All Rhodes Lead Here

by Zapata, Mariana

  I couldn’t exactly blame her.

  I’d be hitting on him too.

  That thought alone made me feel petty. Of course women flirted with him. He was gorgeous, and his crabby little attitude just made him more attractive to some people more than likely. I was probably the only sucker who had been drawn in by how good of a dad he was.

  Or maybe not.

  “I appreciate the offer,” Rhodes replied in that tight voice that reminded me of what our relationship had been like months ago. “I won’t have time then either, but I’ll make sure to tell Amos you asked about him, and if you have any questions, you can call the office, and someone should be able to help you out.”

  To give her credit, she wasn’t giving up even as she pushed her chair back and shot me a smile that wasn’t totally friendly or unfriendly. “If you change your mind, my number is in the school directory then.” She got to her feet. “Hopefully I’ll see you around school, Mr. Rhodes.”

  I was the only one who watched her walk off, and I knew that because I felt his intense gaze on my face as I did it. It was confirmed too when I glanced back toward him and found him looking at me.

  He’d shot her down. Politely, but he had.

  “Hi, sneaky,” I told him, holding the cup of hot chocolate a little higher. “Sorry to interrupt you and your friend.” Did that sound sarcastic, or was I blowing it out of proportion?

  “She’s not a friend, and you didn’t interrupt anything,” he replied, picking up his own cup and taking a small sip. “She was Amos’s English teacher last year.”

  I nodded before taking another sip. So she’d waited to make her move. It all made sense now.

  Rhodes’s eyes narrowed a little as he took another drink, the cup looking small in his hand. “I had a feeling she had been interested, but I hadn’t known for sure until today.”

  I raised both my eyebrows and nodded. “She’ll probably ask you out again real subtle the next time she sees you.”

  He got a funny look on his face. “I’m sure she got a clue now that I don’t feel the same way.” He leaned forward in his chair, propping his elbows on the table. His gaze was steady on my face as he whispered, “She talks too much.”

  I reeled back and laughed. “I talk too much! Remember when you asked me, ‘do you always talk this much?’ You do, don’t you?”

  A big smile came over his full mouth, and I swear he was more handsome than ever. “I changed my mind, and the difference is that I like hearing you talk.”

  My heart skipped a damn beat or ten before he managed to keep going.

  “I don’t like talking either, but you get me to somehow.”

  I didn’t even try and suppress the elation that had blossomed in my chest. I was sure it was on my face too as I grinned at him, pleased. So pleased. “It’s a gift. My aunt says I’ve got a friendly face.”

  “I don’t think that’s it,” he argued softly.

  I shrugged, still beaming from the inside out. “So…,” I started to say, not wanting to talk about Amos’s flirty former teacher.

  Those gray eyes caught and held mine, inviting my question.

  “How are you? How’s Colorado Springs treating you?”

  “Fine,” he said, lowering the cup to sit on top of the thigh furthest from me. “It’s keeping me busier than I was expecting. I’m glad I didn’t take the position when it became available.”

  “Busier than our little stretch of the woods?”

  He tilted his head to the side. “It’s more driving here, a lot more, but it’s still less. Less people. Less bullshit.”

  “Any idea how much longer you’ll be there?”

  “No. Nothing has been finalized yet,” he replied before taking another sip. “They told me no longer than two more weeks, but I’m not holding my breath.”

  I moved my leg until it tapped against his. “I hope it goes fast, but we’re holding down the fort. Amos is doing okay, at least from what he tells me. He’s eaten dinner with me a few times when his uncle is running late, and I make sure to get him to eat some vegetables. I asked Johnny about him the other day when he picked him up, and he said he was doing fine.”

  “I think he’s doing all right,” he agreed. “He doesn’t seem too heartbroken to be alone so much.”

  I grinned at him, and his mouth hitched up in that familiar way I liked.

  “You? You’re okay?”

  We had barely seen each other in that week between the Hike from Hell and him leaving, and we hadn’t really gotten a chance to talk about what happened that night. Me almost losing it. Me sitting on his lap while he comforted me. Him stroking my back and holding me close. There were all these signs… all these things I picked up from him and… I wasn’t sure what to think about any of them. I knew a man didn’t act that way for nothing. I wanted to ask… but I was too much of a chicken.

  But I still told him the truth. “Yeah, I’m good. Business has picked up a lot with so many hunters in town, so we’ve been busy at the shop.”

  His purple-gray eyes were on me as the side of his leg nudged mine beneath the table. “And when you’re not at the shop?” Rhodes asked slowly.

  Was he asking me…? I kept my face neutral. “I’ve been hanging out with Clara at their house. I went horseback riding with one of my customers and his wife last week. Other than that….”

  He took another sip, attention still totally on me.

  “Hanging out at home after work with your boy. Same old. I like my quiet life.”

  He pressed his lips together and nodded slowly.

  “What about you?” I asked, ignoring the strange feeling in my stomach that was way too similar to the one I’d experienced coming out to see the woman talking to Rhodes. “What are you doing when you’re not working?”

  The leg beside me shifted, rubbing against my own through my pants. “Sleeping. They got me a rental house that’s too quiet, but there’s a gym close by I can go to easily. I’ve gotten to see my brother and his family a couple of times. That’s about it.”

  “How long are you staying today?”

  “I have to leave tonight,” he said just as the music I’d been ignoring changed.

  A song I recognized too well came on. I let it go in one ear and out the other, keeping my face about as even as possible. “Some time is better than no time,” I told him, feeling the strain in my cheeks before I managed to push the faint resentment away.

  “But I’ve got another seven, eight hours before I have to head back.” His thigh brushed mine again, and his expression went thoughtful. “You don’t like this song? I don’t know if I’ve ever heard it.”

  I should tell him. I really should. But I didn’t want to. Not yet. “I like the song, but I’m not a fan of the guy singing it."

  His mouth made a funny shape, and his voice was dry as he said, “It’s only 90s pop groups you like then?”

  I blinked. “What makes you say that?”

  “You forget the windows are open and we hear you shouting Spice Girls lyrics.”

  I dropped my voice. “How do you know it’s Spice Girls?”

  Rhodes’s smile was so quick I almost missed it. “We looked up the lyrics.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh and blurt out the first thing I thought of. “You know… I’ve kind of missed you.”

  I hadn’t seen that coming. Was it the truth? Yes, but I was still surprised by how sensitive saying the words out loud made me feel.

  But that sensation only lasted for about a second.

  Because he hadn’t seen that coming either from the slow way his eyebrows rose in sheer surprise even as his facial features simultaneously softened. And he said quietly, looking right at me in what felt like pleased shock, “Kind of missed you too.”

  Chapter 24

  “Ora, are you sure you don’t want to come with us?”

  I finished marking off the jackets I’d been inventorying and glanced over at Clara who was on the other side of the rental counter with Jackie beside h
er. It was the day before Thanksgiving, and honestly, it had snuck right up on me. I’d never been big on the holiday. Until I’d moved in with my aunt and uncle, I had never actually celebrated it.

  “No, it’s okay,” I insisted for the second time since she’d brought up me accompanying them to Montrose to spend the night with her dad’s sister.

  Honestly, if they had decided to stay in Pagosa, I would have gone over to their house, but I didn’t want to intrude on the whole family.

  I wasn’t heartbroken at all over the idea of staying in the garage apartment all nice and toasty. I had hot cocoa, marshmallows, movies, snacks, a new puzzle, and a couple books. Maybe if one day I ended up with a family of my own, I’d go all out and ask my mom for forgiveness for celebrating a holiday she had raised me to boycott, but… I’d worry about that some other day.

  Jackie leaned over the counter. “Are you going with Mr. Rhodes and Am to his aunt’s house?” she asked.

  They were going to his aunt’s house? I had no idea. I had just seen them both last night when we’d had dinner together, and neither one of them had mentioned anything. Rhodes had just gotten back from Colorado Springs for good a week ago, and I’d spent every night except for two of them eating dinner at their house. Those two nights I hadn’t were because Rhodes had worked late. “No, I wasn’t invited,” I told her honestly. “But I’m good. I don’t even like turkey all that much anyway.”

  Jackie frowned. “They didn’t invite you? Am said he did.”

  I shook my head and then glanced down to make sure the rest of the inventory form was done. It was. This was my fourth time doing it, and I was glad it was done right.

  “Aurora, you want to come over to my house for Thanksgiving?” Walter, a regular customer and friend, asked from across the shop where he was going through some fly-making materials that Clara had put on sale just that morning. “We always have plenty of food, and I have this nephew who could use a good woman in his life to straighten him out.”

  “Your wife hasn’t straightened you out, and it’s been forty years,” I muttered, smiling at him slyly. This whole conversation was a perfect example of part of the reason why I’d been so happy lately. I had friends again.

  “Listen here, child… my Betsy had no idea what she had in store for her. I’m a life project,” Walter shot back.

  We all laughed.

  Honestly, it wasn’t just Thanksgiving that had snuck up on me; October and most of November had too. Since the Hike from Hell that I’d overcome, time had blown by, especially the last three weeks.

  Clara, her sister-in-law, Jackie, and I had gone camping once, even though it had been freezing. Amos tagged along with me to do random things, like going grocery shopping and playing putt-putt with Jackie one time, when his dad let him off the hook from being grounded. I’d gone snowboarding once more too, and I’d only busted my ass a few times. I hadn’t moved on from the bunny hill yet, but maybe next time I would.

  Every day was just… good.

  “You know I have almost zero experience driving in snow,” I reminded them.

  “This isn’t really snow, Ora,” Jackie argued. “There’s only about an inch out there.”

  That wasn’t the first time I’d heard that. But to me, who had only seen significant snow from the windows of a tour bus, a quarter of an inch was snow. Kaden avoided going on tour during the winter, after all. We had usually gone to Florida or California the minute the weather started to get cool. Some flurries had fallen in town over the last few weeks, but most of it had been focused in the mountains, leaving them capped and beautiful. “I know, I know. Either way, I’m putting people’s lives at risk just driving home, I feel like, but if I change my mind, I’ll give you a call for your address, deal?” I asked Walter right as the door opened.

  “No, no, no, just come on over. I want you to meet—”

  I glanced back toward the door to see a familiar figure in a thick dark jacket coming in, stomping his feet on the rug I shook out every hour if I had time.

  And I smiled.

  It was Rhodes.

  Or as my heart recognized him as: one of the main reasons I’d been so happy over the last two months, even though I’d only seen him a total of seven times, including the two visits he’d squeezed in while he’d been working in Colorado Springs.

  “—my nephew. Oh, how’s it going, Rhodes?” Walter asked as he caught sight of our new visitor.

  Rhodes dipped his cute chin down, a little notch forming between his brows. “Well. How are you, Walt?” he greeted him.

  How he knew people when he said about twenty words a day, depending on his mood, was beyond me.

  “I’m doing just fine, apart from trying to convince Aurora here to come over to my house for Thanksgiving.”

  My landlord’s hands went to his hips, and I was pretty sure his lips pressed together before he said, “Hmm.”

  “Hi, Rhodes,” I called out.

  Things were good between us. Since getting back, that something that I’d thought before had changed, had changed even more. It was like he’d gotten back and decided… something.

  Some part of me knew that he wouldn’t have done everything he had for me and with me if he was indifferent, landlord or not. Friend or not. Finding people attractive was one thing. But liking other things about a person, their personalities, was something else entirely.

  I wasn’t sure what exactly was going on, it felt different than friendship somehow, but I could see it in the way that he had accepted my hug that first day he’d gotten home and squeezed me back tightly. It was in the way he would touch my shoulders and my hand randomly. But mostly it was in the way that he talked to me. In the weight of that purple-gray gaze. I ate up every single word out of his mouth after dinner when we sat around the table, and he told me a lot of things.

  Why he’d chosen the Navy—because he thought he loved the ocean. He didn’t anymore; he’d seen more of it than most people would in a lifetime.

  That he’d had that Bronco since he was seventeen and had spent the last twenty-five years working on it.

  That he’d lived in Italy, Washington, Hawaii, and all over the East Coast.

  I found out his favorite vegetable was brussels sprouts, and that he hated sweet potatoes and eggplant.

  He was generous and kind. He cleaned my windshield off in the mornings if there was ice on it. He’d become a district wildlife manager—his official title—because he had always loved animals and someone had to protect them.

  And in that moment, this man who loved scary movies, looked so, so tired.

  So I wasn’t totally sure what to think about the scowl he made at the possibility of me going over to Walter’s house, especially if he’d heard the part about the older man’s nephew.

  “Hi, sweetheart,” he replied before tipping his head to Walter and starting to come over.

  You could have heard someone fart from all the way in the employee bathroom after that.

  He’d called me sweetheart.

  In front of all of three people.

  It took me a second to swallow, this bright little rush going through my chest, and I had to fight to keep my smile normal instead of this massive one that more than likely would make me look like a lunatic. “Whatcha doing?” I asked, staying where I was until he stopped about a foot away, willing myself to act cool.

  He looked exhausted. He’d been gone by the time I left that morning, just like most days. Gone before I was and not back until I was already toasty in bed. He worked endlessly and tirelessly, never complaining. It was one of the many things I liked about him.

  “I came so I could follow you home before I have to get back out there,” he answered quietly, that serious look in his eyes.

  Clara turned around and so did Jackie, like they were giving us privacy, but I knew they were just pretending and were really eavesdropping. We’d already gotten just about everything done that needed to be finished in preparation for having tomorrow off for the holid
ay. We had ten minutes left before closing time.

  Since there were no customers around and Walter didn’t count because he was becoming my friend… I took a step forward and hugged him. His jacket was cool against my cheek and hands. That big chest rose and fell once, and then he hugged me back.

  Look how far we’d come.

  “It’s starting to come down outside,” he said against my hair.

  He’d come to follow me home because it was snowing. If my heart could grow a size or two, it would have right then.

  “That’s really nice of you, thank you,” I said, pulling back after a moment, not wanting to be a total clinger.

  “Do you need to finish anything before you close up?”

  I shook my head. “No, I finished inventory right before you walked in. Now we just have to wait until three.”

  He nodded, casting a quick look toward Walter before glancing back at me. “You never texted me back.”

  “You messaged me?” Rhodes hadn’t texted me at all while he’d been gone, but since getting back, he’d messaged me twice, and it had been both days he wasn’t going to get home until late. According to him, he didn’t like talking, and he wasn’t much for texting either. It was pretty adorable. I wondered if it was because his fingers were so big.

  “Last night.”

  “I didn’t get it.”

  “It was late. I asked Am if you had given him an answer about Thanksgiving, and he said he forgot to ask you about it,” Rhodes explained.

  I didn’t want to presume. “What about Thanksgiving?”

  “You coming with us. He always spends it with Billy’s family, and his mom and dad got here this morning as a surprise.”

  My eyes widened. “His mom’s here?”

  “And Billy. They picked him up on the way home from the airport, he’s spending the week with them until they fly back,” Rhodes explained, watching me carefully. “Am wants you to come over and meet them.”