Page 19 of The Long Way Home
Chapter Five
RHETT
Now
“Careful with that one,” Anderson says, shifting a box in his hands. “I don’t want your lamp getting turned into kindling before you even unpack it.”
I grunt, adjusting my grip. “Relax. It’s just a lamp. It’s sturdy.”
“Sure,” he says, raising an eyebrow. “Sturdy until you drop it.”
I roll my eyes. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, buddy.”
He chuckles and shakes his head, taking a few steps backward to nudge the door open with his foot. “Man, how come moving is always worse than you remember? I should’ve told you I was busy or something.”
“Pretty sure you tried,” I say, lowering the lamp onto the entryway floor. “Didn’t you just move, like, five minutes ago?”
“Yeah,” he admits. “Guess I walked right into karma on that one.”
I grab another box from the stack, the cardboard biting into my palms. “How is the new place?” I ask as I hoist it up. “Margo mentioned you guys have a decent backyard.”
“It’s great,” he says, then pauses, adjusting his grip on his box. “I mean, it is now. The first week or so was rough.”
“Yeah?” I set the box markedmiscellaneousdown near the others. “Why’s that?”
Anderson exhales through his nose. “Oh, uh.” He shifts his weight, eyes drifting to the window. “I guess you’d probably understand more than most. Moving into a house together was a big deal for Margo. And then on top of that, right after we moved, we had the wedding coming up…” He trails off, then shakes his head. “It stirred up a lot of stuff from her past.”
I nod slowly. There is no need for him to say Josh’s name. It’s already there, sitting between us like a third person in the room.
Margo only got two years in her house with Josh before the universe plucked him out of it like he was nothing. One day, one wrong intersection, and everything after got rewritten.
“Yeah,” I say quietly. “I’m sorry, man. That’s gotta be hard to navigate.”
“It is.” He rubs a hand over the back of his neck. “Sometimes I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I’ll say the wrong thing, or I won’t say anything at all, and then she shuts down. And I’m just standing there thinking,fix it, do something,but there’s nothing to fix.”
He sets his box down.
“I feel helpless when she’s like that,” he continues. “Like no matter how much I love her, it’s never gonna be enough to keep her fully here. And then I feel like shit because I just made it about me.”
The room is quiet except for the hum of the fridge in the kitchen.
I lean against the wall, arms crossed. “You’re not replacing him,” I say. “And you’re not supposed to.” He looks at me. “She doesn’t need you to erase that part of her life,” I go on. “Josh was her husband. That’s always gonna matter. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for you. It just means the room is complicated.”
Anderson lets out a short, breathy laugh. “Yeah. Complicated is one way to put it.”
“Look, you’re doing what you can,” I add. “You show up. You don’t run when it gets uncomfortable. She is in love with you.”
“Yeah, I just gotta focus on that.” He looks down at the floor. “Alright. Therapy hour’s over.”
“If you ever need someone to talk to about it all, you can always tell me.” I pivot as it’s clear we both need lighter waters. “Let’s just hurry and finish this before the heat makes me regret every life choice I’ve ever made.”
“It is hot today,” he says, smirking. “Oh, shit. I almost forgot to ask, does Rachel know you’re back for good? Because when I was talking about it with Margo, she didn’t think Rachel knew.”
I freeze mid-step. “Uh, not exactly.”
Anderson squints at me. “Not exactly as in?”
“Not exactly,” I repeat, trying to keep my tone casual. “I figured it’s better to, you know, show up first. Words can come later.”
