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“Eat,” he ordered with a look that saiddo not argue with me.I reluctantly forced the sandwich down and prayed it didn’t come back up. Usually, I preferred avocado and bacon on a turkey sandwich, but today I didn’t care. Everything tasted like sandpaper to me.
After sitting in silence, Rhett surprised me by wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pulling me tight into his side. I rested my head on his chest and tried to focus on the small laps of water against the shore. Usually, the rhythmic sound was soothing, but the pressure within me refused to quiet down. I didn’t want to cry, but before I knew it, tears were streaming down my face.
“Shh, I’m here. I got you,” he said softly as one hand cradled my head to his chest. The other soothingly rubbed my arm.
“It’s—not—fair. Why did this happen? Why did she have to leave me?” I sobbed.
I tilted my head up to look into Rhett’s normally bright blue eyes that were now a cool gray, standing out against his naturally tan skin tone and dark hair.
His gaze was like a cloudy sky in winter, and I pulled back with an inaudible gasp. The way he looked at me was drastically different from the look of pity from almost everyone else that day. I could tell that he felt all the pain I was feeling as well. It surprised me that we could be real with each other, and I didn’t have to put up a front with him.
“I don’t know, Bella. But I’m here, and I promise you I won’t ever leave you,” he muttered as his lips brushed against my forehead. He was so sweet, and I was so lucky that he treated me with the same love and care he treated his sisters with.
And yet, the past summer was the first time I started thinking about Rhett as anything more than just a friend. Between helping his dad at the marina and being on the high school football team, I would have had to be blind to miss his newly formed muscles.
Stop it, Bella. Not now.
But he was a senior with his pick of pretty popular girls, and I was a sophomore. Next year he would be off at college, and he looked at me as nothing more than another little sister. Rhett’s lean, muscular frame was thelastthing I should be thinking about.
“You can’t promise that, and besides, you’re leaving for college next fall,” I responded after pausing a moment too long. A wave of dread swept over me at the thought of Rhett not being there.
He chuckled. “You know what I meant. College is temporary, and I’ll be back for holidays and every summer.”
But my mom’s illness was only supposed to be temporary.
With his arm still firmly secured around my shoulder, the silence engulfed us until he asked, “Are you ready to head back?”
“No,” I muttered. “Can we sit like this for a little while longer?”
“Of course. You know I would do anything for you,” he admitted a bit sheepishly. Was he blushing? No, that didn’t make sense. It must have been the wind picking up, warming his cheeks.
At that moment, I realized just how true my mom’s words were. Our friendship might not always be easy, but I would do whatever it took to never lose it.
If we could get through what was bound to be one of the worst days of my life, surely we could handle anything…right?
Present Day
May, Twelve years later.
Chapter Two
Bella
“Hey, little man.Did you have a good nap?” I picked Brendan up out of his crib nestled on the far wall of his nursery and placed him on the changing table. Having a room of his own was a blessing. Luckily, with all five of Miranda’s children grown and living on their own, there was plenty of space in her large home.
I studied his facial features, his almond-shaped brown eyes, cleft chin, and dimples that appeared when he smiled.
Damn, he’s looking more like his father every day.
“You guys coming?” My best friend, Ashley, the oldest of Miranda’s daughters, said from the doorway.
Hearing her voice, Brendan kicked his legs, shifting his body. I grabbed him and stopped him from falling to the carpeted floor. Flipping him back, I attempted once again to change his diaper.
“Yeah, if B would let me change his diaper without the acrobatics.”
Ashley moved to the end of the changing table near Brendan’s head to distract him so I could finish. Memories of his birth slammed into me; Ashley and Miranda were both there with me. I smiled, thinking back to Ashley telling me that I could do this, saying that she had waited seven months to meet this little boy, so I had better do what the doctor told me and push as hard as I could. She never complained about how hard I squeezed her hand. The two of us were the type of friends who could go weeks without talking, like we did so many times in college, and then get together one weekend and spend the entire time hanging out and catching up. Truthfully, we were more like sisters than best friends.
After a few more minutes, I had Brendan changed, and we headed outside toward the long farmhouse style table that was setup on the patio overlooking the cluster of trees. Beyond the trees, there was a long pier that extended out into the water from the flat, grassy shore. The view of the lake always made me feel calm. There was something peaceful about it, even in the chaos of a big family.
