Taylor: CARLA. I thought we agreed never to speak of that again?
Carla: We won’t. In a public forum. But everyone in this group message already knows about it, and you’re acting like Lee’s disappearing act has single-handedly turned you into a sweat hog.
Taylor: FINE. It didn’t cause it, but it’s not helping, okay?
Carla: Why don’t we focus back on the problem here…LEE AND HER REFUSAL TO SHARE INFORMATION
Taylor: Rude.
Carla: For real.
I start to scroll down to a whole other set of messages from a couple days later, but Joey stirs in my lap and looks up at me with big, sweet eyes.
I click the button on the side of my phone to shut off the screen and toss it back to the seat of the chair next to me.
“Hi, sweetie. Did you get some good sleep?”
She nods, rubbing at her eyes with the backs of her hands, and I sweep some of the loose strands of blond hair out of her face with soft fingers.
“How about you and I go down to the cafeteria and grab some food?” I say, just as Rhett comes through the door of Tex’s room. His steps are swift, and he seems to be on a mission.
Even his face is serious and determined, and Joey must sense it because she jumps up and off my lap and stands to the side. I shake in my spot on the small chair, willing my body to burrow itself back through the thick hospital wall and into another dimension where Rhett isn’t looking at me like that and I’m guaranteed to feel no bodily harm.
I don’t know what he’s thinking, and I sure as hell can’t tell what he’s feeling, because just like always, he’s a mystery.
“Stand up,” he orders suddenly, his voice rough and commanding and brutal.
I do as he asks, not even by choice but my sheer involuntary compliance, and between one breath and the next, everything in my world changes.
Rhett pulls me into a hug.
But not just any hug. It’s bone-crushing, body-squeezing—earth-shattering.
I feel like his heart is laid out and bare, and if only I would let him, he would move it to the inside of my chest right next to my own.
He’s tall and strong and warm, and by God, he feels better than any human I’ve ever been in this close of contact with. I never imagined that someone who smelled like leather and horses would be the kind of person I sought out for peace and comfort, but I’ll be damned if being wrapped up in Rhett Jameson’s arms doesn’t feel like a whole new level of home.
Of comfort.
Of unexpected happiness.
His lips whisper softly into the veil of my hair at my ear, and a shiver runs unchecked down my spine and out the ends of my toes. “Thank you,” he rasps, the weight of those two words enough to make it feel like my feet sink right into the hard tile floor.
I nod right there, in the tight envelope of his hold, against the column of his corded throat and do my best to hedge the sting in my nose enough to prevent it from turning into tears. “You’re welcome. I mean, of course. I’m just glad I was able to help.”
His hold doesn’t relent, and frankly, neither does mine. I can’t do anything but push the surface of my body closer to his, mindlessly desperate to achieve complete and total contact.
I have to be closer—I need to be.
“You didn’t just help,” he tells me roughly, moving our heads so that his lips are the ones at my throat now. “Leah, you saved his life, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to properly thank you.”
I squeeze him harder, clutching my arms around his back.
“You don’t have to, okay? You’re doing it right now.”
After a heavy, warm, shiver-inducing sigh against my throat, unfortunately, he pulls back and puts far too much distance—a foot or so—between us. I feel cold and empty and downright terrified of the reason for both, so in an attempt to cover up my spiraling emotions, I take a dive into an awkward attempt at humor.
“Though, I suppose, if you really want to thank me, you could take Joey and me down to the cafeteria for some food.” I turn to Joey and whisper conspiratorially. “After doing my residency here, I happen to know they’ve got a killer piece of chocolate cake with our names on it.”
“Yeah!” Joey agrees loudly with a thumbs-up. “Can we go, Daddy? Can we?”
Rhett smiles. “I was already plannin’ on it, but even I’ll admit, the promise of chocolate cake sealed the deal.”
As soon as the words leave his mouth, an objective comes to mind and develops its very own rabid dog of influence.
Before we leave Salt Lake City, in a couple of days when we know everything with Tex is truly good, I’m going to get Rhett and Joey out of this hospital and show them just a little tiny sliver of my life.