Page 38 of Mine to Protect

“I think this is different.”

“I know it is incredibly different, and perhaps my example is minimizing the situation,” Rhett said. “But you’ve been taking care of your little brother for as long as he can remember. He doesn’t want you to do that anymore. He wants to take care of himself, and he wants to protect you. And it’s time for you to realize you’ve never really taken care of yourself. You’ve never had your own life because you’ve refused to detach yourself from everyone else.”

She opened her mouth, but he hushed her with his finger. “That doesn’t mean you should stop loving them or being there for them. But it does mean you have to let him be his own man. Even if he were to slip and start using again. He’s…what? Two years younger than you, so, thirty-three?”

She nodded. “He was twenty-eight when treatment finally took. He started using when he was a teenager. Hard drugs before he was fifteen. He barely had a chance. Before I dropped him off, he nearly died. He’d been in the hospital after an accidental overdose. I thought I’d lost him.” She blinked out a tear. “I’m worried I won’t ever see him again now.”

“What I want you to hold onto is the fact that he’s playing this as smart as he can. I generally don’t take too kindly to being used the way he has, but he led you to Lighthouse Cove because he knew about me. And about my family. He tipped off the local police department about the necklace and key.” He pointed toward the building. “Not the county sheriff’s office or the state police, but my mother’s office. Your little brother might have gotten himself into some trouble, but he’s all grown up and making the same kinds of choices I would if I ever found myself in his situation. And, trust me, I’ve been in some sticky places.”

“That really doesn’t make me feel better.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Rhett saw his brother Emmerson peek his head out the front door and wave.

“We’d better go inside.” He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “We’re going to find him. I promise.” He knew that he might not be able to keep his word, but he would die trying. Jumping out of the driver’s side of his Jeep, he raced around the hood of the SUV and pulled open the door for Shelby. He placed his hand on the small of her back and guided her to the door. “Relax,” he whispered in her ear.

“Easy for you to say. That’s your family in there. I feel like I’m walking into the lion’s den.”

He chuckled. “When I was a kid, my mom would sometimes summon me to the station after school. I always thought I was in trouble, but then I’d get here, and she’d have a bag of cookies and milk and we’d sit and chat in her office.”

“That’s kind of cute.”

“It was her way of making up for her long, crazy hours.” He pulled open the door. “But also, she was trying to scare me shitless because there was always some goon sitting in the waiting room. I learned later that he was a private investigator or someone she knew and not a criminal. She just wanted me to think that.”

“That’s funny, especially since you became a P.I.”

“Yeah. She regrets that part.” Rhett waved to the officer at the desk, who buzzed him past the lobby. He strolled down the hallway toward the conference room, where he’d been told to go.

“Who all is going to be here?”

“To my knowledge, just Emmerson. My mom has some meeting, and Emmett is out on patrol.” He wrapped his arm tighter around her waist, letting his hand rest on her curvy hip. The more time he spent with her, the more he was reminded why the memory of her came to him in his dreams.

And his daily thoughts.

It wasn’t the same kind of obsession he had experienced with Krista. That had been based on an unhealthy relationship that had been two-sided in the sense that Krista continued to be in his face, dangling the carrot, even when she’d been involved with someone else.

And he followed her around like a sick puppy.

She’d been the first woman he’d ever loved, and he’d let her control him in ways he still didn’t understand.

Things hadn’t been that way with Shelby.

While neither of them had been honest, thingswereeasy. Natural. And real.

He wanted to find a way to ask her if they could spend some time getting to know each other without the stress of other people. Date. He didn’t care if he had to drive to Jacksonville to do it. He wanted the opportunity to find out if what he felt could withstand the test of time.

The fact of the matter was that she was eight years younger than him. Not that he was old, but it seemed like she had more time to settle down and figure things out.

Whereas this felt as if it were his last chance at love. At a family.

He stumbled over that thought. It was dramatic and unexpected. He had no idea his mind was going in that direction.

“This way.” He waved his hand in front of the conference room.

“Come on in,” Emmerson said. “Have a seat.”

“Did anyone see or hear from my brother?” Shelby asked.

Emmerson shook his head. “I wish we had. We did however have some other visitors.”

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