Page 4 of While You're There
To Tori’s surprise, Rhett didn’t say anything else about the music. She took the opportunity to turn around from the front seat and assess Maddie’s getup. She was wearing big aviators that took over half of her face, her platinum blonde hair piled high on top of her head in the messiest of buns. She had rolled up her hoodie behind her head as a pillow so her toned arms were bare and on display in a fitted camisole. She finished the look with an oversized pair of grey sweatpants that probably didn’t belong to her.
“Do you want me to stop and get you coffee, Maddie Girl?” Rhett offered.
“Oh God, yes please. Coffee is a must.” Maddie yawned as she stretched out longways across the bench seat of her SUV.
“Then turn this shit off and check the attitude.”
Tori swallowed her smirk, not daring to insert herself between their sibling standoff. Maddie made another indiscernible noise before she relented. A few seconds later, the first chords of an old John Mayer song came through the speakers.
“There we go,” Rhett coaxed, eyeing his little sister through the rearview mirror again. “One extra-large double dirty chai coming right up.”
Rhett parked the car in one of the many available spots in front of historic downtown Hampton. Clinton’s was just a few buildings down the way. Tori instinctively looked around to see who was working the opening shift. She spotted Jake’s and Lia’s cars parked side by side. She felt bad they were working so early this morning since they had both closed the restaurant last night, but attending Rhett’s graduation was her priority this weekend, and she knew they wouldn’t give her a hard time about having to pick up the extra shifts.
“Coffee with cream?” Rhett asked Tori, reaching over to squeeze her knee before he opened the driver side door. She nodded.
She watched him cross the street, his lean frame moving with confidence across the familiar sidewalks of downtown Hampton. He was dressed down for the car ride, sporting worn jeans and an old Archway sweatshirt. That didn’t stop her from gazing appreciatively at his long legs and admiring the way he moved with authority, then held the coffee shop door open for two women walking out.
“When’s the last time you were in Easton?”
Maddie’s question was innocent enough, but Tori felt a hint of embarrassment creep into her consciousness at her future sister-in-law’s inquiry.
“It’s been a while, honestly. I haven’t visited Rhett at college since his junior year. Jake and I came down together for his twenty-first birthday.”
Maddie sat up straighter at her confession. “What? So you’ve never even been to this apartment we’re about to pack up?”
Tori shook her head.
“That seems crazy.”
She smirked. Maddie didn’t know the half of it.
Rhett always seemed to find a reason to come home to Hampton during his first few years at college. His visits only increased in frequency when he and Tori reignited their relationship with a friends-with-benefits arrangement designed to let them indulge in their mutual attraction but keep things casual.
Tori had suggested he date other people during that time as a means of self-preservation: she needed him to not get too wrapped up in what they were doing, in the soul-deep magnetism that always seemed to pull them back together.
They had spent the last three years in a tumultuous battle of push-and-pull. Rhett wanted more. She refused to let him get in too deep.
Everything had come to a head a few months ago when she finally gave in and admitted she wanted to be with him as much as he wanted her. Unfortunately, things didn’t fall together as easily as they had hoped. Tori had always insisted he see other people as part of their arrangement, so he had been casually dating a girl named Chandler for a few years.
Things between Rhett and Chandler were more involved than she had realized, even though he claimed he didn’t have real feelings for the other woman. Tori believed him, but that didn’t make the situation any less messy when Chandler showed up in Hampton unexpectedly a few months ago. It had taken a health scare and a panic attack to make things crystal clear for both of them.
They were together now, finally and completely. It had been a long, unconventional road to get to this place. Tori knew Maddie’s questions wouldn’t be the last they’d have to answer about their relationship, or about how they got to this place so quickly.
“Rhett came home to Hampton a lot,” Tori finally offered in reply. “And I usually work at least two shifts at Clinton’s on the weekends. Since we weren’t technically dating over the last few years, there wasn’t any reason for me to go visit him.”
That was close enough to the truth. She knew she didn’t need to mention anything about Rhett’s ex-girlfriend for Maddie to understand the subtext of her defense. She hadn’t visited Rhett at Easton over the last three years because Chandler was at Easton.
Rhett opened the driver’s seat door then, cutting their conversation short. He carefully balanced two cups in one hand as he handed her the third.
“There ya go, beautiful.” He placed his own cup in the cup holder before turning back to his sister and handing over her drink. “Are we ready?”
“Ready,” Maddie confirmed.
Rhett settled in and buckled his seat belt. He glanced over at Tori then.
"You okay, V?” he asked softly as he put the car in reverse, then turned toward the highway.
"Mhmm,” she hummed, taking a long sip of her coffee to prevent herself from having to fully answer his question.
