Page 65 of When You're Home
“Part of me knew he was just trying to protect everyone involved, but when I saw them together, I lost it. Being with someone like Chandler is what Rhett deserves. I couldn’t help but wonder if part of him really does want to be with her. They’ve been together for a while now… He’s going to be the CEO of a huge company one day. It makes sense that he would want a supportive housewife, a big house in the suburbs for his kids, the whole nine yards. Those are things I can’t give him, but she can. We got in a fight in the walk-in cooler, and I told him that we weren't going to be together after all.”
Understanding passed through Jake’s expression. Rhett might have been golden, but he was also stubborn to a fault, relentless in the pursuit of whatever he wanted.
“Then he told me the party was still on. And he asked me to come over and pretend like nothing had changed. ‘Just get through the night’ was his reasoning. That threw me over the edge, but he couldn’t see past his own plan. No matter what I said, he just kept trying to brush it off, to assure me he had it under control. I felt like I was talking to a wall. It might have been okay if he would have left me alone and let me cool down. But he just. Kept. Pushing.”
Tori reached for her drink and turned the glass upside down, finishing it in two gulps.
“So when you and Fielding showed up in my yard last night…”
Jake was silent for two beats. He sat as still as a statue beside her, sizing her up through squinted eyes.
“Honestly, Tori? I underestimated you.” He rose to his feet and headed back to the bar, grabbing her glass in the process. Of course he couldn’t just let an empty glass sit on the table. Mike had trained him well.
“Another?” he asked.
“Yeah. Might as well make mine full-strength this time.”Scans be damned.
“So I will tell you this. I know you might not want to believe it, but just hear me out. I really do think he thought he had it under control yesterday. But Chandler was a mess by the time you guys got to Clinton's. There’s no way he could have sent her packing. She couldn’t drive. And I didn’t make the situation any easier by insisting we still partied last night. I was so pissed at him for not answering any of my calls. I spent hours talking about the party in front of Chandler, because I knew he’d have to go through with it once she knew about it.” Jake gave her an apologetic look as he got to work making another round of drinks.
“You’re not the only one desperate to spend as much time as possible with him before everything changes in May,” he confessed.
She couldn’t help but feel for him. He may have contributed to some of the fallout yesterday, but she knew he hadn’t meant to hurt her or Rhett. The whole situation was just a mess.
Jake changed the subject as he finished making their drinks. “He literally wants to murder Fielding, you know. I guess something happened between them in the hot tub when we came inside last night.” He returned to the couch with two full Bloody Mary glasses balanced in his hands.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know the details yet. As soon as you got out of the hot tub, I made sure you were okay, then I spent the rest of the night babysitting Chandler. Once you guys went upstairs, Cole told me that Rhett was really riding Fielding about you being off limits. I didn’t have a chance to ask Field about it, though, because he got a ride home with Cory and Lia last night.”
Tori’s eyes grew wide.
“What?”
“Shit,” she muttered. “Fielding didn’t stay here last night?”
Jake shook his head.
“Shit, shit, shit…” She groaned as a new level of awareness started to surface.
“What’s wrong? What is happening right now? You’re freaking me out, Tori…”
“I think I messed up,” she groaned before explaining. “So I realized last night that I wasn’t going to be able to get through to Rhett. He was suffocating me, and I just couldn’t bear to deal with it with her still here. I knew I needed to change my approach because obviously he wasn’t going to listen to anything I said.”
“Okay…” he nodded, urging her to continue.
“So when he brought me coffee this morning I miiiiight havemadehimthinkIhadsexwithFieldinglastnight,” she blurted out, horrified with herself as she spoke the words out loud for the first time.
“WHAT?”
She was pretty sure he had heard her. “I made Rhett think I had sex with Fielding last night.”
There it was. The words hung in the air between them while Jake’s mouth hung agape.
“I had fallen asleep in one of the big pool robes and my bathing suit. I woke up in the middle of the night sweaty and damp, so I took it all off, but then I fell back asleep before I could get up and find anything else to wear. Whiskey is obviously not my friend,” she grimaced.
“This morning Rhett tried to get in bed with me.” Tori’s cheeks blushed as she confessed more of their secrets. “He noticed I didn’t have any clothes on. I’m sure of it. I didn’t plan it in advance, but once I knew he knew I was naked, I took my shot. I didn’t think it through. I just decided to see if it would work.”
“Shit, baby. You slept in his bed last night, didn’t you?”
