Page 84 of While You're There
“He’s perfectly fine, Field,” she answered in a panicked rush. Rhett was standing right there. She was as insulted by their overbearing assumptions as she was worried that her husband would figure out to what they were implying. Fielding remained in his seat, his back rigid against the back of the bar stool, his gaze forward and focused. He looked calm, relaxed even. But she didn’t miss the storm brewing in his eyes. And apparently, he wasn’t done with his cross-examination.
“So you’re saying you don’t need a ride home, and you’re good getting in the car with him, right? I just want to make sure we’re on the same page here and you understand what I’m asking you,” he pressed. Fielding was speaking as low as possible given the volume of the room, but her eyes still flicked over to her husband to confirm he couldn’t hear their conversation.
She wished she could snap back at Fielding so he could fully understand her outrage. “I’m good. He’s good. And you’re an asshole. I have no good reason to believe Rhett’s been drinking,” she hissed in his ear.
“Well, I have no good reason to believe he hasn’t been,” he shot back.
“Goodnight, Fielding.” She moved to storm away from where he sat but caught herself and turned back to say goodbye to Jake first. “Bye, Jake. Congrats again. I’m really happy for you and really proud of you, too.”
Jake smiled at her and nodded once. He was obviously satisfied enough with Fielding’s interrogation to let her walk out the door. She resisted rolling her eyes at the two men as she reached for her husband’s hand.
“Hang on,” Rhett murmured as he approached the bar to talk to Jake. “Can we hang out tomorrow, bro? I’m free anytime.” He turned to Tori to confirm, and she nodded. She didn’t have any plans this weekend, especially now that he was home.
Jake blew out a long breath. “Yeah, sure. I’ve been meaning to get with you anyways. I’ll text you when I wake up, but it probably won’t be before noon.”
Rhett nodded in relief, and Tori let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She was glad those two were going to have a chance to talk and get back on track. Now she just needed to find the courage to have her own heart-to-heart with Rhett while he was here.
Chapter thirty-five
Rhett
Theblareofanalarm followed by a few yips from Penny pulled him out of a restless dream. He had been running and was out of breath, although he had no idea whether he was being pursued or was chasing something. Probably both, if his scrambled, anxious mind had any influence over the context of his dreams.
“Tori,” he whispered, his voice gravelly from sleep. He ran his hand up and down her arm until she finally began to stir. “Hey, beautiful. Your alarm’s going off. You don’t have to work today, do you?”
He hadn’t thought to ask about her work schedule for the weekend. They had both fallen asleep without talking about much of anything last night. She was exhausted from the hormones, and he was tired from working so much all week. He had actually slept for more than a few hours, which was a vast improvement over his last several nights in Virginia. He hadn’t even bothered to set an alarm last night because he hoped they’d be able to sleep in as late as possible this morning.
“No,” she murmured sleepily. “But I have to get up and do my morning shot.”
He yawned as he watched her rise out of bed. “Want me to go start the coffee?”
“You can if you want,” she replied, her arms lifting in a full body stretch. “I can’t have any caffeine though.”
She couldn’t have caffeine?He didn’t know that. He felt like shit that he didn’t know that. He’d only done a little research about the egg retrieval process when they first started talking about it. He hadn’t counted on not being able to go with Tori to her first appointment, to not knowing anything about the process or the side effects or what else to expect.
He watched closely as the T-shirt she’d slept in inched up her thighs, revealing her lacy black hipster panties and a small strip of stomach. He fixated on the marks on both sides of her body: the patches of purple, black, and yellow that freckled the soft skin of her tummy. She had told him about the injections over the phone, but seeing the visible proof landed differently in his mind.
“Can I bring you some peppermint tea, then? Or something else?” He had no idea what else to do for her, what else he could possibly offer.
“Tea would be good. And can you bring up a few ice cubes, too? The morning shot burns when it goes in, but Fielding read about a trick I want to try. I’m going to ice the spot for a few minutes before I actually do the injection and see if that helps.”
He cleared his throat as he pulled on a T-shirt, desperate to keep his cool. “Why would Haas know something like that?”
Tori shrugged before sitting back down on the bed. “He knew I was having a hard time with the shots this week, so we looked up some stuff online yesterday when we were at his mom’s pool.”
The way she just nonchalantly dropped that bomb was enough to have Rhett seeing red. The fact that his wife had been casually talking toFieldingabouttheiregg freezing procedure… None of the anger percolating inside him was aimed at Tori. There was only his dueling hatred for Fielding and his own self-loathing wrestling for dominance in his mind.
“I’ll be right back,” he promised as he left the bedroom and made his way downstairs to the Thompsons’ kitchen. Paul must have already been up and off to work, because a mostly full pot of coffee was still hot on in the carafe. He poured himself a cup, then set to work making her tea. By the time he let Penny out and made his way back upstairs, Tori wasn’t in her room anymore.
“In here,” she called from the hallway bathroom.
He walked into the narrow space and handed her the mug and a little bowl of ice before perching on the edge of the tub.
He grimaced when she tied up her shirt and revealed her marked abdomen. It physically hurt him to see her body covered in bruises. She picked up a single ice cube and wrapped it in a washcloth, then held it to the skin under the left side of her belly button. Their eyes connected in the mirror, her face expressionless aside from a timid smile.
“Not exactly the sexy Saturday mornings we used to enjoy, huh?”
The meekness in her voice and the dejection in her eyes permeated into every part of his crumbling, broken heart. He wordlessly watched as she held the ice to her stomach. He gripped the edges of the tub in frustration, desperate to soothe her somehow. He couldn’t just sit back as she did this alone. He wouldn’t be a bystander in what was supposed to be a team effort. Decision made, Rhett pushed to his feet and padded over to join her in front of the mirror.
