Page 45 of When You're Home
“Hey, do you have an alarm set or something?” Tori asked, cutting into his wandering thoughts.“I keep hearing a phone vibrate and thinking it’s mine.”
Rhett reached into his back pocket and held his breath, worried that Maddie or Chandler was trying to call him again. His worry turned to annoyance as he scrolled through the notifications on the screen. He had two texts and a whopping six missed calls from Jake, all within the last ten minutes.
“It’s just Jake. He knows we’re coming home today. I’m surprised he waited until after eleven to start harassing me.” He blew out a long breath as he flashed the screen so she could see all the alerts.
“That’s weird,” she responded. “I was sure he was scheduled to work today.”
Worry nudged Rhett's subconscious. “Huh. Yeah. I figured he would work all weekend, too, since we’ll be in Buffalo most of next week… Hey, you know all about the party tonight and then our trip next week, right? We were planning to be gone from Tuesday to Sunday. I don’t know what you have going on this week though. Is it okay…”
“Rhett,” she scoffed. “I’m your girlfriend, not your mother. I want you to go and have fun on your stupid Spring Break Bros Trip with Jake. Just promise me I get to see you again before you go back to school?”
He stopped listening the moment she uttered the word “girlfriend.” It was going to take a long time for him to get used to that. And even if he eventually got used to it, he was sure he would never tire of hearing her say it.
“Come on, girlfriend,” he declared triumphantly as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Let’s get you to work.”
Chapter 26
Tori
AnunexpectedyawncaughtToribysurpriseasshewatchedthehousespassinquicksuccessionoutthecarwindow.Theywerejustafew
minutesawayfromdowntownHampton.
“Do you want me to stop so you can get some coffee, beautiful?”
“No, I’m good,” she insisted. “Plus, it’s Sunday. There will be fresh coffee at work if I need it.”
She hadn’t slept much last night, her body anxious to connect with Rhett while her mind struggled to make sense of what she had agreed to. She had told him it wasn’t a no last night when he asked her to be his girlfriend again, but she may as well have hired a skywriter and painted “Hell yes!” above Lake Erie. She wanted to be with him. And she wanted him to only be with her.
She was happy, and she was sure of herself, but there were still a lot of conflicting feelings she needed to work through. Tori felt an undertone of guilt as she thought about all the time they had wasted not together. Well, that wasn’t exactly right. They had been together-ish for the last three years. But knowing how much she had hurt Rhett—how she had pushed him away and distanced herself from him—made her feel incredibly selfish now. There was also a small voice in her head questioning if this was the right call. She knew what she wanted. She trusted Rhett knew what he wanted, too. But could she live with the very likely consequences of her change of heart?
They still had so much to figure out. Rhett was moving in a few months. She wouldn’t graduate for a few years. She didn’t know how they would manage long distance or for how long they’d have to do it. And what about the less-immediate future? What was the plan when boyfriend and girlfriend wasn’t enough? How could she give in to being with him now after all the years of keeping him at arm’s length?
And yet the expanse of time ahead of them now that they didn’t have a self-imposed expiration date on their relationship gave her hope. Navigating the new version of their relationship wasn’t going to be easy. But it wasn’t going to be as hard as going their separate ways and leaving a decade of love by the wayside.
As they approached the overpass that segmented downtown Hampton from the residential streets, a train horn blasted off in the distance. Tori smacked the ceiling of the Prelude before Rhett could even react. “Train time!” she exclaimed. The train came into view just as they drove under the overpass and felt the vibrations from the tracks.
He chuckled and shook his head. “I swear you have the schedule memorized.”
“You’re just mad that I always beat you.” She smirked, reaching over and pinching his bicep.
Rhett stopped the car at the main intersection before edging through the blinking red lights. “Time check?”
“We’ve still got a little time. Why don’t you park over by the clock tower?”
He slowly drove past the parking lot behind Clinton’s. Jake’s black Jeep was in one of the far spots at the end, so he was working today, just like she thought. Rhett turned right at the clock tower that stood guard on the edge of downtown and pulled into a parallel parking spot at its base.
Tori made her way around the car and met him at the trunk. She reached out and laced her arm through his. She knew the significance of the gesture wouldn’t be lost on him. She used to try so hard to keep any affection or contact to a minimum when they were together in public. But she didn’t have to think like that anymore. She moved her arm down and intertwined her fingers with his as they started walking toward Clinton’s. Just the feel of him next to her felt like peace.
“Hey.” He paused, gently pulling on her arm so they both came to a stop.
“Hmmm?” she asked, turning her face up to look at him. They were in the middle of downtown, standing below one of the evergreens that rose at least eighty feet into the sky.
Rhett bent down to kiss her. He started soft, barely touching his lips against her mouth. When Tori leaned into him, he deepened the kiss. They obviously weren’t building to sex, but the passion and fervor in their lip-lock sizzled right at the surface. It was like all the restraint they had both shown over the last several years had carbonated and was finally being released. She couldn’t remember the last time they kissed in public. She contemplated ditching her shift and just staying out here with Rhett all afternoon. She never wanted this feeling to end. Eventually he pulled away with a frustrated groan that Tori felt deep in her core.
“I just wanted to kiss my girlfriend one more time before we go in there.” He grinned. “I’m going to go in with you and see what Jake wants, but then I’ll probably head home to get ready for the party tonight. Do you want me to drop your bag off at your house?”
Tori shook her head. “Nope. It’ll be nice to have my stuff with me if I decide to sleepover at my boyfriend’s house tonight.”
