know. But then I thought what would one date hurt?” I chuckled as I thought about what that one date had done to me. “That one night with AJ changed everything, Mad. She knocked me on my damned ass. Every time that girl smiles, I feel lost in my own fucking happiness. It was that night that made me realize Harley wasn’t that one epic love. She was the girl who showed me how to love, but she wasn’t my everything. AJ is all I want.”
“I know,” she finally responded, and hearing her