Page 66 of Quiet Longing

“Rhys, is everything okay?” she asked.

I stepped into the room and closed the door behind me. “Can I just … hang out here with you for a while?”

“Of course,” she replied and patted the space next to her on the bed.

I slid off my shoes and lied down beside her, resting my head on her stomach as she continued reading, absentmindedly stroking my hair. I closed my eyes and let the soothing sensation of her touch surround me. I loved that about her, how she was content to just let me be, let me work through my thoughts in quiet without pushing me to talk. Her silent support meant everything, and my affection for her expanded exponentially. I was already in so deep for this girl, and I wasn’t sure there was a way to backtrack. Not when I’d become so attached. She was the first place I wanted to be, her calming presence helping me sort through everything that had happened in the space of twenty-four hours.

Dad had been arrested. With any luck, he’d do time, at least a couple years. In a few months, the divorce would be final. Everything was going to be all right.

I reminded myself of these things, like a reassuring mantra, as Charli’s quiet presence and closeness settled peacefully into my bones, but there was also a nagging fear at the back of my mind. Charli was around to soothe me now, but in a short space of time, she’d be gone, and just like my feelings for her, the panic of her departure grew larger by the day.

17.

Charli

Something had happened. I could sense it in the tension in Rhys’ shoulders, the way he seemed to need my touch more than ever before. I continued stroking his hair, seeing how it eased something in him. A few minutes later, I saw he’d fallen asleep, and my heart melted.

Maybe he was just exhausted from all the shifts he’d been doing at the hotel. Plus, I knew his parents were signing the divorce papers soon. He had a lot to deal with, and it didn’t help that I’d been seeking him out so much.

Sex was a revelation, and Rhys and I had been havinga lotof it. I wasn’t on any kind of birth control, but we kept the local pharmacy in business with the amount of condoms we’d been buying. I’d confessed to Nuala that Rhys and I had lost our virginity to one another, swearing her to secrecy. She’d been giddy but also curious. She’d wanted to know what it felt like. I’d been honest and told her the first time hurt, but that it got better after that.

Man, had it gotten better.

Rhys and I were like students learning a new subject. There was a freedom in him being just as inexperienced as I was. We didn’t need to be embarrassed or shy about what we didn’t know. We could simply … explore. And we’d been doing some serious exploration, let me tell you. The look on his face the first time he’d stripped off my clothes and found I was wearing the sexy lingerie I’d bought was permanently etched into my mind. I didn’t ever want to forget that look.

Placing my e-reader aside, I clicked off the lamp and settled in next to him. No one aside from Nuala typically came into my bedroom unannounced, so it was safe for Rhys to stay over. Besides, he’d typically wake up early and sneak back to Derek’s room.

When I woke up the next morning, though, he was still there, sleeping soundly beside me. I kissed his temple then crawled out of bed and went to shower.

My mom was arriving in a couple hours, and I was excited but also a little nervous to see her. Would she notice the change in me? Would she be able to tell I’d been sleeping with a kind, caring Irish boy who made my heart flutter whenever our eyes locked? And what exactly was she going to tell me when we finally sat down to talk about the bigthingshe and Padraig fought over?

Rhys was awake by the time I emerged from the shower, my wet hair wrapped up in a towel while another was secured around my body. I expected him to say something sexy at my state of undress, perhaps pull me over to the bed and start kissing me while he divested me of my towel, but he didn’t. Instead, he sat up, a troubled look on his face.

“My dad was arrested last night,” he stated, and my stomach dropped.

I stepped close to the bed and sat down next to him, taking his hand in mine and linking our fingers. “Does that mean he signed the papers? Did you finally go to the police?”

Rhys had explained to me why he’d been waiting to go forward with the footage of his father attacking him. I hadn’t liked the idea of postponing, but I understood his reasoning. His mother needed that divorce.

“I did, but that wasn’t why he was arrested. He’d been down the pub, ‘celebrating the divorce’,” he replied glumly. “Startedtelling everyone the drinks were on him, and then when they refused to let him set up a tab, he started smashing the place up.”

“Oh my God,” I squeezed his fingers, my belly twisting. Poor Rhys.

“Padraig thinks he’ll get at least two years, possibly three or four.” He fell quiet, exhaling heavily. “I just want him gone. Mam and me need a break. The chaos he brings into our lives … it’s fucking exhausting. I can’t deal with it anymore.”

“Rhys,” I whispered softly, empathy swelling in my chest as I pressed a kiss to his cheek then wrapped my arms around him. I hugged him tight, and we stayed like that for a while. Somewhere along the way, he started kissing me, his lips on my shoulder then my neck. Before I knew it, I was flat on my back on the bed, the towel spread wide as Rhys kissed his way down my body.

“Wait,” I breathed. “We can’t. I have to get ready. My mom’s arriving this morning, and I’m going to the airport to meet her.”

Rhys’ disappointed expression made me chuckle. He was too cute. “Oh, man, you love doing that so much, don’t you? Whatever lucky woman gets to marry you someday is in for a real treat.” Both my friends, Gwyn and Lydia, had been sexually active, and neither of them had mentioned their boyfriends being as enthused to go downtown as Rhys always was.

“I just really like doing it toyou,” he answered back, an odd expression on his face at my statement about his future wife. Maybe it was difficult to think that far ahead or to believe in marriage at all after how his parents had ended up. Unbidden, something pinched at my chest to imagine Rhys years into the future, creating a life with someone else. I’d be a long forgotten, perhaps fond, memory. The girl he’d lost his virginity to that one summer in Dublin.

“We don’t have time,” I said, pushing away the strange jealousy I felt thinking of Rhys being married to some womanwho wouldn’t be me. “Also, aren’t you going running with Derek this morning?”

Ever since his injuries had healed, Rhys had been exercising with my cousin almost every day. I was pretty sure he’d already lost a couple pounds. Although that could just as easily be from all the sex we were having. It was very effective cardio.

With a parting kiss, he went. My heart clenched watching him go. With the divorce papers signed and his father arrested, I hoped life was going to get better for Rhys going forward.

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