Page 93 of Wild Side
My heart soars. Knowing my sister felt this moment brings me a level of peace that I’ve needed.
I’ve got a salaried job at a car dealership and a townhome with a view of the water in Emerald Lake… and my hot-ass neighbor.
Oh. I suck in a breath and forge ahead.
Tall, dark, and handsome personified. Gruff but friendly. No wedding ring. And used an adorable baby voice when he talked to Milo and reached for his hand to shake. Needless to say, I’m prettysure I’m in love with my landlord. Did I mention he also owns the whole building? LOL.
LOL? She hasn’t usedLOLin a single diary entry. It’s like I can feel her giddiness leaping off the page.
I skip ahead to the next entry.
Tabby helped me move in, and as much as I needed her help, I was ready for her to leave. Not because she did anything wrong. Just because…this place feels like a fresh start, like something that’s finally mine. And I can’t handle the constant nervous glances and the “You’re all good, then?” questions.
It’s like she’s taken on a mothering role and is scared to watch me fly from the nest. There’s something embarrassing about having her all up in my business when everything is going so well.
It also annoyed me that my hot-ass landlord popped his painfully handsome head over the fence and asked how long my sister was going to be in town.
That’s how I knew it was time for her to leave.
I blink at the page. Rhys asked how long I was going to be in town? Based on the date at the top of the entry, this must have been a day or two after I marched into his house and laid out some ground rules for being my sister’s landlord.
Guilt licks at my subconscious. It makes me wonder if I fucked up a relationship that might have kept her alive. If she and Rhys had happened, would she still be here? With her perfect sister crushing on her partner?
My head shakes as I brush the thoughts away. I’m taking serious leaps of logic to get to that point.
So instead of playing the “what-if” game, I keep reading through the book under a darkened sky, pages lit only by the soft glow of the back porch light. The night is peaceful, but my brain is a raging storm.
I baked cookies and brought them next door as a thank you to my landlord for letting us rent the other side of his duplex.
The attempts at making contact with Rhys just keep coming with each entry.
Left my car door open and drained the battery. Watching Rhys give me a boost was a fantasy I didn’t know I had.
Sometimes I get Rhys’s mail in my mailbox by accident. Hand delivering it is always a highlight. Now and then, he even opens the door shirtless.
Usually, my attempts at making contact with my hot-ass landlord are half-hearted, but today he came through for me. The woman who runs the daycare that I take Milo to called saying she was sick, and I was too nervous to take a day off work—I really need this job. Rhys heard me on the phone in the backyard, and this time, when he popped his head over the fence, he didn’t ask about my sister.
He offered to watch Milo.
I have no idea what the man does for a living, but he’s often home. He seems nice enough, and I was desperate, so I took him up on the offer.
My stomach was in knots all day. The mom guilt was real. Leaving your child with a man you barely know probably isn’t recommended. It gave me another dose of guilt for all the times I disappeared to god knows where on my parents.
Needless to say, when I rushed home, Milo was happy as could be. Fed. Changed. And asleep in Rhys’s arms while they waited for me on the front porch.
With no dad in his life, it was the first time I’d seen a man hold him. It was a sight I could get used to.
Talk about butterflies.
I swallow, eyes scanning the entry again as my fingers trail over my sister’s pen strokes. Touching the proof that Rhys has been in Milo’s life for a long time.
As I make my way through the journals, the familiarity between the three of them only grows.
We had Rhys over for dinner to thank him for bailing us out.
Rhys joined us at the town fair. He won Milo a stuffed panda bear so big that it almost looks real. Watching them together is… something I didn’t know I needed.
Today Rhys asked about my sister, and it fucking pissed me off. All the time we’ve spenttogether, and he saw her out the front window a year ago and still thinks about her?
