Page 58 of Peaches

“Are you sure?”

“Yep.” His voice is so deep it sounds almost dangerous. “Why?”

I laugh. “It just sounds like you’re at work.”

“Nah. Well, okay, I am. Was,” he corrects. “But now I’m upstairs.”

“Oh, in your kinky sex dungeon?” Flashes of that ghostly apartment come alive in my mind, and I fight a blush thinking of the rope he used to tie me down.

“Mm,” he rumbles. “You think it’s kinky?”

“Isn’t it?”

He laughs. “I like that it is for you. Damn, now I’m going to have an even harder time not thinking of you when I’m up here.”

“What is it for you?” I press, ignoring the way his words swoop through me. “I remember you said you liked the quiet.”

“Yeah, I do,” he agrees. “I guess it’s a home away from home? My cabin at the ranch is hardly cozy. No curtains on the wall, not much food in the fridge. And . . . it’s where my parents lived before they took over the main house. I was pretty little when we left it, but I remember they weren’t the best days. Hard memories, I guess. I feel lighter in the apartment. Always have.”

I nod, understanding. “I’m sorry.”

He snorts. “What do you have to be sorry about?”

I give myself a second to muster up the words. “For all the shit you have on your plate. That you feel like you have to hold it all in. I was . . . I was worried about you. The other night.”

He sighs. “I know. I shouldn’t have just shown up like that.”

“No, no. I’m glad you did. I always want you to show up when you need a friend.”

“A friend?”

“Aren’t we?”

“Hm.” A pause stretches out between us and I hear faint rustling on the other end of the line. “Maybe.”

I want to throttle him. “Be honest, Rhett. Are you okay?”

But he doesn’t answer. “Can I ask you something?”

I sense the shift in his tone, imagine the hard set of his jaw. “Of course.”

“There’s some shit going on at home. My brother’s wife . . . she’s sick.”

I set the box of cheesecake down on my counter in the kitchen and spin to stare at the far wall. “Brooks’s wife?”

“Yeah.”

I swallow. “How sick?”

“It’s not good,” he says.

“Shit,” I whisper. Liam and his brothers flood my mind, and my chest squeezes. No wonder Rhett looked like he was being pulled under the tide.

“I guess that answers my question.” He exhales. “You didn’t know?”

“Of course not,” I say quickly. “How would I?”

He sighs again, and this time I hear the relief in it. “I’m sorry. It’s somehow gotten out and . . . I didn’t know how big the story might be. In town, I mean.”

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