One by one, they all offered me a hug before the guys reached out to shake my hand. Gramps didn’t hesitate, though. He pulled me in for a hug, and I chuckled. “Good to have you home, boy,” he said, then stepped back and shook his head. “I guess I should be calling you a man now. You’re the size of a gorilla, boy. What’d they feed you?”
A few other comments were made around me, and they all went back and forth about how I’d filled out even more than the last time I was home. Fact was, when you were single, living in an unfamiliar place, and training all the time, it changed you. I worked out often even when I didn’t have to in order to pass the time that brought me closer to my return home.
I looked through the crowd that still stood around me and felt like the wind had been momentarily knocked out of my lungs. Maddison stood back, but she stood out too. Our gazes locked on one another, and though I heard the words being spoken around me, I honestly couldn’t tell you what they said.
She had her hair piled up on top of her head, a massive mess that showed she’d done nothing to style it. The tank top she wore made her brown eyes stand out even more than they normally did.
“You do look like a gorilla,” she finally said, and I smiled widely, reaching out for her. She looked between my eyes and my hand, almost like she was unsure of what to do. Then, stepping forward, she placed her hand in mine, and I pulled her against me hard and fast. She laughed, and it echoed around us before I lifted her up, much like I did the last day I’d seen her before I walked into the airport.
She smelled of flowers, like those in the field behind Gram’s house. “I missed you.” That didn't even begin to describe it, but it’d have to do. “When did you turn into such a beauty, Mad?”
I lowered her to the ground, and she ducked her head to hide her blush before looking back up at me. Something passed between us, only for a second, before she regrouped and called me the name she’d used while we were growing up.
Knucklehead.
Or I believed her exact words were, “I’ve always been this beautiful, you knucklehead.”
There was no reason for me to argue, because she wasn’t lying, though I’d have to admit, until now, I may not have noticed it as much.
When I found Rhett lingering back like he’d been waiting for everyone else to finish before he greeted me, I stepped away from Maddison and grabbed for him myself. “Damn, look at you,” I said as I hugged him tightly. “Where’d that little guy I left behind go?”
“Me?” he mocked, pulling back to place some distance between us. “What about you?”
We carried on a little longer as everyone started to part and get back to what they were doing prior to my arrival. Once it was announced that it was time to eat, everyone was like a hungry pack of wolves swarming their prey.
Rhett and I found a spot on the front porch and sat back, watching everyone. The silence between us was unsettling, and I hated that this distance was placed between us. We’d kept in touch while I was gone, but it wasn’t the same as being here. I needed him to know I was here, to stay this time. I was here for him.
“You doing okay?” I watched him from the side and saw the way his shoulders instantly tensed at my inquiry.
“I’m good.” With a nod, he chose to fill his mouth with food, as if that would stop this conversation that had not even started, not yet. I’d been told a time or two that I was a pushy bastard.
“Not what I’ve heard.”
Rhett simply nodded his head but spoke no words.
“I’m here, Rhett. I know that I haven’t been, but I am now.” Still nothing, but I could see the way his jaw started to tense over and over while he tried to continue eating. “Do you think she’s sitting around thinking about you?” That did it. He looked over at me with a glare. “If she wanted to be here, she’d be here. She had that choice.”
“You don’t think I know that already?” When he finally spoke, I was surprised that his tone wasn’t one of anger but more of defeat. “I’ve gotten past the phase of wanting her back. Why the hell would anyone want someone that chooses to place distance between them? I’m pissed because for so long she was all I knew. Now, here I am, another girl out there showing me interest, and the only thing I’ve got in me is fucking anger for another girl. Everyone sees it as me longing and wishing for her to return, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I don’t want Harley.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I want to be able to go out with AJ and not wonder what’s gonna happen if I fall for her. I don’t want to sit around waiting for the other shoe to drop and for history to repeat itself all over again.”
“You wanna know what I think?”
“No,” he answered far too quickly, and I found him wearing a cocky smirk on his lips.
“If I’ve learned anything at all over the years I’ve been gone, it’s that you don’t waste time, Rhett.” His smile faded. “Because you’ll never get it back and it ends up being just that: wasted. Don’t let Harley ruin the future you could have with someone else. Not everyone
