Page 88 of Forty and Fighting Dirty
I was a grown man now, and I should have seen that the woman I loved needed me to be there for her. I should have lived up to her good opinion of me and proved to her that we belonged together.
“I fucked up,” I blurted.
Dave’s eyes softened. “We all do, now and then.”
“No, I mean I fucked up real bad, Dave. She’s leaving because of me.”
“Rhett?” Erin poked her head out the door. “I’m all done here. Kitty cat’s fine, but keep an eye on him, okay? If he keeps vomiting up hairballs regularly, bring him back in and we’ll run some tests.”
I grabbed the carrier she extended toward me, mind whirling. “I need to go. Can I settle the bill later?”
She looked at me, tilting her head as she frowned. “Sure,” she said. “Hi, Dave.”
I didn’t hear Dave’s answer, because I was already hurrying away. The cat meowed his displeasure at being jostled, but I couldn’t slow down. I set him on the passenger seat and once again got behind the wheel. This time, I set off toward the little house on Lovers Lane, heart rattling, knuckles white, and throat so tight I could hardly breathe.
THIRTY-FIVE
PIPER
I was on a roll.I’d gotten so much done, and it wasn’t even noon yet. The final page of the Heart’s Cove Elementary enrollment forms only needed a few pieces of information, and then I’d be able to check that task off the list too. I filled them out in a few short minutes, then tidied up the paperwork and set it aside. Then I pulled the letter of resignation I’d printed off at David’s shop, gave it another read-through, and signed it. My chest felt tight, but I ignored it and stood up. The kitchen sink needed scrubbing, and there was no time like the present.
As long as I kept moving, the tsunami of emotions wouldn’t sweep me away. I opened the cabinet under the sink, and an image of Rhett popped into my mind. Him, crouching under the sink, telling me we’d won a lemon. I’d been dreaming of a perfect home, and he’d been thinking about profit.
I should have known from the start thathe was all wrong for me.
It was good that we’d broken things off. I leaned against the edge of the sink, breathless, and realized I’d scrubbed it so hard there were scratches in the stainless steel. I stared at them blankly, only startled out of my stupor when the doorbell rang.
Tossing my rough sponge aside, I washed my hands and grabbed a dish towel on my way out of the kitchen. “Coming!” I called out as the doorbell rang again. I tossed the dish towel on the stair banister and opened the door.
My stomach splattered onto my feet. “Rhett.”
His hair was in disarray, like he’d been pulling at it all morning. His jacket was unzipped, the pocket of his pants was inside out, and he held a cat carrier in his left hand. “I’m sorry,” he blurted, eyes wild. “I love you. Don’t leave.”
I blinked—and for the second time in two days, the world tilted, and I clung to my front door handle to keep myself steady. “What?”
“I’m sorry, Piper. About Saturday—about everything. I should have been there for you, and instead I blamed you for things that weren’t your fault. I don’t want you to leave town. And I don’t want you to leave this house. You and the boys—you should stay. I want you to stay. Please.”
My heart fluttered like a trapped bird. All the emotions I’d been trying to avoid reared up with a vengeance. My breath caught. “And?—”
“And I love you.” He exhaled. “I know I’m not supposed to say that so soon. I know I don’t deserve you. You could find someone better tomorrow, and you probably should. But I love you, and the thought of living here after you’ve gone makes me want to claw my own eyes out.”
I took two steps backward, scrabbled at the end of the staircase banister, and sat down heavily on the second step. Nothing made sense. My carefully organized view of the world—of Rhett—came crashing down. I looked at the carrier dangling from his fingers. “Why did you bring your cat to tell me that?”
“He puked. Ignore him,” Rhett added when the cat began to yowl. “Can I come in?”
“I guess so,” I replied. My mind wasn’t working properly. I couldn’t make sense of what was going on.
Rhett exhaled, stepped inside, and closed the door. He gulped and set the cat carrier down. Two green eyes stared at me from behind the metal grate. It was easier to look at the cat than it was to look at Rhett, but I forced myself to lift my gaze to meet his.
“Don’t leave,” he rasped.
“How did you…?”
“I ran into Dave,” he said, and when I straightened and frowned, he added, “He thought I already knew.”
All day yesterday and today, I’d focused on what I needed to do to get my life in order. There were a million tasks that had to be accomplished in order to get me out of this town and into a better life. I’d completed a tiny fraction of them, but every bit of my consciousness had been focused on action. As long as I was taking action, I was holding on to my power.
Rhett had burst through the door and stopped me in my tracks. I reeled, one hand clinging to a wooden spindle, one clutching the stair tread next to my hip.
