Page 85 of Against The Tide

“Deep breath, sweetheart,” he murmurs into my hair while folding me into him. “You got this, and I got you.”

Rhett isn’t wrong—he does have me. He has more of me than anyone has ever possessed, and the scary thing is that it feels safe with him. The more I know of him, the more my heart yearns to belong to him completely. Sometimes it’s as though it only beats when he’s near me. As if it beats for him.

Burrowing deeper into his chest, I press my ear over his thrumming heart. The small hitch as I slip my hands beneath the hem of his shirt and slip them around to his back so that I can hold on to him makes me smile. Then it jolts, thundering harder and faster. It makes all the tension ebb away as I inhale deeply at the knowledge that Rhett Reynolds’s heart beats for me, as surely, wholly, and solely as mine does for him.

“Leave it with me,” Callie tells me, getting in her car to the sound of the kids fighting over who gets to sit in the front with her.

It’s getting dark, and the light from the porch and her headlights are the only things illuminating our surroundings.

“It doesn’t make sense that they would bring Robert up, but the feds are assholes like that. Who the fuck knows which angle they’re trying to play?”

“Why did they wait so long to talk to me?”

“My guess is that they wanted to catch you off guard. It makes it easier to get answers.” After relegating both of the kids to the back, she gets in her SUV. “Don’t stress over it, I’m on it.”

“Thanks.”

“In the meantime, Gretch wants to talk to you about an injunction to help speed things along with the custody and divorce filings.”

“What if it makes things worse?”

“Like I told you at dinner, it’s no coincidence that Carl has shown up here with the feds following. I don’t know what is going on there, but from my experience, I would say there’s a bigger game we haven’t been invited to. Leave it with me.”

“Okay,” I tell her as Iris comes running around the side of the house with Rhett chasing after her.

The two of them are laughing so loud and freely that it’s contagious. Even the dogs are jumping around to their excitement.

“I’ll see you at the school Monday morning. We can grab coffee with Gretch and talk everything through. If I get anything, we can talk it over Monday too.”

“Sounds good,” I manage to say as Iris yells at Scarlett that she’s camping with Doc.

Callie heads off once Rhett manages to throw Iris over his shoulder and goes inside. By the time I’ve wandered in, the couches are a few blankets and cushions short, and Jo is laughing at the two of them running out of the back door.

“I don’t know who’s the bigger kid?” she muses, patting the seat beside her. “I want to talk to you about something.”

There’s a serious shift in her demeanor that makes me wary of what’s coming. When I’ve sat beside her, she takes my hand and clasps it between both of her trembling ones.

“I owe you an apology,” Jo murmurs sheepishly into our tangled hands. “Sometimes I forget how strong you are, and I don’t mean nothing by it.”

“I know, and if my mom were here, she would react exactly as you did. If anything, it’s comforting that you are so similar.”

“I’m stubborn, but you’re brave and beautiful, and it’s so hard not to protect you.” I notice the way her tremble worsens as she gets emotional followed by the twitch of her mouth.

Every day there seems to be a new symptom or the deterioration of another. Jo’s getting sullen too which makes me worry that like Mom she’s getting sicker too quickly. In the short time we’ve known each other, she’s become an intrinsic part of our new family. Oddly, it’s as though Iris and I have found ourselves an actual family rather than just people tied to us by DNA or contracts.

“You can’t protect me, Jo.”

“I know. Rhett’s right, you can fight your own battles. We’re your backup. I know. But when you’ve lived it too…there’s a solidarity that no one will understand.”

Unable to control her tremor, she tucks me into her and drapes her arm around my shoulders.

“You don’t stay broken forever, but the scars don’t fade and I…sugar…”

“It’s okay, Jo. I’m not mad—I understand why you wanted to protect me.”

“Not just you, Avery,” she murmurs at the same time as my phone vibrates in my back pocket. I’m fishing it out awkwardly so I don’t knock Jo’s arm off, when she continues. “Do you know, he’s been good to me. Better than a lot of children are to their parents.”

Doc