Page 10 of When You're Home
Tori’s chest swelled with appreciation. She was okay letting him take care of her in this way, knowing he had a financial safety net in place she couldn’t even begin to wrap her mind around.
She reached over and rested her hand on his thigh as they waited for the light to turn green. “Thank you,” she offered quietly, abandoning her hostility. He grabbed her hand just as the light changed and lifted it to his lips, placing a kiss on the tips of her fingers. She felt the heat of his breath linger on her skin as he dropped her hand and took the turn, heading west for their favorite spot in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Chapter 6
Rhett
TheydrovetotheLedgesincomfortablesilence,listeningtomusicandeatingtheirbagels.TherewasaneasetobeingwithTorithatheappreciatedmorethanusualtoday.Hefeltsomuchmoreinhisbodywhentheyweretogether.
Rhett climbed out of the vehicle and lifted his hands over his head to stretch. As much as he loved his car, driving four hours on I-71 all tensed up in a bucket seat last night had done nothing for his back.
He glanced around and noticed there were only three other cars in the parking lot. They would have the trail and overlook practically to themselves. He raised the hood of his sweatshirt and pulled the drawstrings of his hoodie tighter to brace against the cold February air. The compacted snow crunched under his boots as he continued to shift his feet and roll out his neck.
“We haven’t been here in months,” Rhett grinned. “Do you want to do the trail or just go to our spot?”
“I’m afraid it’s going to be icier than we thought,” Tori mused, taking a cautious step out of the car. “I feel like by the time we get through the meadow, I’ll be happy to just go to our spot.”
“Come here,” Rhett demanded then. She closed her door and circled the Prelude to his side. He pulled her into him and held her close, sinking into the physical contact he had been craving since they left his house. “I’m happy we’re here. This was a really good idea,” he whispered into her hair. She shifted to move out of his arms, but just like earlier he resisted letting her slip away. Tori relented and exhaled, leaning into him with more of her weight.
Anyone who saw their embrace would think they were together.Good, Rhett thought to himself. Tori was his, and he wanted everyone else to know it. She didn’t usually let him hold her like this in public. It was one of the many rules she carefully crafted as part of their arrangement to keep him from getting too close. He hated the rules, but he still played the game. Given the choice between a casual friends-with-benefits relationship with Tori and no relationship at all, there wasn’t any question in his mind. He would do just about anything to be with her in some capacity.
Rhett knew that his love for Tori was not unrequited—it was anything but. Why else would she have come back to him after breaking up with him before college? He knew how other people looked at her. He’d seen it with his own eyes when she was waiting tables at Clinton’s. She was desirable but approachable, effortlessly sensual and genuinely kind. She could have anyone she wanted, yet she kept coming back to him. Or at least she had for the last three years. All that was about to change in the next few months.
Now that Rhett was in his final semester, it felt like they were racing toward a finish line he had no desire to cross. Graduation meant the official start of his career at his granddad’s company, NorfolkStar Transport. It also meant he would be moving at the end of May. There wasn’t a path forward for them after he moved to Virginia: Tori had made that abundantly clear when they started their arrangement. It wasn’t possible to have a long-distance relationship with someone who refused to be in a relationship in the first place.
“Okay, enough! Are we here to hug or to hike?!” Tori exclaimed, finally trying to push away from him. When a shove against his chest proved ineffective, she poked her fingers into his armpit, surprising him and making him recoil against her tickling.
“Let’s go, Wheeler.” She took several steps toward the path to the meadow but reached her gloved hand back for him.
He caught up with her in two strides. A few loose pieces of gravel crunched underneath his boots as they made their way from the car to the expansive meadow that separated the parking lot and the trailhead.
They walked quietly at first, each concentrating to find their footing in the snow. Some patches proved to be unyielding and easy to traverse, but every now and then, they would hit a deeper-than-expected spot of soft powder and sink in. The only sound around them was the amplification of their own breathing.
“Do you remember the summer before junior year of high school when we came out here to stargaze?” Rhett asked, glancing down at Tori as they continued across the snow-covered meadow.
“Um, yes. That was literally top ten for me.” She looked back at him like he was obtuse.
“What?! You never told me that!”
“I don’t think you’ve ever asked me about my top ten list before,” she countered, smiling up at him.
“Please remind me in as much detail as possible… What was so great about that night?”
“Nope. You brought it up first. You tell me what was so great about that night.” Tori gazed up at him with that sultry look in her eye. Was this a test? Rhett racked his brain, trying to recall the details of one of their many, many outdoor escapades from high school. They were halfway across the meadow now, their breathing in sync.
“All I remember is you climbing on top of me and riding me into oblivion. The sight of your body against the stars in the sky…” Rhett had to adjust himself through his joggers thanks to that memory. “Is that what you remember?” he tried, worried he didn’t pass the unexpected pop quiz.
“Yes,” Tori nodded, “partially.” She gave him a sly smile.
“Partially?”
“Yes. I remember setting out our blanket and thinking we were completely alone. I remember getting on top to ride you. And I remember how my whole body felt like it was on fire even though I was topless and you had my skirt hiked up. But I also remember thinking I heard someone. Or, more likely, two people. They probably had the same idea as us. I don’t think we were alone that night,” she confessed.
“It was too dark for me to see anyone, but I figured if I could hear them, then they could probably hear me.” Tori had a satisfied smile on her face that told him she was getting excited just thinking about the sordid memory. “I remember being particularly loud that night because I liked the idea of someone hearing us. I came so hard…”
“You never told me that!” Rhett exclaimed, laughing, as amused as he was surprised by her confession.
“Well, I thought at the time that you would freak out. I didn’t want to ruin our night. Then later I just kept thinking about it… about how wet I got knowing they could hear me. I wasn’t about to tell my seventeen-year-old boyfriend that I got off because I knew other people were listening to us have sex.”
