Page 27 of When You're Home
“I knew he didn’t know—I purposely kept it from him.” Lia sighed. “No hard feelings from me. You can have him if you want him, Cor.”
“No way, baby girl. I saw your face when you walked in on us. Jake’s officially off limits for me now.”
Lia sighed again. “I should have known better. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I sort of hoped he would try harder after I told him I didn’t see us getting serious. I think I wanted him to fight me on it… to fight for me,” she clarified.
“You deserve someone who’ll fight for you, sweetie,” Tori confirmed.
“It is what it is. It’s not like I’m ever leaving this town.” She spread her arms out around her, indicating the fields and the cow pasture that made up Perry Farm. “And you know Mike’s gonna end up making Jake the manager of Oak Barrel once the renovations are done. He’s not leaving this town anytime soon, either.”
“I won’t get in your way if you want to try again with him,” Cory said softly, reaching behind Tori’s back to squeeze Lia’s shoulder.
“Ugh,” Lia moaned, dropping her head into her hands. “We should have brought something stronger than beer up here.”
Tori smiled at her friends, grateful that even if they were technically too old to be drinking on top of a pole barn, they still pulled out all the stops for her birthday. The gift certificate had been nice, but being with her two best friends tonight was the gift she loved the most.
Tori pulled into her driveway a few minutes after midnight and breathed a sigh of relief. Her birthday was officially over. She turned down the volume of the stereo to a whisper before pulling out her phone.
V: Just got home. Can you talk?
Her favorite picture of Rhett—the one she took at the cabin a few years ago where he was mid-laugh—illuminated the screen a few minutes later.
“Hello?”
“Hey, beautiful. Happy birthday,” he greeted her.
“Hey, you. Thanks for calling. Are you busy right now?”
“Nope, just out at a bar with a few of my buddies from class. But I stepped outside to talk, so I’m all yours now. How was your day?”
“It was good, actually,” she said. She sounded genuinely surprised, but it was the truth. As far as birthdays went, this one wasn’t horrible, and she still had the concert to look forward to next weekend.
“Oh yeah? What’d you do?”
“Nothing too crazy. I slept in this morning since I don’t have Friday classes. I had to work tonight, but Mike ordered a cake from Della’s Bakery, so everyone stayed after close to celebrate. Jake got the go-ahead to serve shots. It was fun.”
“That sounds fun. I wish I could have been there.” She recognized the sincerity in his voice. They hadn’t communicated as much as usual over the last several weeks. This was only the second time she’d even talked to him on the phone since he went back to school six weeks ago. The space was necessary. She knew it would make it easier for him to mend things with Chandler and get their arrangement back on track if she kept her distance.
She may have been the one trying to hold back, but she hadn’t expected to ache for him the way she did. It was hard to name all the emotions that had been coming up lately when she let herself think about Rhett. There was longing and a bittersweet sadness. Then there was also a streak of jealousy that surprised her. She had never been jealous before: It didn’t serve her. She needed Rhett to maintain a relationship with Chandler to allowtheirarrangement to work. Maybe she had just been trying to push him away a little too much lately. She would finally be with him in a week. It was probably okay to be more open and honest with him tonight.
“I wish you were here too…” she let her admission linger as she traced the buttons on her steering wheel.
“You do?”
“Yeah, I really do. I miss you, Rhett.” She swallowed hard. She almost couldn’t believe she said that out loud. But it was the truth. “Although I guess you were kind of here in a way. I’m pretty sure Mike doesn’t know what my favorite cake is or where to get it,” she explained with a hint of sarcasm.
“Busted, huh?” She heard his smile through the phone.
“Busted,” Tori confirmed. “That was really sweet of you, Ev. And totally unnecessary since we get to celebrate together next weekend.”
“I know, but I wanted to do something special for you today, beautiful. I hate that it’s your birthday and I’m not there.”
“It’s fine, Rhett. Really. I’m excited about our plans next weekend. It can be my birthday then, too, if it makes you feel better.”
“Oh, you better believe I’m going to act like it’s your birthday all weekend long. You, me, Karta Stella, and the cabin? It’s about to be the best birthday weekend ever.” Warmth spread through her limbs as she thought about all the ways they would get to celebrate when they were finally reunited. His promise galvanized her.
“Hey, I just noticed it’s past midnight. Did you just get home?” Rhett’s question interrupted her thoughts.
“Oh, yeah. I didn’t realize it was that late either until I texted you. After we closed, I went out to the farm with Cory and Lia. They drank, I froze my ass off, but all in all, it was a good night.”
