Page 81 of Burned

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Elizabeth had been home for over a month and Rhys was still no closer to getting Sadie to hear him out about the two of them getting back together. Rhys was at his wit's end. He could barely focus while he was at work to the point where the head of his department had to check on him to see if everything was all right.

His mother, who decided to lengthen her stay in the states to help Sadie out with the baby didn’t help matters. She kept asking him when he and Sadie would stop being stubborn and get back together. It wasn’t as if he didn’t try.

Sadie’s surprise baby shower was the last time he had got her alone to talk. What should have been a happy day of homecoming and celebration had been a day of torture for him. Seeing Sadie laugh and smile with friends and family as she showed off their baby while she basically ignored him hurt. That should have been their day but instead, she’d shut him out. What he found the most frustrating about the situation was the fact that Sadie and Carys were actually getting along. In fact, Carys visited Sadie quite often and had even watched Elizabeth while Sadie napped. Carys was at Sadie’s this very moment.

“Rhys? Earth to Rhys!” Colin waved his hand in his brother’s face bringing Rhys out of his silent musings.

Rhys shook his head and focused on his brother. “I’m sorry, what?”

“The steak is already dead, mate. No need to keep stabbing it like that.” Colin motioned to the fork in his brother’s hand.

Rhys didn’t realize he was poking his food because he’d been so deep in thought. “Sorry.”

“No need to apologize to me but clearly coming out for dinner wasn’t a good idea. According to Mom, you’ve been moping around the house and she thought if I took you out, it would help you get out of your funk. If I would have known you’d just sit across from me while desecrating that fine cut of meat I would have taken out that cute blonde I met the other week.”

“Cute blonde? And here I thought you had a thing for Lily.”

Colin’s usual easygoing countenance grew stormy as he furrowed his brow. “Don’t mention that name.”

Rhys raised a brow. It was no secret that Colin had a thing for Sadie’s sister, but apparently, something had happened between the two of them that his brother obviously didn’t want to talk about. Rhys thought he’d sensed some tension between the two of them at the shower, but Rhys had been too focused on his own drama to give them his full attention. Deciding not to pursue the topic, Rhys tried to keep the conversation neutral. “So tell me about this hot blonde.”

Colin shook his head. “Uh-uh. You’re not going to change the subject this easily. What’s going on with you,mate? Mom says you’ve been irritable and snapping at everyone. She and Carys have been tiptoeing around the house to avoid you. What’s going on, Rhys? Is it Sadie?”

“Just like you didn’t want to talk about her sister, I don’t want to talk about her.”

“See, that’s where you’re wrong. What’s going on between me and Lily is just a little tiff. You, on the other hand, share a child with Sadie and it’s clear that you still have feelings for each other. I just don’t understand why the two of you aren’t back together yet.”

“So this is why you decided to bring me out to dinner? To interrogate me?”

“Like I said, Mom thought it would be a good idea to get you out of the house and this is after all your favorite steakhouse. I thought it would lift your spirits.”

Rhys snorted. “Since when did you start listening to Mom? You were the rebellious one.”

“You can keep changing the subject if you want but it won’t make what’s bothering you go away. Come on, you can talk to me about it.”

Rhys pushed his plate away, his appetite long gone. “You’re not going to let this shit go until I spill my guts are you?”

Colin took a sip from his beer glass before giving him a smug grin. “Nope.”

“You’re such a dick, did you know that?”

Colin chuckled. “I’ve heard that before. Now seriously. What’s going on?”

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to carry on and pretend that everything is okay when I’m still in love with Sadie. We have a child together and that should have brought us closer but it feels like she’s using Ellie as a shield to keep me at arm’s length. I guess maybe I could learn to deal with this if I knew she didn’t have feelings for me as well but I know she does.”

“How does she use the baby as a shield?”

“It’s kind of hard to explain really but an example is the fact that whenever I try to have a serious conversation with her, she claims she has to check on something for the baby or that she’s too exhausted. She always has an excuse. I know those may not seem like a big deal but when it keeps happening over and over again, you start to see the pattern. Right before she gave birth, I apologized to her and told her that I loved her and wanted us to get back together. She told me that she couldn’t be with me because she couldn’t trust Carys around the baby. At the time, it was sort of understandable given the circumstances, but now she actually lets Carys watch the baby unattended, so that excuse no longer flies. If she loves me and her and Carys have become close, I don’t understand what her excuse is.”

Colin leaned back in his chair and didn’t speak at first but finally, he said, “Well, I supposed when you put it like that, it doesn’t sound rational but have you ever thought that she might be scared? Fear makes people do irrational things.”

“Scared of what?” Rhys pointed to his chest. “Of me? She has to know I’d never hurt her.”

“But didn’t you do it already? Hurt her, I mean? Look, you know I love my niece. But Carys was in a pretty messed up place thanks to that bitch of an ex of yours. Carys did some bad things to Sadie according to you and I can’t fault you for wanting to stand by your child. That’s what any good parent would do. But you were willfully ignorant where Carys was concerned. Even I had suggested that maybe you should get some counseling for her, but you bit my head off.”

Rhys sighed hanging his head. “You’re right. I saw the signs that she was troubled but instead of getting her the help she obviously needed I just bought her things to make it better. Her mother did such a number on her that I wanted to make sure she knew that she was loved and that I’d never abandon her. I guess in the back of my mind, I knew she was running those other women off but I told myself if they couldn’t handle a teenager then maybe they weren’t the right one for me. But looking back, none of those women meant anywhere near as much to me as Sadie does. She’s the one woman who I can truly say I love with everything in my being. And I hate myself for the part I played in pushing her away. I should have listened instead of stubbornly trying to ignore Carys’ problems. I wanted to have my cake and eat it too.”

---