Page 79 of My Grape Crush
Rhys pulls a face. “How much did he shit on me?”
“Hardly at all. Most of the conversation involved you and your family.”
His eyebrows shoot up in disbelief. “That so?”
Without knowing all the details, a portrait of his life has emerged. One that he needs to color in. “I didn’t know your father was ill.”
A little tremor works around his mouth. “That’s one of the reasons why I took this gig. To check in on him.”
“When were you planning to do that?” I ask as gently as I can.
He pins me with those heart-stopping eyes. Instead of humor dancing in their depths, a brewing storm rages. “I’m not here to talk about my father.”
I sit on the sofa and pat the space beside me. “I know.”
He perches on the edge of the sofa, his body tightly coiled. I breathe in his spicy vanilla scent, the fragrance that swirled around us this morning in bed, while his touch, the gentle stroking of my hair, radiated through me like a burning fire.
Rhys stares at the floor, his expression blank. “Myla was a one-night stand. A mistake I truly regret. Should I have said something? Yes. Eventually. But no one confesses their dirty secrets when you’re about to make love to someone for the first time.” His eyes meet mine with such a sorrowful gaze that my breath catches. “I swear there is no one else. There hasn’t been for a long time.”
That reveal doesn’t compute with the delicious shock of Rhys battering me senseless. I guess I found a winner in the stamina department.
“You showed no signs of rust.”
I crack a smile, but Rhys keeps a lock on his serious expression. “The likes of Myla is not how I roll. It’s the furthest thing from the truth.”
I lay a hand on his knee and squeeze it. “I know.”
His bewildered expression clears into a look ofah-ha. “So, you and Sawyer talked about many things.”
“He loves you,” I say, side-stepping the details. “Even though you drive him crazy.”
“Yeah, well, that goes both ways.” Rhys makes an indeterminate sound and fixes his attention somewhere behind me. He looks years younger, and vulnerable. “I wish we had a closer relationship. Like you and your sister.”
After Rhys held me tight during last night’s aftershocks, he smoothed my ruined hair from my face, and we rambled about life in that free-association, deep dive way when you’re awash in pheromones, inhibitions loosened after intense first-time intimacy. I shared my frustration with my permanent second-place standing, forever in Amelia’s shadow. But he congratulated me for never allowing that to supplant our bond.
Maybe that’s inspired him to do the same.
After a heavy silence, I address the elephant in the room. “Where did she end up?”
He faces me dead on. “I stuffed her in a taxi. A one-way trip to Kelowna. She can find her way back home from there.”
“She seemed a little off-kilter.”
“Ya think?”He laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “I call women like her the Crazies. The scary thing is, there’s an endless supply of them. If it’s not her, it’ll be someone else next time.”
“There was another gang of women holding a vigil this morning at the entrance,” I reveal. “They swarmed the SUV before security stepped in.”
With a depleted-sounding sigh, Rhys slumps back and tilts his face skyward. A long minute passes. “It’s not fucking worth it anymore, Dani,” he finally says. “No amount of money validates this insanity.”
I curl my legs underneath me and hold space quietly, sensing we are shifting into a more profound territory. “Are you thinking of giving up the influencer stuff?”
He tips his head left to look at me. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while.”
“What would you do instead?”
“I don’t know,” he says with a shrug. “Last night, you got me thinking. About your agency. Maybe I can help you set it up.”
“From here?” I clarify, not believing for a heartbeat Rhys would slum it in Osoyoos. “But you live in Greece.”
