Page 64 of Against The Tide

“You’re in over your head,” Luke chuckles. “I haven’t met her, but seeing you like this…I know I’m going to like her.”

“I wish I’d seen her coming so I could’ve prepared myself.”

“Look, Beth was a one-night stand, and now look at us. She followed me halfway across the world and married me in a dingy chapel in the middle of buttfuck South Carolina, and now she’s making me a dad. At no point did I see any of this coming, not even her.”

“Avery’s every single thing I never thought I wanted and that I had given up on. I thought I was done, but from the moment I met her, she’s all I can think about. And before you make some stupid lewd joke, it’s not sex.”

“It has to start somewhere.” Luke gets in his car and heads off, leaving me to ponder his words.

It has to start somewhere.

It’s been about the sex and nothing more for so long that I am in over my head with Avery. She makes me question everything I’ve ever told myself about what I wanted out of life. Success isn’t enough anymore. Fleeting and forgettable moments that bear no fulfillment or joy don’t hold any appeal.

The ranch looks different as I cruise down the bald cypress–lined drive. The two-day heat wave is beginning to wane, but even with the AC blowing cool, I can’t shake the heat coursing through me.

When I stop the car close to the house, Jo stands from where she’s sitting on the porch. She’s got that look in her eyes that tells me she means business. Breeze and Wave greet me as I jump out of my Jag, looking back to see that everything is as it should be.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jo grunts, following my gaze when she stops in front of me. “How old do you think she is?”

“Mind your own damn business.” I stick my tongue out at her as she pinches my chin.

“Listen here. You better not hurt my girl.”

“Your girl?”

“I’m serious, Rhett.” The use of my first name is sobering. “Promise me you’re not going to hurt her.”

I know better than to make promises that I can’t keep. I’ve been there, done that, and got the sordid history to remind me. Avery is different, though. I feel it in my bones. As though I’ve found that fundamental missing link in my DNA. For the first time ever, there is something that scares the shit out of me—and it’s losing her.

“I promise.”

“She’s been through enough.” Relinquishing her grip on my chin, she holds on to my arm, making her tremors more noticeable.

They’re worsening at a faster pace that makes me worry. I know her doctor said that there’s nothing else they can try outside of clinical studies, but watching her deteriorate is fucking painful especially when she still has so much fire in her.

If anything happens to her, Avery and Iris will be devastated. That only makes my observation harder to stomach. I’ve never wanted to protect someone so much as I need to when it comes to them. They mean more than anything I’ve ever had.

“I mean it. You brought her into my home, and I won’t let you mess her around. You understand?”

“I like her, Josie. I’ve never⁠—”

Marking me with a glare, she comes closer until we’re toe to toe. “Like isn’t enough.” The sternness in her voice is cutting. “Like isn’t enough for her or for Iris. Like is fleeting, and they need steady and strong. They need someone that’s going to fight for them to the very end. You understand?”

“Yeah, I do, but I’m not going to tell you what she needs to hear first, so…”

I can’t do that to Avery. She deserves to be the first person to know exactly how I feel about her. How she makes me feel. She staggered into my life, and it feels fuller with her and Iris than it has ever felt with money and success.

“She’s easy to love. A lot easier than I ever was, and Duke loved me more than I ever thought possible.” Tears line her eyes with yearning, and before I can comfort her, she turns away, telling me, “Don’t fuck this up or I swear to God, boy, I’ll make sure you regret it.”

All I want is to give Avery everything I can and more. I want to be all that she needs. For a long as I breathe and as long as she’ll let me.

I’m in my head while I watch Jo take the steps to the porch slower than usual when the front door opens. Ship comes bounding toward me with his tail swishing excitedly behind him. It doesn’t matter how many times he jumps up at me for attention, Avery is the only thing I can focus on.

Our surroundings fade and the world falls away as she stands on the top step looking at me. Her smile is a little guarded at first, making my chest tighten with the thought that there’s a chance she’ll be torn from me in the near future. Still, that doesn’t stop all the other thoughts from going down a torrid track.

Holy shit!

I have to take a moment to pick my jaw up from the ground with how stunning she looks. The white dress she’s wearing makes her tan glow. Even though she’s wearing flat sandals, her legs look long and endless, perfectly sinuous as they disappear beneath the loose skirt of her cotton lace dress.