Page 28 of Without a Trace
My glass was nearly empty. Again. The air was cooler now. Quieter. The kind of quiet that feels like it's waiting to be broken. Trace disappeared as soon as we got back.
I wasn’t drunk—not really. Just loose. Tired. Unraveling in that warm, slow way that makes you think being reckless might actually fix something.
But I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.
One second, I was leaning into Alden’s shoulder, letting his smile lull me into comfort, and the next I was locking eyes with Trace like he would set me on fire if I let him. And part of me wanted to.
Wanted to burn down every part of myself that was still confused, still broken, still standing on this imaginary fencebetween the two people who kept pulling me in opposite directions.
God, what was wrong with me? The door creaked behind me.
“You okay?”
I didn’t turn. The voice was low. Gentle.
“Define okay.”
Rhett sat down next to me, not too close, just there. That was Rhett’s thing. He never pushed. Just stayed until you realized you needed him.
“You’ve had a lot to drink,” he said, a fact, not a judgment.
“So has everyone,” I muttered, tipping the last sip of wine into my mouth.
Silence stretched between us as
I leaned back, eyes on the sky.
“Do you ever feel like… something’s missing and you don’t even know what it is?”
Rhett didn’t answer, but I filled the silence.
“You know, “I said, staring at the trees. “My dad died when I was a kid. Car crash. Or maybe a fire. I honestly don’t remember. Just… my mom crying, and then not crying. And pretending none of it happened.”
I sighed. “It’s weird, right? How you can miss someone you barely knew.”
Rhett paused. He nodded, slowly wiping condensation from his glass.
“That kind of forgetting,” he said softly. “It protects you. Even if it doesn’t make sense.”
I looked at him. “Yeah. But it makes you feel broken, too.”
“You’re not broken, Scarlett.”
“You keep saying that,” I whispered. “But what if I am? What if I was always going to be?”
“Then maybe it’s not a flaw,” he said. “Maybe that’s just… part of who you are. The same way fire leaves scars. Doesn’t mean the fire didn’t matter.”
My throat tightened and something shifted in the air beside me.
He knew something. More than he was saying. And maybe… maybe I wasn’t as clueless as I let myself believe.
But that couldn’t be right. Stupid wine.
I laughed—too loud. “Shit, sorry. Birthday vibes, right?”
Rhett looked at me; I couldn't tell what he was thinking.
“Go inside, Scarlett,” he said gently. “You don’t have to hold it all together tonight.”
