Page 71 of When You're Home
“That’s probably a conversation we’ll be having soon. It’s overdue.”
“You know I only care about your happiness, Everhett. I don’t mean to pry. I just don’t want to see you give up on something you want—or hold onto something for too long that isn’t meant for you—because of this new role. If I learned anything after fifty-nine years of marriage to your grandma, it was to prioritize family above all else. This is a job. It’s our family business, sure, but at the end of the day, it’s just a job.” He gave Rhett a pointed look.
Rhett responded with a curt nod before turning his glass back and finishing his drink. The advice landed differently than he knew his granddad intended. He had been settling back into his relationship with Chandler over the last several weeks, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still reeling from his breakup with Tori. None of that was relevant to his position at NorfolkStar, though. He needed to keep his head on straight for the rest of this trip.
“Tell me more about that final project brief you sent me for your practicum last week. I have to admit that I didn’t understand half of it, but I was impressed by the cost-savings projections for next fiscal year.”
Rhett was grateful for the change in subject. Back to business.
“So all those numbers are based on real data I had Tonya send over at the end of Q4. The ability to combine satellite weather technology with our own data will allow us to adjust the dock staffing schedules to a cost-savings of more than $20,000 a week.”
This was safer territory. He could talk logistics with his granddad all day. He couldn’t wait to graduate next month and finally work for NorfolkStar Transport full-time. He was ready to move here. He was ready to move forward.
“Rhett, did you bring the leftovers in from the car?” Chandler yelled from the bedroom of the apartment. They had just returned from Easter dinner at her parents’ house in Wetherington. They had a nice meal, and Chandler’s dad had offered him a glass of expensive Cognac after dinner. All in all, it should have been a good night.
But then Maddie had told him it was okay to call home. He just wanted to say hi to his family, but things unraveled when Maddie stepped outside with him still on FaceTime. Rhett didn’t think his sister had intentionally tried to set him up, but he had watched the look of determination come over her when she stumbled upon Tori in the sunroom. Maddie saw her shot, and she took it. Tori looked unaffected when Maddie tried to force interaction between them on the phone. Rhett was gutted when he saw her just sitting in his family’s sunroom by herself.
Under any other circumstances, he would have been there. He would have been home. They would have been sneaking little touches as they did the dishes together. They would have been plotting what time Rhett would sneak into her bedroom that night. They would have been together.
But he wasn’t there. He had gone to Virginia, then came back to Easton and spent the holiday with Chandler and her family. This was his life now. Tori wasn’t part of it anymore.
“Yeah, I got them, babe,” he replied listlessly to Chandler’s question, pulling open the fridge door to make sure he had actually put them away.
“Today was such a good day, Rhett.” Chandler sighed as she walked into the kitchen. She pulled the fridge open and grabbed a water bottle before turning around to face him. “And last night was pretty great, too.” Rhett’s memories from last night were fuzzy, thanks to all the gin and tonics he had downed at Chippy’s, but her salacious smile implied they had both enjoyed themselves. “Thank you for changing your travel plans so you could be with me and my family this weekend.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied, returning her smile. “I like spending time with your parents. You’re a priority to me, babe.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his chest. He raised his arms to return her embrace. Thankfully Chandler hadn’t been in the room with him when Maddie pulled her little stunt. She had no idea he had interacted with Tori that day.It doesn’t matter anymore. Rhett shook his head in frustration. He was usually good at burying his feelings, but he just felt so raw tonight.
“Hey,” Chandler called him back to the moment. She pulled away slightly and glanced up. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. I’m just tired from traveling this week, and I’m starting to stress about everything I have to do before moving.”
Chandler nodded. She always accepted his responses, regardless of how much truth they held. Something irked him about how willing she was to go along with whatever he said. But that was a different conversation for a different day.
“I’m going to go take a shower. Are you coming to bed soon?”
He shook his head. “No, not yet. I might watch a show or listen to music. I’ll be in there in a bit.”
Rhett made his way into the living room and flopped down on the couch. He mindlessly reached for the remote just to occupy his hands. He didn’t actually want to watch anything. He also didn’t want to lie in bed and scroll on his phone for hours while he tried to fall asleep. He hadn’t been sleeping well at all.
When Maddie went out onto the porch to talk to him away from their parents, it was because she wanted to ask him to hook her up with supplies for after prom at the cabin. The dance was the weekend before Memorial Day—just four weeks away.
Rhett pulled out his phone and opened his calendar app. He needed to set a reminder now before it slipped his mind. As he scrolled past the current date, one of the notes for the upcoming week caught his attention.
Tori—scans??
He had entered the note quickly while they were at the cabin last month. Everything had unraveled later that weekend, though, so he had no idea the actual date and time of her appointment.
He didn’t feel right not being home when she had to go for scans. But he also had no damn idea when her appointment was scheduled. Tori usually scheduled her scans right before or after a weekend, making it easy for him to be in Hampton. More than once, he had contemplated just showing up at home. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he needed to be there. But appearing in Hampton unannounced wasn’t going to magically fix things between them. Seeing her in person would be like pouring salt into a wound, and that was if she was even amicable toward seeing him.
He entered Maddie’s prom date into his calendar, then let the phone drop onto his chest.
After four weeks apart, he wished his feelings for Tori had ebbed enough to take the edge off. But after seeing her on FaceTime tonight, after being more connected to her through Maddie’s phone than he had been for a month, the heartbreak felt as fresh as it did the morning after the party.
She had gone to such great lengths to push him away and hurt him. He still couldn’t wrap his mind around her sleeping with Fielding in his bed. He couldn’t process that level of betrayal. Most days he let himself forget about it out of self-preservation, but every now and then, the truth crept back in like a vise squeezing him from the inside.
Rhett puffed out his cheeks and let out a long sigh of acceptance. He wasn’t going to go home to Hampton this week. He needed to stop torturing himself by continuing to entertain the idea. He didn’t have enough information about her appointment, and he didn’t have enough gumption to believe she wanted him there. Besides, he really did have a lot to do for school before the semester ended. He would just stay in Easton until graduation, move home the following weekend, then make the big move to Virginia the last week of May.
