Page 84 of Honey Bee Hearts

He shakes his head. “No.”

“Why not?” I ask, needing the answer. I’ve wondered for nine long years. I’ve watched him avoid relationships with everyone but us. I’ve watched him turn away good women. Not once have I ever seen him act the way he does around Fable the same way he did with the other women.

He blows out his breath. “Shit, I don’t know, man.”

“That’s not a good enough answer,” I growl.

“What the fuck do you want from me?” he growls back. “You want me to say it’s because of you guys? You want me to admit I didn’t want to hurt the three of you?” He slams his hand against the post. “You want me to admit I had a drunken vision of my parents telling me that I needed to be better? That I was too close to failing everyone?”

“If that’s what happened,” I nod. “I’ve long since known who you are, Rhett Thomas, but you’re so damned concerned with hiding behind a mask of your own makin’.” I tilt my head. “You’re doin’ the same thing with Fable right now.”

“Even if I were to like her, nothing can come of it,” Rhett growls.

“Why not?” I ask.

“You know why,” he spits. “Ain’t no woman deserves to be pulled into all this, least of all her!”

I cross my arms. “We can protect her.”

“We can barely protect ourselves,” he snarls. “The ranch is safe for now, but it can all come tumbling down at any moment. You know that as well as I do. There’s no escaping this mess we’re in. We’re in it until we fucking die.”

“In a normal world, if we weren’t here, what would you do?” I ask.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s not gonna change?—”

“Humor me,” I snarl, cutting him off. “If we weren’t in the mess we’re in, how would you have handled it?”

He hesitates, his eyes on mine. Rhett has always been proud. He’s always been a livewire just waiting to be touched. His mom used to say the fire in his heart bleeds into his hair and that’s why it’s the color it is. I used to think it was funny, but when Mrs. Thomas passed, I missed her little quips and sayings almost immediately. Fable brought some more of that brightness back into Circle Bee, the glitter we were missing here. She came in and changed every fucking one of us, and Rhett knows it. As to if he’ll admit it. . .

“If things were normal. . .” Rhett repeats, looking out over the yard again. He pets Jethro’s head absentmindedly when he presses against him. “If we didn’t have to deal with the Crows and the Eight Balls. . .” He sighs and glances at me. “I’d have already asked her to marry me.”

My eyes widen. “What?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Rhett growls. “It doesn’t fucking matter one bit, and you can’t say a word to anyone. She leaves. She has to. For her safety. “

I study the man in front of me. There’s sadness in his eyes, longing, and for the first time, I wonder if it’s how we all look at the woman currently passed out in Trent’s arms upstairs. I wonder if we’ve all just been lying to ourselves.

“Fuck,” I whisper. “This is really fucked, Rhett.”

“Yeah,” he answers, hanging his head. “Yeah, it is.”

We stand there in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the moon and the stars above.

“You’re right,” Rhett finally says. “She’s not out of my system. I suspect she never will be.”

I smirk at him. “Good boy,” I say, needling him, but I still don’t tell him what happened upstairs. He’ll have to see for himself.

“Asshole,” he grumbles, but it’s half-hearted and he smiles a little at me after he says it. I embrace him in a brief hug before heading back inside and taking a seat in the living room recliner. I make sure I can see both the base of the stairs and the front door, just to make sure nothing comes in that’s not supposed to.

Just to make sure she’s safe. . .

Chapter 45

Fable

Apparently, my birthday celebration isn’t done just because it’s a new day. Rhett announces the next morning that we’re going back to the Boot Skoot. Since it’s my last weekend here, I can’t refuse even had I wanted to. Something forces me to accept, to push forward. I wanna spend as much time as I possibly can with these guys before I go. I wanna take all the memories with me when I go.

The Boot Skoot isn’t nearly as busy as it was the last time. Apparently, there’s no live band tonight, just a really good DJ. While it’s still packed, there’s plenty of room to move around the edges tonight and it makes me feel a little more comfortable.

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