Page 84 of Falling for Brody

Rhea turned to look at Brody and found him already on his phone.

"Joshua. I need to ask you a favor."

Rhea stood there, shocked as Joshua and Brody spoke back and forth, words flowing easily.

And in less than a minute, or at least what felt like lightning speed, Brody was smiling at her. "Thanks, Joshua. We'll head back now."

He dropped his phone in his pocket and leaned in to press a kiss on her cheek. "We can be there, Nissi. I'll drive Rhea into Richmond for the appointment."

Nissi's voice was punctuated by soft laughter. "Okay. I'll let Keely know and I'll text you both with her address and phone number. Rhea?"

Shaking herself free of her stupor, Rhea looked down at the screen of the phone. "Yes?"

"You're going to be okay."

"Yeah," she nodded and smiled up at Brody, "yeah. We will."

She hung up the phone and waved her on.

"Let's go back to the firehouse. Johnson from next shift is there early. If Jesse isn't there by the time we arrive, Joshua will ride with Johnson until Jesse can get there and clock in."

He opened the passenger door for her and closed it, starting to move away when she reached out and caught his arm through the open window. "Brody?"

He smiled at her and that one look was enough to set her heart beating like a racehorse. "Yeah?"

"Do you want to come with me to Richmond? If you don't, I can drive there on my own."

He didn't speak at first. He leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to the back of her hand and then he looked right in her eyes. "You can do all kinds of things on your own, but I want to be there for you, Rhea. I'm planning on being there with you, for you, for the rest of our lives anyway. This is just a great place to start."

She nodded. "Okay."

"So... we're going?"

She smiled. "Yeah. We." He jogged around the front of the rig to his door. "I like 'we' a lot."

* * *

Brody was stunned.

It was a constant state when he was around Rhea.

Stunned.

And hard.

Every time she did something amazing, which was every few minutes or so, he was just left amazed at the woman she was.

Knowing what she said about her early life and what she'd become in the last few years, he found himself marveled and thankful to have found her. To have her in his life.

Driving there, he'd tried to get her to sleep along the way. Instead, she went over her notes and the timeline that she'd assembled after talking to Nissi about what a custody case would entail. Rhea, like in other aspects of her life, was driven and totally dedicated to what she loved.

And Chip topped that list.

Now, he was sitting in the waiting area in the offices of Dawes and Dawes, a father and daughter law firm, of which the elder Dawes was completely up front that the first Dawes in the firm's name, was Keely's.

Keely's father had left before they'd started their consultation and while Keely was more than happy to have him in the office for some of it, he understood when she'd booted him out to talk to Rhea alone.

There were things that they'd have to discuss, and he wanted Rhea to be able to speak frankly to her attorney.

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