Page 72 of Forty and Fighting Dirty
“You’re already giving me a good deal, Rhett. You’re putting up all the money but agreeing to split the profits down the middle. You’re getting the place painted out of your own pocket. And now this?” I shook my head. “If I accept…”
He waited for me to finish, but I didn’t. “If you accept, then what?” Rhett finally prompted gently.
“Then it’ll hurt that much more when the rug gets pulled out from under me!” I looked up at him, desperate for solid ground. “If I stumble again, I won’t be able to scrabble my way back up onto my feet. Ican’tstumble, Rhett. My boys need me, and I can’t afford to let them down again.”
Rhett put his hands on either side of my face and tilted it up so I was forced to look in his eyes. It hurt. I didn’t want to see the tenderness and heartbreak written in his gaze. I didn’t want to question my need to protect myself. When I was married to Jacob, he’d always been looking for the upper hand. Argumentswere full of land mines. I couldn’t navigate them without fearing setting one off.
“What do you need to feel safe, Piper?”
I stared at Rhett, blinking. “What?”
“Tell me what you need. Do you want a lease? We’ll put it all out on paper and sign it. I won’t be able to kick you out. You’ll be protected.”
My heart still wasn’t beating right. I frowned, my mind racing, looking for the catch. There was always a catch.
“Come on,” Rhett said, braiding his fingers in mine. He tugged me back down the hall and up the stairs. They creaked as we ascended, welcoming us up to the second story. Rhett opened the door to the main bathroom, and I sighed at the sight of the stack of fresh towels and the new white shower curtain. Then he opened the door to the dormer bedroom, and all the breath left my lungs in a rush.
“Rhett,” I whispered, unable to actually make a sound as I stepped over the threshold. He’d bought two beds and installed them on either side of the room, under the angled pitch of the roof. The bedspreads were branded with the Hot Wheels logo, along with a car with flames shooting out from under the tires. Each bed had a toy car on it, brand new in the box. There were simple, sturdy dressers on either side of the window, and a rug that felt plush underfoot.
“All I wanted as a kid was somewhere that felt like home,” he said behind me. “I wanted my mother to look at me the way you look at your sons. I wanted her to listen to me and hold me when I was afraid. And I wanted somewhere that I could go back to that felt safe, that felt like it was mine.”
“This is blatant emotional manipulation,” I croaked.
Rhett’s smile was evident in his voice, even though I still had my back to him. “I told you the good-guy thing was an act.”
Finally, I turned around. He filled the doorway, his gaze hesitant as he watched me. “Thank you,” I whispered.
He inhaled sharply. Exhaled. “You’ll stay?”
“I can’t keep this from the boys,” I said, my bottom lip trembling as my arm waved at the room he’d decorated. “But…”
“Give me a few seconds to enjoy this, Piper,” Rhett said, entering the room to wrap me in his arms again. “Tell me the rest of your protests later.”
I laughed, burying my head in his chest. “We’ll have to move out to stage the place properly for sale.”
“Fine,” Rhett agreed. “We’ll worry about that later.”
Looking up at him, I shook my head. “I don’t deserve this.” The words slipped out, and the truth in them shimmered in the air between us. I gulped, suddenly afraid. Rhett saw so much, and it was so easy to fall for his charm. I wanted to believe that he was as good as he appeared. I wanted to live here, to see the boys’ faces when they saw their room, to spend every day and night with Rhett from now until the end of time.
But what if every time I accepted help, it came back and bit me in the ass ten times worse? What if I hadn’t worked hard enough, or fought hard enough, or been smart enough to actually deserve more from my life than what I had?
Rhett’s shoulders dropped, and his grip on me tightened. “You deserve a hell of a lot more than an old house with leaky plumbing, Piper. But it’ll do for now.”
“I thought you fixedthe plumbing,” I teased.
Rhett huffed, touching his nose to mine. “You want to see the master bedroom?”
I wasn’t sure my heart could take it, but my curiosity wouldn’t let me refuse. “Lead the way,” I said.
Rhett took my hand once more, and it felt natural and right to hold his hand like this. We walked along the stairway to the main bedroom, and as I watched Rhett reach for the handle, I wondered how it would feel to just enjoy this. To do what he said and simply take a breather. To feel safe.
With Rhett by my side, solid and immovable, feeling safe didn’t seem like such a stretch. I let out a long sigh, and with it, released some of the fear that had plagued me since the breakdown of my marriage.
And Rhett opened the door.
TWENTY-EIGHT
RHETT
