Page 51 of Rhett

“Jesus. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you smile that big,” Morgan says.

I haven’t had many reasons to, and he knows that. “It doesn’t make much sense, but it’s right for me.”

East plays with a thread on his shirt. “It does make sense. You’re living your own life for the first time and figuring out who you are. There are no rules as to whom we can be now.”

I like that. “You never followed the rules anyway,” I say, testing out the joke.

“Nope. And sometimes that was fun. But you followed all of them.”

I nod.

“Meadow is staying with me and Archer this weekend,” East says, changing the subject. “I’m nervous.”

Morgan ruffles his hair. “You’ll do great. That kid adores you.”

“Archer makes me more likable.”

“You were always likable. Maybe the most out of all of us,” I tell my baby brother.

We talk about other things then—East’s work at Dusty’s shop, and Morgan asks me again to come to the bar. I will. I want to, it’s just a million things are changing at once, and it’s hard to deal with it all.

They stay about an hour, and we drink coffee and pretend to be normal brothers. The therapy session I agreed to join is about a month away, so I have some time to prepare—I definitely want to discuss it with Talia.

Things are slightly awkward when they leave, again like none of us know how to act. Do adult brothers typically hug their siblings goodbye? Is that something people do? We don’t, but that’s okay because this is us and our journey.

As soon as they go, I pull out my phone, head to my Notes app, and add a message about my brothers and the day we had.All the good things listed are about them, the job, or Tripp and Meadow.

Tripp. I bet he’d like to hear what we did today, and I want to share it with him. He’s busy with his family, though, and I worry about bothering him, so I head out to my shop and start Morgan’s barstools.

It’s close to nine when I’m lying in bed, lights out, and my phone glows with a text.

Tripp: You awake?

Me: Yes.

And then my phone rings. Jesus. He’s calling? I didn’t expect that.

“Hello?”

“Hey. Sorry to call. Just figured it’s easier than texting.”

I shift in my bed. “No problem.”

“How was your day?” Tripp asks.

“Good. Great, actually. Morgan and East came over. I know that probably doesn’t sound like a big deal, but there’s a lot of trauma and conflict between us.”

“Yeah, I can tell. Want to talk about it?”

And the thing is, I do. In ways I never imagined. It’s so strange, these new, perplexing feelings.

“Soon. Not tonight on the phone.”

“Okay. I’m here for you whenever. Which brings me to my question… Meadow’s staying with Archer this weekend. I wondered if you wanted to stay here, with me. Or I can come to your place if you’d rather.”

“No,” I push out gruffly. Shit. “What I mean is, I do want to stay with you, just not here.” Christ, am I really doing this? A whole lot more might happen if we’re in an empty house together all night. I haven’t done much of this, hooking up with people, and definitely not ones I like as much as Tripp. “I’d like to stay with you, if you’re still offering.”

“I am. I’m looking forward to it.”

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