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He seemed to shake himself and took my hand again so we could keep walking. Acute disappointment settled in my stomach.
“We’re heading to Atlanta tomorrow,” he said.
“I’ve heard.”
“And then Dallas after that. Or Fort Worth, I guess?”
“I saw on the schedule that we have a couple days off in Texas.”
He smiled. “Yeah, it’s my sister’s birthday. I’m flying her in so I can see her.”
“Is she bringing Tank?”
“No. He doesn’t fly well, and I wouldn’t make her clean up dog puke.”
“So that’s why she has him.”
“Yeah. When I do trips on the road, Tank comes with me, but if I have to fly, he stays with her.”
“Do you live close to her?”
“Close enough. I wanted her to move in with me, but she likes her space.” He gave me a self-deprecating smile. “Not everyone likes to be in the center of attention, and you can’t really avoid it when you’re near me.”
It was a good thing I never minded attention. “Will your parents fly in for her birthday too?”
Yes, I was fishing. I wanted him to confide in me.
“No. They don’t really celebrate with us anymore. Hallie is kind of my only family now.”
That was heavy.
Rhett cleared his throat. “My mom left my dad a few months ago, and she’s living with her sister. In New York, actually.”
I stopped walking. “New York City? Yourmomwas there?”
“Yeah, but she wasn’t there this week. She and my aunt were off on a Mediterranean cruise.”
“Your aunt being the mom of your cousins in New York City,” I said, putting the family puzzle together.
“Bingo. My mom’s been kind of a wreck since she left my dad, so I haven’t bothered her much. My aunt is keeping her busy, and I send her money so she doesn’t have to worry about the lack of income.”
Money she spent on a cruise instead of flying out to see her daughter for her birthday? I didn’t voice that aloud, though. It sounded so judgy in my head; I was sure it would sound worse out loud.
“So it’s just you and Hallie, then? Is that what Christmas is like too?”
“The last few years, it has been.” He smiled. “Neither of us wanted to spend holidays with my dad, so we didn’t see either of them. But now that they’re separated, I don’t know what this year will look like.” He looked at me. “But you were raised by a single mom, right? That’s what you told me?”
“Yeah, my dad left when I was two, so I don’t even remember him.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. My mom is amazing. I had a great childhood, so it was his loss.”
“That still couldn’t have been easy not having a dad around.”
“No, it wasn’t easy. And it probably explains why I’m such a serial dater with commitment issues.” I gave a soft smile to lighten my words, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew that played a large role in it. That and the fact that if I dated anyone else seriously, I was saying goodbye to the prospect of being with Rhett Myers. For a girl who leaned so heavily on TV characters to make up for where the real men in life were lacking, I’d held tight to my Rhett crush with both hands and protected it zealously. Crazy of me? Perhaps. But I wasn’t about to tell him that. He would turn and run in the other direction.
“He missed out,” Rhett said.
