Page 4 of When You're Home
“Enough talking,” he declared then. “Can you please stop downloading apps on my phone so I can go down on you again?”
She held his gaze as she tossed the phone onto the other side of the bed and shimmied back down into his sheets. Rhett didn’t know how they’d gotten here, but he wasn’t going to question it. She was his, sort of, sometimes, as long as he followed through on the arrangement. He would worry about the dating thing later. Right now, he only had two things on his mind: making her come for the third time that day and figuring out when he could come home and be with her next.
Chapter 1
Rhett
3 Years Later
Heshotupinbed,hisheadswimmingthankstotheexuberantamountofJamesonhehadchuggedfromasportsbottleearlierthatnight.Heblinkedhard,tryingtoclearoutenoughbrainfogtorememberhowtoshuffleonefootinfrontoftheother.
His bare feet hit the thickly carpeted floor.That’s right. He was at his parents’ house in Hampton. The plush carpet conjured up the details from earlier that day as memories flitted across his consciousness.
The mail strewn across the countertop of his apartment.
The accusatory look in her eyes.
The screaming match that ended with him grabbing his jacket and car keys.
The final words he threw back at her (“I’ll never not do this!”) before slamming the door.
The relief that settled in his body as soon as he put the Prelude into reverse and peeled out of the parking lot.
Rhett lazily walked into the bathroom, his eyelids heavy with sleep and overindulgence. His hand groped for the panel of switches, flicking on the one farthest from the door to illuminate the small light above the sink.
He reached for the corner of the window shade out of habit. A quick glance out the bathroom window confirmed what he subconsciously already knew: Tori was still awake.
He’d heard her car pull up the driveway to the house directly behind his parents’ house around ten thirty. It must have been a slow night at work. That tended to happen on Fridays in the dead of winter in Ohio. He felt a tingle run through his spine when he heard her voice raise up two octaves to call Penny back inside the house. It took every ounce of willpower in his body not to call out to her across their backyards. He had purposely left his cell phone inside the house for the same reason. He had tried to ignore the hum of her proximity the rest of the night as he sunk chin-deep into the hot tub and nursed his sports bottle alone.
Rhett’s head felt less cloudy after he washed his hands. He turned to exit the bathroom but not before stealing another peak out the window. The little curtains that hung above the windows of the Thompsons’ garage were pulled shut, but that didn’t matter. He could still see her in his mind’s eye. She was probably squatting low over a canvas, her hair secured to the top of her head in a massive bun, her favorite black leggings taut against her ass.
Rhett flopped back onto his bed, feeling the queen-size mattress creak under the weight of his six-one frame. He wasn’t going to fall back asleep anytime soon if he kept thinking about Tori’s ass. Exhaling, he reached for his phone and pounded out a quick text. Annoyed with his lack of restraint, he threw the phone down next to him as soon as he hit send.
Ev: Why are you still awake?
He knew it might be hours before Tori even saw the message. She got so in the zone when she was painting. He loved the way she could get lost in a canvas, mixing different colors and blasting the same music they’d been obsessed with since high school on the old five-CD stereo in the garage. She didn’t get to paint very often between work and classes. He felt a brief pang of guilt. Maybe he shouldn’t have interrupted her with a text. He should have just stuck to his original plan and called her in the morning.
The phone buzzed next to him. The serotonin rush that accompanied her reply banished all feelings of remorse as he swiped up to unlock the screen.
V: Why are you home?
Rhett scowled. What the hell was he supposed to say to that? Maybe the whiskey wasn’t as metabolized as he wanted to believe. He clearly hadn’t thought this through. It wasn’t a holiday or anyone’s birthday. Tori knew damn well he would have told her if this was a planned visit home. He had no real reason to be back at his parents’ house this weekend, and yet here he was.
He considered lying for about two seconds.
“Damnit,” he muttered to himself. He wouldn’t lie to her. Even if he could bring himself to do it, the repercussions weren’t worth her rage. Tori would call his bluff so fast his head would spin. She had a secret temper that only reared its head when she knew she was being deceived.
Rhett flipped the phone over and over again in his hand, contemplating how much to tell her. Was he really going to recount all the details of his fight with Chandler? That was going to get awkward fast, considering the fight was about Tori.
Frustration got the best of him as he typed out a version of the truth he hoped she would accept.
Ev: I just needed a break.
He held his breath and squinted at the bright phone. He watched for the three little dots to appear on the screen, willing her to reply to his vague response. How much could he get away with not saying tonight? His eyes grew heavy as he laid in bed, waiting, one hand holding the phone above his head, the other arm splayed out across his bare chest.
Rhett had all but given up on hearing back from her when the phone vibrated in his hand. He fumbled with the device and almost dropped it on his face as he desperately tried to swipe up.
V: Ledges tomorrow? Lia said she would cover my lunch shift.
