Page 97 of Ghost Note

“Quite a show last night, huh?” Rhett said, his brow raised.

I dropped my sandwich wrapped in foil onto the blanket. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“Danny said you were a gig virgin.”

“Oh, Jesus, Corey, will you just sit still for a minute?” Jules cried, her attention drifting to her son as he giggled and waddled away towards the water. “Sorry, guys, I’ll be right back.”

Rhett’s gaze followed them, and he couldn’t hide the smile that tugged at his lips. “He’s his mother’s son, all right.”

There was a pull to their love you couldn’t help but lean into. I barely knew this family in front of me, but the warmth they offered wasn’t to be missed, and it felt as natural to be around them as it did to breathe air into my lungs.

Which was… weird.

I followed Rhett’s gaze and watched Julia as she scooped Corey up and spun him around with the biggest smile on her face, with Corey’s legs kicked out and his laughter pouring free.

“You guys always look so happy together,” I found myself saying.

“We are.” I turned to see him watching them as though he couldn’t believe they were real—that they were his. “She’s changed my whole life. Made me see shit I didn’t see before.”

“Like what?”

Rhett’s eyes found mine, the connection there despite us both hiding behind sunglasses. “Like what’s important and what isn’t. The same shit I’ve been drilling into that head of your boy’s.”

“Danny isn’t—”

“Yours. Yeah, yeah, I know.” He smirked. “Heard it all before. Said the same shit myself a few times along the way. Thing is… someone doesn’t have to be living beside you every minute of every day to be yours. They can be half a world away, and they’ll still belong to nobody else but you.”

“I’ve never really understood that. If someone loves you, why would they want to be away from you?”

“Because they love themselves, too, and that’s just as important. A person shouldn’t have to give themselves up to keep another happy.” He looked at Jules again, leaning into his knees more. “When we first got together, and we found out Jules was carrying Corey, she said she was leaving me.”

“What?” My mouth fell open, but Rhett’s smile just grew.

“Yeah. She used to be the publicist for my band. She got me all hooked up on her shit and then told me she was leaving to go and take care of Front Row Frogs. I damn near lost my mind.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Because she’s a clever little arsehole who’s always right.”

Corey’s laughter made me look his way again, and I watched him trying to push his mummy into the ocean by pressing his balled-up fists into the back of her legs.

“She travels away every now and again, taking Corey with her. She does it to keep herself on her toes. She didn’t want to settle with our band. She wanted to see what other lives she could impact—who else she could push to succeed. I thought I’d miss her too much for it to work, but do you know what happened?”

“What?”

“Her absence made me want her more. Whenever she’s not there now, I’m rushing through life, desperate to get back to her, and even on the days when the ache of missing them makes me do stupid shit or say things I don’t mean, I love that absence makes the way I feel about her just grow and grow and grow.” Rhett huffed out a laugh and shook his head. “It’s some fucked up shit. Kind of annoying how she knows what I need more than I know it myself.”

“You should write a song about it.”

“Believe me, I’ve tried. Many, many, many times. Come close a few times, too, but I’ve not hit the mark yet. Nothing’s described the way it feels.”

“She’s lucky to have you,” I said quietly.

He laughed fully. “She’s a glutton for punishment. Nah. I’m the lucky one. She’s an idiot. I don’t know what she sees in me.”

I smiled. “It might have something to do with the way you talk about her to strangers like me.”

Rhett pushed his glasses up and made sure I could see his eyes. “We might not have met before this week, Daisy, but you’re no stranger. I know more about you than you can imagine. Don’t romanticise the way I talk about Jules if you don’t realise that it’s nothing compared to the way Danny drones on and on about you.”

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