Rock Bottom

by Emily Goodwin

  “Hey!” Archer calls when I walk in. He raises a shot glass in the air, and I can tell he’s borderline drunk already. He doesn’t drink often, since he’s on-call a lot. We’ve all had fun giving him hell about turning into a lightweight in his old age. “You’re just in time to—Rory, hey!”

  “He’s drunk,” I tell her, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. I know she thinks it’s a little weird to hang out with her boss in a social setting like this. But Archer is a good guy and wouldn’t make her feel awkward at work or anything.

  “Guys, this is Rory.”

  “Hi,” Rory says, reaching down to pet one of the four dogs that are bombarding her. Quinn smiles and slowly gets up, coming over to greet Rory. “How are you feeling?” Rory asks her.

  “Like shit.” Quinn puts her hand over her stomach. “I think the babies hate me already.”

  “Babe, they don’t hate you.” Archer fills his Glencairn whiskey glass and takes a drink. “They can’t form emotions yet.”

  “You can’t form emotions,” Quinn snaps and Archer takes another drink.

  “You all right, sis?” I let go or Rory’s hand to give Quinn a hug.

  “Other than the nonstop puking, being the only one here not drinking, and the fact that my babies hate me, I’m fine.”

  “She can be a tad dramatic,” I whisper to Rory. “And pregnancy makes her emotional.”

  “Dramotional,” Rory laughs. “That’s what my brothers call me. I can be emotional and dramatic like the best of them. And I don’t think your babies hate you. You’re way too cool to hate.”

  Quinn’s eyes fill with tears and she nods. “I’m not, but thank you for saying that. I’ve always been a nerd.”

  “Me too.” Rory gives her a smile. “I was actually just telling Dean I’d love to find some people to play Dungeons and Dragons with me, and he thought you’d like it.”

  Quinn smiles, doing a one-eighty from the mood she was just in. “I’d really like that. I don’t have to be pregnant in the game, do I?”

  “You don’t have to be a woman. Or human.”

  “Great.”

  Archer pours whiskey in two glasses and hands one to me and Rory. “Tell us what you think. We’re sampling whiskey for…for something.”

  “For the bar,” Logan says. “And it’s nice to meet you. I’m Logan. This is my wife, Danielle.”

  “Hi,” Danielle says.

  “Hi.” Rory gives her a small wave. “You own the bakery, right?”

  “Right.”

  “I haven’t been in yet, but I’ll definitely stop by sometime.”

  “Ask for me when you go in. I’ll sneak a few extra cupcakes in your bag before you leave.”

  “Ohhh, I’d love that! Thank you.”

  I lace my fingers through Rory’s again and we join everyone at the island. “Where’s Mom and Dad?” I ask.

  “Downstairs with the kids,” Danielle answers. “All the kids.”

  “I still say we make a run for it,” Scarlet jokes.

  “Drink!” Archer tells me, pulling the cork out of bottle of whiskey. He goes to pour more in his glass and misses, spilling it on the counter.

  “Hands of a surgeon, that one,” Quinn huffs. “Though he really is good with his hands, among other things. If he weren’t, I wouldn’t be pregnant for the fourth fucking time.”

  “Gross, Quinn,” I say, and she rolls her eyes. Rory brings the Glencairn to her nose, smelling the whiskey before taking a tiny taste. She wrinkles her nose and shakes her head.

  “You don’t have to drink,” I tell her, knowing she doesn’t like the taste of alcohol.

  “I’m not.” She sets the glass on the counter and looks at Quinn. “I can explain D&D to you, and we can start creating your character if you want.”

  Quinn’s face lights up. “Okay!”

  Rory takes a step forward, following Quinn, and I grab her hand, pulling her back for a kiss. My brothers catcall and I hold up my middle finger.

  “I like her,” Scarlet says once Rory has left the room.

  “I do too.” I toss the whiskey into my mouth and pull out a stool at the island.

  “She seems really nice,” Danielle tells me, and I try not to think about how many times I heard my sisters-in-law tell me they liked Kara.

  They never did.

  “And she and Quinn have a lot in common,” Archer says, swaying on his feet a bit. I pull out another stool and he sinks down. “Quinn keeps talking about her, and no, I didn’t tell her about you guys spending a few days together in Miami.”

  “What?” Scarlet asks, leaning forward. “She was in Miami?”

  “Fuck.” Archer shakes his head. “I forgot no one else knew.”

  I roll my eyes. “Don’t scare her off, okay?”

  “So you really like her?” Logan asks carefully.

  “I do,” I say, unable to keep the smile off my face.

  “That’s how it works.” Weston finishes the sample of whiskey in his glass. “Love finds you when you least expect it.”

  “Or,” Scarlet starts. “When someone tries to con you out of everything you own.”

  Weston laughs. “You had to be sorely disappointed I had nothing to steal.”

  Scarlet loops her arm through Weston’s. “Just your heart.”

  “Gross,” Logan huffs. “Did he ever tell you why you got hired?”

  Scarlet shakes her head, blonde hair falling in her face. “It wasn’t for my impressive resume?”

  “Nope,” Logan laughs. “Owen and I picked the hottest nanny on the site.”

  “Oh, well, duh,” Scarlet laughs. “Though now that I’m happily married with a couple of kids, I’m considering letting myself go.”

  “Please.” Danielle gives Scarlet an endearing look. “You couldn’t let yourself go if you tried.”

  “That is true,” Weston tells her, setting his glass down and taking her in his arms. “You’ve been hitting the Oreos pretty hard and you haven’t gained a single pound.”

  “True,” Scarlet laughs, and then rounds on me. “So you like Rory? Like really like her?”

  I hold up my hands. “We’re taking things slow, but yeah. I do. She’s…she’s everything,” I say, unable to control the words coming out of my mouth.

  “And we like her,” Weston adds. “I know what it’s like to be married to a…a…”

  “Cunt?” Danielle supplies. “I was there the day she tried to kidnap Jackson, remember?”

  “I’m forever grateful you acted as fast as you did,” Weston tells her, brows pushing together. My older brother has been a no-nonsense kind of guy since the day he was born. He’s always serious, doesn’t get excited easily, and is the first to bring down your buzz.

  But he has no shame in showing his emotions when it comes to the ones he loves. If anyone in my family understands what it’s like to have your world crumble around your feet, it’s Wes.

  The stakes were higher with him. His wife left when they had a newborn. Daisy leaving hurt Jackson as well as Weston, and here he is, happily married with another kid.

  Could I have that too?

  Fuck, I want it. And if anyone can be my happily ever after, it’s Rory Harris.

  The garage door opens again, and Charlie comes in, followed by Owen with Olivia in his arms. She starts crying when the dogs rush her, and Owen rolls his eyes.

  “She’s still scared of the dogs?” Logan asks, jumping up to pull them back.

  “What happened with the dogs?” I ask.

  “They knocked her over,” Charlie says, bending down to pet Rufus, the biggest of the bunch. “So now she thinks all dogs are out to eat her.”

  “But not Dex,” Logan interjects. “She loves him.”

  “She thinks he’s a big stuffed animal,” Charlie says with a smile, taking off her coat. “I’m not positive she’s aware he’s an actual dog.”

  “He’s a good dog,” Logan agrees, talking about his German Shepherd. “Some creep came to the door yesterday when Dan
i was home alone with the kids. Dex scared him off.”

  “Why didn’t you call me?” Wes asks, going into sheriff mode.

  Danielle waves her hand in the air. “It was just some guy going door-to-door selling things.”

  “You live in the middle of nowhere,” Archer counters. “More so than we do. Though as long as he wasn’t selling cats, I’d be okay with it.”

  Everyone laughs and I look through the kitchen into the living room at Rory. She’s sitting next to Quinn, phone in her hand. Owen comes up next to me and follows my gaze.

  “That’s your new flavor of the week?”

  “She’s more than—” I cut off, looking at the name tag on his shirt, which reads Hello! My name is: Owen, the good-looking one. “Seriously?”

  “I told you to take that off!” Charlie tries to pull the name tag off Owen, but he moves Olivia, using their daughter like a shield.

  “I’m trying to make things easy for the newbie.”

  “She’s not going to have any trouble separating you two.” Charlie rolls her eyes, trying hard not to smile. “Though I will apologize on his behalf,” she tells me.

  “She has three older brothers. I think she can handle us.” I can feel everyone’s expectant gazes on me. “We’re taking things slow,” I remind them. “Go easy on her, okay?”

  “Okay,” they say collectively. The timer on the oven goes off, and Danielle goes around us to check on the food. A few seconds later, Mom comes rushing up the basement stairs.

  “You’re all here!” she says, giving me a hug. “Did you bring Rory?”

  “Yeah,” I tell her. “She in the living room with Quinn.”

  Mom’s eyes brighten, and I know she’s thinking about how Kara never put in the effort to befriend Quinn even though my sister tried. “Bring her in here! I want to meet the woman who’s captured your heart.”

  “Mom,” I press. “It’s not like that, okay? We’re just dating. It’s not serious.” The words feel like a lie the second they leave my lips, but I have to keep it at this.

  Nothing serious.

  We’re taking things slow, and I like the direction they’re heading.

  “I’ll get her.”

  Mom waves her hand in the air. “Wait until dinner. I need to warm up the breadsticks. Why don’t you go downstairs and help your father with the grandkids?”

  “Sure,” I say and go to the finished basement, spending the next ten minutes getting the kids to go potty and wash their hands. Finally, we get them all upstairs and seated at the kid table, and Rory holds Henry for Danielle as she fills her plate.

  My heart lurches in my chest when I see Rory with my youngest nephew in her arms, baby-talking and pulling faces to make the kid smile. A strange feeling comes over me, unsetting and welcoming at the same time.

  Rory fits in, but she doesn’t know us. She has no idea that Owen and Charlie dated throughout high school only to break up in college and finally get back together years later. She doesn’t know about Daisy and the shit she put our family through. She has no idea we painfully watched Logan try to get out of the friendzone with Danielle, and is clueless to the month-long feud between Quinn, Archer, and I.

  She doesn’t know the controversy over being Team Cat instead of Team Dog. She doesn’t know why Archer became so close with all of us, and why it felt like a betrayal when he and Quinn started dating in secret.

  She wasn’t the one assuring me I wasn’t being irrational—though now I know I was—and she’ll never get how hurt it felt to find out the one person I trusted more than anyone kept a secret from me.

  She doesn’t know my past…but she can learn. It’ll take time, I know, just like it will take time for me to fully get to know her. But if fucking scares me how easy this has been so far, and it’s almost like I’m doing something wrong because life isn’t supposed to pass by this smoothly.

  Life hurts.

  Love is complicated.

  Nothing is ever what it seems, and right when you think you got your shit figured out, things fall to pieces at your feet.

  Chapter 32

  Rory

  “It was so nice meeting you.” Mrs. Dawson pulls me into a tight hug, and her perfume is overwhelming and nauseating…just like my mother’s. It’s oddly comforting.

  “It was nice meeting you too.” I pat her back and try to pull away but am trapped for another few seconds.

  “Mom,” Dean says, and his mother finally releases me. “It’s late and Rory has to be at the hospital in the morning.”

  “Oh goodness,” Mrs. Dawson says and lets me go. “Go home and get some rest.”

  “I plan to,” I say and flick my eyes to Dean. We won’t be spending the night together, well, unless he decides to come and stay with me. I have to leave the house at six-thirty AM, and he doesn’t get into the office until eight. I’m fine leaving him in my apartment, trusting him enough to lock up.

  But it makes more sense to go our separate ways and meet up later. My Jeep is at his house, and the current plan is to drive to Dean’s house, say a quick goodbye, and then for me to go home, sleep, and get up in a few short hours.

  “I’m sure I’ll see you again,” I tell Mrs. Dawson, taking the Tupperware full of leftovers she insisted I bring home with me. Dean and Owen got one as well. I say bye to Weston and Scarlet, who are the last ones besides us here.

  Quinn and Archer left soon after dinner. Quinn got sick, and I spent a good half an hour sitting in the bathroom with her, holding her hair back as she puked up everything she had for dinner. She said she got this sick with nearly every pregnancy, making me question my desire to have a baby.

  Logan, Danielle, and their kids left after that, followed by Owen and his family. Weston and Scarlet hung around for a while after that, since Violet had fallen asleep on the couch. It was pure chaos when she woke up, but now that they’re gone, it’s just Dean any myself.

  I love the energy of the family. The nonstop chatter. How disorganized and chaotic everything it while at the same time it feels like it’s exactly how it’s supposed to be. It reminds me of my own family—minus all the babies, of course—and I feel comfortable around all the Dawsons.

  “Oh, I better. Take care.”

  “I will.” I smile and take my coat from Dean, slipping my arms into the sleeves. Dean goes to the kitchen window, looking out at the driveway, and remote starts his truck. “Thank you for dinner and everything tonight,” I say as I put my shoes on. “My parents do dinner on Fridays and I miss it.”

  “You are welcome anytime, my dear,” Mrs. Dawson says.

  “She’ll be back,” Dean presses, eager to get out of the house. “I’ll see you next week, okay?”

  “Okay,” Mrs. Dawson hugs Dean goodbye and tries to send him off with all the leftovers from tonight’s meal, along with what she’s already packed him. He takes two Tupperwares full of leftovers, just to quiet his mother, and we set out, driving back to his house, where my Jeep is.

  “Do you want to come in?” Dean asks, pulling into his garage.

  I gasp, bringing my hand to my mouth. “Are you trying to take advantage of me, Dean Dawson?”

  He wiggles his eyebrows. “Is it working?”

  I unbuckle my seatbelt. “It is. And yes, I want you to fuck me in the kitchen,” I say as a joke, though I really mean it. We’ve had sex on the living room couch and his bed, and that’s it for his house.

  “That can be arranged.” Dean kills the engine and hurries out of the car, opening my door and carrying me inside. And—holy shit—he fucks me good and proper, and I’m too tired to drive home. We shower together and collapse into his bed. I set my alarm for half an hour earlier than normal, giving myself enough time to run home, feed Figaro, and change into scrubs.

  I fall asleep in Dean’s arms and do my best not to disturb him as I rush around to leave in the morning.

  “I’ll call you later,” I say, kissing him. He’s half-asleep but kisses me back. Then it’s a mad rush to do everything I n
eed to and get to work on time.

  I yawn my way through shift change, but I’ve made it, mind drifting to Dean and how perfect things seem between us. My shift starts with an emergency surgery followed back-to-back by a scheduled gallbladder removal. I’m more than ready for a break when the time comes to finally take one. Yawning, I head to the hospital cafeteria to buy myself a hot lunch and some coffee. I scroll through my phone as I eat, not thinking too hard over the fact that Dean hasn’t replied to my texts yet. He’s working as well, and I know he has a busy day at the office.

  My allotted time for lunch ends too quickly, and I go back to the OR, dragging my feet the whole way.

  “More roses came,” Hilary says, picking one up and smelling it. “Thank you.”

  “You are most welcome,” I tell her with a smile. “Who are those for?” I ask, looking at the dozen or so roses left on the desk.

  “You,” she says and wiggles her eyebrows. “From some guy named Dean.”

  “What?” Shaking my head, I hurry to the desk and pick up the little card.

  Rory-

  Anyone who didn’t send you a rose before is a damn fool. You are perfect the way you are. I can’t wait to see you tonight.

  -Your half-elven admirer (aka Dean)

  I’m smiling ear to ear. How the hell did Dean know about this silly fundraiser?

  Right. Dr. Jones—Archer—is best buds with Dean. He heard me say I never got anything like this sent to me when I was in high school and mentioned it to Dean.

  “I thought you said you two weren’t serious.” Hilary plucks the note from my hands.

  “We aren’t,” I counter.

  “This seems serious to me.” She beams and gives the note back. “He did good, girl. Jeremy didn’t even send me a single fucking rose.”

  “He probably didn’t know,” I say, reading Dean’s note over again.

  Hilary waves her hand in the air. “I purposely left the flyer about this on the table. Three times.”

  “He shows you he loves you in other ways, right?’

  Hilary rolls her eyes. “Sometimes.”