Page 17 of While You're There
Was she being nonchalant just to heckle him? He was pissed. She knew he was pissed. And they both knew he didn’t have a right to be pissed. Tori had developed a friendship with Fielding Haas in Rhett’s absence over the last few months. His instincts told him that Fielding wanted to be a lot more than friends with his girl. That sense of knowing, compounded with the fact that Fielding had placed a bet with his roommates that he could get Tori to sleep with him, formed Rhett’s unsavory opinion.
Tori broke him away from his own thoughts. “Hey. Don’t sit there and stew, Ev. Fielding always comes into Clinton’s when Jake and I are both working. It’s our thing.”
“I didn’t realize you two had athing.”
“Don’t,” she warned, snapping her head around to glare at him.
Rhett kept his eyes fixed on the pavement, his hands in perfect position at ten and two. He side-eyed her through his peripherals. “I don’t trust him, Tori,” he confessed as he coasted down the main road toward their neighborhood.
“Well, I do,” she shot back. “And Jake does too. Fielding and I are friends. We’re good friends, actually. We got close over the last few months. He was there for me when…” She trailed off, realizing six words too late that she had tiptoed into a landmine they had both been trying to avoid.
“When what, V?”
She didn’t respond, instead turning to look out the window again.
“When what? Just say it. He was there for you when I wasn’t?” he pushed, anger coiling through him as he gripped the steering wheel harder.
“That’s not how I view it, but yes. He was there for me when you and I weren’t together. He was there for me when I first got the call. He was there for me when I needed a friend. I like spending time with Fielding. We made plans to hang out tomorrow, actually.”
Rhett didn’t think his grip could get any tighter as all the rage he was feeling pooled in his knuckles.
“I’ll be in Virginia tomorrow,” he reminded her.
“So?” she shot back, looking back at him with a scowl on her face. “What does that have to do with what I do tomorrow?”
“Tori, please,” he tried again. “You know I don’t like Haas. I don’t trust him. I’m not going to tell you who you can and can’t hang out with, but…”
“You’ve got that right,” she interrupted. “I’ll hang out with whoever I want, whenever I want.”
Rhett let out a long exhale, running his free hand through his hair as he turned onto Sunset Drive. He mentally catalogued all the facts he knew about Fielding: his reputation as a partier when they were in high school together at Archway Prep. The notoriety of his lifestyle now that he was back in Hampton living off his trust fund and working valet for some of the local restaurants. The bet he had made about getting Tori to sleep with him. The challenge he had issued to Rhett when they faced off the day after she got the call about her bloodwork. There was just too much against him for Rhett to trust the guy.
“I didn’t mean it to sound like I was trying to tell you what you could and couldn’t do, beautiful. I would never do that. But I’ve known Haas a lot longer than you have.”
Tori narrowed her gaze before rising to his challenge. “Yeah? Well, I know him a lot better than you do.”
Rhett sighed, defeated. “That’s fair. I guess I don’t know him that well. I just worry based on what Idoknow about him. The Fielding Haas I know isn’t a good guy. You and Jake keep telling me otherwise, and I trust you, but I don’t trust him.”
“You have nothing to worry about, Rhett. I’m with you. I love you. Please don’t make my friendship with Fielding into something bigger than it is.” She reached across the center console and interlaced their fingers.
He knew he shouldn’t push it. But he couldn’t stop himself from trying. “Will you invite Jake to hang out with you guys tomorrow just so I don’t worry?”
“No.”
He knew he had gone too far. But he didn’t care. And he wasn’t done.
“Tori, the last time you hung out at Fielding’s house, shit hit the fan. If something happens to you while you’re alone with him…”
“Rhett,stop.This isn’t two weeks ago. This isn’t two months ago. Nothing is going to happen while I’m with him. And if it did, I can take care of myself. I trust Fielding. He is my friend. He also knows that you and I are engaged, and I told him he has to respect that part of my life if he wants to keep being friends. I made that inexplicably clear to him tonight.”
Her words lightened the dark clouds that had been swirling up in his mind. He put the Prelude in park in her driveway before turning to face her. He let out a long sigh, resigned to the fact that he didn’t have a leg to stand on in this fight. He didn’t like it, but he recognized that didn’t matter in this situation. He would have to work through his worries about Haas on his own. And he would maybe have a little chat with Jake about him soon, too, just in case.
Acceptance settled in his mind as he glanced down at their joined hands, but that sense of resolve evaporated when he saw what was missing. “Where’s your ring, V?” he questioned, staring down at her bare hand as all the anger that had just started to settle swirled back up in his chest.
She tried to pull her hand out of his before replying. “I always take it off for work.”
“I didn’t realize it was something you would take on and off so easily,” he bit out.
Tori yanked her hand away from him, her green eyes set in a glare.
