Page 39 of Painted

He shouldn’t have taken Early to bed without talking things through first.

He shouldn’t have let Raina get behind the wheel of the car just because he’d had more to drink that night than he’d intended to.

“Okay, so we’re agreed?” Blaine’s question pulled Rhys out of his spiraling thoughts once they’d made their way around the dining hall. “Twelve tables that seat ten each, three rectangular tables along each of the long walls with auction items, and the tribute display at the far end, where we’ll put up a dais for speeches.”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Rhys said without really understanding any of it.

He didn’t do the best job of hiding that he hadn’t been paying attention.

“Robert asked you to be a part of organizing this for a reason,” Nick took him aside and told him with a frown as Blaine and Bax bantered about costs.

“Fuck if I know why,” Rhys muttered, arms still crossed, no interest in facing Nick directly at all.

“This,” Nick said, gesturing to him. “This is exactly why.”

Rhys stopped his tight, restless movements and scowled at Nick.

“Mate, you’re a basket case these days,” Nick said. “Are you still going to therapy?”

“I’ve gone as far as I can go in therapy,” Rhys answered, his face heating even more.

“Fuck that,” Nick said. “Call your therapist and schedule an appointment like the rest of us.”

Rhys blinked at him. Nick was admitting he was still in therapy?

“Raina is gone,” Nick said, letting out a heavy breath and rubbing a hand over his face. “None of us can change that. But what’s the point in letting that loss infect the rest of your life? Do you think your sister would want your anger at someone you don’t even know ruin your relationships in the present?”

“Early and I aren’t in a relationship,” Rhys snapped back.

He immediately regretted it when Nick’s expression changed to surprise. “You and Early?”

Rhys cursed himself and shook his head. “Never mind. I didn’t say anything. There’s nothing between me and Early anyhow.”

“Now I know there’s something between the two of you,” Nick said. What he thought of that, Rhys couldn’t tell. His expression darkened slightly. “Why the hell did you snap at him about Raina’s jumper if the two of you have something going on?”

“Because we don’t have anything going on,” Rhys argued. “Because I screwed up anything we might have had by getting overexcited and letting my libido run away with me.”

Nick suddenly looked mutinous. “What did you do to them?”

“Nothing!” Rhys shouted. He immediately deflated and said, “Nothing, really. We…we spent the night together last Thursday.” And that was all the detail Nick was going to get. “I thought we were good at the time, but they weren’t there in the morning and I haven’t had a chance to talk to them since.”

“What the fuck, Rhys?” Nick gaped at him. “Thursday was four days ago. You should have been waiting outside the office or chasing them down to talk to them immediately. Christ! What is wrong with you these days?”

“I don’t know!” Rhys shouted, way more emotion than he’d intended in those few words. “I don’t know,” he repeated at half the volume, scrubbing his hands over his face. “Everything is bollocks at the moment, and I know it’s all my fault. But I don’t feel like I know what I’m doing anymore. Raina was always the one to talk me through messes like these.”

“That’s why you’re supposed to still be seeing a therapist, you nutter,” Nick said.

Rhys smiled. Nick wasn’t angry with him anymore. He could see the concern in his brother-in-law’s eyes, now that he wasn’t so blinded by the frustration he’d let build up inside him.

“Thanks, I know,” Rhys said, losing most of the tension from his body, now that the mood between him and Nick wasn’t confrontational anymore. “I still talk to her once a month.”

“Up that to twice,” Nick told him. “Or every week. I still talk to mine once a week.”

“Really?” Rhys blinked at him.

“Yeah.” Nick shrugged. “I consider it my own personal fight against the male stigma against taking care of our mental health.”

“You are a study in contradictions, my friend,” Rhys said with a weak smile.

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