Page 137 of Against The Tide

My everything.

CHAPTER 37

RHETT

Avery looks up at me with a soft smile as Iris sits beside me on the bed telling me about her play rehearsal today. It’s good to see her happy again. The first time Avery brought her to the hospital a few weeks ago, she was so quiet that it was like meeting a new child.

“If you can’t come to watch me, Uncle Rowan said he would FaceTime you so you can watch it from your pansy bed.”

“My what now?” My hoarse laugh becomes a cough as my ragged breaths burn through my lungs as she repeats, “Your pansy bed.”

Once I’ve gotten my laughter and the burn under control, I ask her, “Uncle Rowan, huh?”

“He said that if I wanted to live in his house with you, that I should call him Uncle Rowan.”

My gaze flits to Avery’s at the surprise. We haven’t spoken about it since the fundraiser. With the shooting, Jo insisted I stay at the ranch so that we could keep things as normal as possible to avoid the girls being overwhelmed. Avery might say she’s doing all right, but she’s still barely eating, and there are times where she lies awake in the dark. And I think she’s scared. Waiting for the next gray cloud to pour on her.

It won’t. There isn’t a day I won’t be there to shelter her from anything that comes our way.

“Okay?” I mouth, and she smiles again in response, but I notice that she’s got that deer in the headlights look in her eyes that she had when she and Rowan told me about what happened with Mike. I knew he wasn’t all that he pretended to be. I felt it in my gut that first time I met him in person. He had something dark in his eyes when he looked at her. Something that made me wary of him.

A soft sigh pushes from her lips, and it makes my chest constrict. I hate that she had to go through all of that. More than that, I hate that I wasn’t there to protect her from that too. There’s no evil I won’t ever do my damned best to protect her from. No pain I won’t do all I can to spare her.

“It’s my house, so you don’t have to call him anything you don’t want to.” I pat the bed, and she comes to lie next to me as I take tonight’s Dr. Seuss read from her.

“Oh the Places You’ll Go.” I put on my best Seuss voice, as Iris likes to call it, and pull her into my good side. “I’m definitely going to be in the front row to watch your performance. I wouldn’t miss it ever.”

“Promise?” Holding out her little finger in front of us, she levels me with her unwavering stare.

“Always,” I tell her as Avery disappears into the bathroom.

It’s Sunday evening, and I’ve found the worst, most boring film I could so that we can talk through it instead. I can sense she’s holding something back, and while I’ve let her take her time in opening up about it, I can’t bear to see her so preoccupied. No, it’s time we talked.

I’ve barely finished reading the first half of the book when Iris starts to fall asleep. “Hey, champ, time for bed. Okay?”

With a nod, she takes the book from me and dog-ears the page we’re on before hugging me tighter than ever. “Love you, Doc.”

“More than my last crumb of pie.”

“And my bite of cake,” she yawns before climbing off the bed and knocking on the bathroom door to wish Avery good night.

I follow her to her room and tuck her in along with Breeze, who’s already half-asleep, waiting on her. The Care Bear I got Avery on our first date is clutched to her chest along with her rag doll and the old Care Bear that even in the dark looks almost threadbare.

“Na-night, champ.” I flip on the nightlight by the open doorway before closing the door a fraction to stop the light from the hallway lamp we keep on in case she gets out of bed from keeping her awake.

When I make it back to the bedroom, Avery’s sitting on the bed. Her lip is sucked into her mouth as she worries it with her teeth. If I didn’t know her, I’d be jumping her bones with the way her wet hair has left one side of the T-shirt she’s wearing almost translucent, leaving her nipple pretty much in plain sight. My heart picks up its pace at the sight, and my sharp inhale almost knocks me on my ass with the rush of air.

“Hi, Miss Summers,” I tease with a quirk of my brow, and her giggle is the best sound I’ve heard in weeks.

“Hi, Dr. Reynolds.” She blows out a shaky breath as I sit back on the bed and tug her arm so she straddles my hips. When I flex up into her, she shakes her head. “No strenuous activity for six weeks,” she repeats what my surgeon said when he discharged me a couple of weeks ago.

“This isn’t hard work,” I rasp as I grasp her thighs and run my thumbs up to her groin. “Loving you is the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”

“Oh my God, you’re such a dork,” Avery giggles, bracing herself over me with her hands on either side of my head.

“You love it.”

I try to bring her flush to me, but she won’t let me. Although I know she’s looking out for me, it’s frustrating as all hell. I miss holding her and feeling her weight over me, the warmth of her flesh as it molds to mine and the softness of her skin.