Page 26 of Rhett Redeemed

Rhett: And did you?

Dice: Yeah, I’m the president.

Rhett: Only president you’ll ever be.

Dice: Ouch. Everyone was talking about it all night. You going to bang Natty next and make it three for three?

Why the fuck do I like this guy?

Rhett: Don’t think she’d go for it.

Dice: It will blow over. Say sorry. On your knees.

Rhett: Trying.

I thought I’d be on my knees tonight, but for a whole different reason.

Only my mom replies to any of my texts, telling me to come and see her so we can talk about it all. I decide to head back over to the clubhouse to deal with the fallout, and to hopefully clear my name and explain my side of the story. I find Clover in the kitchen, helping tidy up all the beer bottles.

“Where’s my goddaughter?” I ask.

She stills at the sound of my voice. “With my parents. Why? You suddenly care about someone other than your own penis?”

I pick up the bottles from the table and start to help her. “Did you get my text?”

“I didn’t read it,” she replies, lifting her chin up at me. “I’m angry, Rhett. We have a friendship code, and you seem to have forgotten it.”

“I didn’t know.”

She sighs, puts the empty bottles in the recycling bin and turns to me. “You truly didn’t know that was Cara’s half sister? You had no idea?”

“No.”

“Well, you obviously have a type then, don’t you?” she replies with a narrowed gaze. “You could have brought any other woman in the world and last night would have gone completely differently. It’s not that we don’t want you to be happy, and to find someone and fall in love. We just didn’t realize it’d be Cara’s new sister, who I’ve been unsure about ever since I met her. And now we find out she’s your new woman?”

“That’s not fair, Clo. Con is a good person, and she didn’t know who I was. It’s all a fucked-up coincidence. And you might not trust her, but I do. I vouch for her a hundred percent.”

“And how long have you known her exactly to vouch for her?” she asks, raising her brow and looking unamused.

Shit.

“Not that long, but—”

“But you’re thinking with your dick, Rhett. If you say you didn’t know, I believe you. But do you really think that she didn’t know?” she asks, studying me.

“She says that she didn’t. And yeah, I believe her. From what I saw last night, she really, genuinely cares about Cara. She didn’t want anything to do with me after finding out who I was, if that makes you feel any better.” Cara must not have mentioned me at all to her.

“Nothing about last night will make me feel better,” she grumbles. “I’m sure you can understand it was a shock. It was going to be awkward enough having you and Cara finally in the same room, and then you show up with her sister, who I don’t fully trust, if I’m being honest.”

“I never knew you were so judgmental, Clo.”

“I’m protective.”

“You’re threatened. I’ve known you a long time and I am willing to bet you don’t trust her because you don’t want someone to change what you and Cara have.”

I know I struck a nerve when Clover just snorts. “Please. I’m never threatened. Cara is my girl for life.”

“But she’ll never be your sister. You’re being unfair,” I say.

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