Page 114 of Reckless Love

“Can we go soon?” Bernard whispered.

I wanted to tell him he could go anytime, I hadn’t invited him in the first place, but I didn’t.

As Rhodes was telling me bye, he leaned in to whisper, “I’ll make sure she’s not here next time. Please come back. Tonight, tomorrow…all the time. Leave the dud at home.”

I laughed in spite of myself.

“What’s so funny?” Bernard asked.

“I told her to come back…all the time,” Rhodes said.

“Well, she does have a life, you know.”

“I know,” Rhodes said softly.

“And my life includes you and Levi,” I told Rhodes.

He smiled. “I know that too.”

He reached out and took my hand. I felt the tension bouncing off of Bernard, but I didn’t care. He needed to get used to the way Rhodes and I were with each other.

“Carrie picked her brother to be Levi’s godfather, and I’d like you to be his godmother,” he said.

The tears I’d been holding back started trickling down my cheeks.

“I’d be honored to be Levi’s godmother,” I said quietly. And then I frowned. “Is Carrie okay with that?”

“She’ll have to be,” he said.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

SCRATCH THAT ITCH

ELLE

Now

I haven't letit ruin my Christmas because I have had the best Christmas ever, but in the hours since we got the group text from Calista saying to check out TikTok, I have spiraled thetiniest bit.

Rhodes managed to distract me in the shower just now, but now that we’re drying off, my mind is swirling again.

Those sleuths on TikTok have been compiling pictures of me and Rhodes. Some of them have gone way back to the beginning, pulling up pictures I’d forgotten or never seen, and some are from our Instagram feeds. But there are also photos of him at my condo, at church together at various times, as well as last night’s Christmas Eve service, and there is even one person questioning whether it was us out with Levi in disguises.

“Who do you think started this?” I ask. “Someone’s sending the latest pictures to these people.”

“I don't know,” Rhodes says. “It’s either paparazzi or just people who know me from football…or you from cheering.”

“It doesn’t seem like something the locals would really think about much. They’ve seen us together around here for years, so it’s not a big deal. But a lot of people come through here because it’s so close to Denver.” I make a face. “It could be Brock,” I say. “That picture at the condo. Maybe he sent it to them.”

He groans. “That bastard.”

“Well, I can’t be too mad. I sort of asked for this by recklessly following my heart.” I laugh when he tugs me to him with a goofy grin on his face.

“It’s about time you recklessly loved me,” he says.

“Let’s go to bed and I’ll prove it.”

He starts walking backwards, pulling my hand as we walk from the bathroom to his bed. Bogey’s head lifts from where he’s lying on a little bed and drops back down when he sees it’s us. He’s worn out from being chased and loved on by Levi.

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