Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 106797 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106797 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
“You were amazing to watch in there.”
The left corner of his lips pulled into the faintest smile. “No one has ever called me Mr. Rhodes.” He shook his head, wetting his lips. “No one has ever shaken my hand like that. Like I mattered. Like I meant something.”
I frowned. “You do matter, Rhodes.”
His eyes gleamed. “I’m starting to believe you.”
Tentatively, his hands found my hips. He pulled me closer, pressing his forehead to mine, and I threaded my arms around his neck, kissing him softly.
“Can we stay for a while?”
Pulling him down into the sand with me, I answered without words. We were close to the water’s edge, the waves gently rolling in just over the tops of my toes. Rhodes slipped off his shoes and joined me, and we sat in comfortable silence, our minds replaying the evening.
I felt alive with Rhodes next to me in this state. He had changed so much since the beginning of the summer. I wanted to say it was like I was peeling back his layers, but the truth was, Rhodes didn’t work in that simple of a manner. I couldn’t just break down one wall and step easily through to the next. He was a constantly altering maze, a Rubik’s cube of complexity I wasn’t sure I would ever fully understand.
But I knew with absolution that Rhodes was like the wet sand I tried so desperately to grasp that night. I could feel him, he was real, and he was slowly letting me mold him into how I’d seen him in my mind all along. But eventually, the moon would fade, the tide would recede, and the sand would dry beneath the heat of the sun, slipping effortlessly through my fingers.
Still, I held on tight, anyway.
That Friday at training, I felt like I was back with the Rhodes I met day one. He was quiet, broody, and he was on my ass like he had something to prove. I was already dripping in sweat and we were only forty-five minutes into our session.
“Is everything okay?” I asked finally, starting on my third set of lunges.
“Fine.”
I rolled my eyes. “Seriously? We’re back to this?”
“Back to what?” Rhodes sniffed, gently pushing down on my shoulders to force me lower. My legs shook and I gritted my teeth.
“Rhodes.”
He sighed, giving me the sign that I could stand and I exhaled with loud relief, shaking out my legs. “I’m sorry. I’m fine. I just had a late night.”
I couldn’t ignore the way my stomach dropped at his insinuation of a late night that I wasn’t a part of. “But we’re okay?”
His brows bent over his intense emerald pools, but he nodded.
I knew better than to push him, but still, his reflex moods bothered me. He wasn’t like a roller coaster, he was like a car crash — one that I felt like I’d have to live over and over again forever. I wanted him to stay the way he was at the beach on the Fourth of July, the way he was just two nights ago outside of LaRue’s. But those bright times were fleeting.
I somehow managed to make it through the rest of the session without vomiting, but just barely. When I was mid-cooldown on the treadmill, my phone pinged in my gym bag.
“Want me to get that for you?” Rhodes asked, wiping down his machine.
“Yeah, it might be Dale.”
Rhodes fished my phone out and the screen lit up again just as he handed it to me.
With Mason’s name.
His jaw ticked, his eyes taking on a dark forest green hue. Tossing his white towel over his shoulder, Rhodes made his way back to the office without another word. I groaned.
“Wait, Rhodes,” I called out, ending my session and jogging after him.
“Are you still fucking around with him?” Rhodes asked as soon as I shut the office door behind us. My mouth popped open.
“Is that a serious question?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? Your body is changing more every day, he’s clearly noticing, and the whole reason you ever walked into this gym was because of him. Makes perfect sense to me.”
“Rhodes, I don’t want Mason. I chose you, remember?”
“Yeah. Why is that exactly, Natalie?”
Without warning, my fingers began to tremor, mirroring my unsteady heartbeat. Rhodes was looking at me like I’d betrayed him, and I had no idea why.
I shook my head, confused. “What do you mean? I told you all this already, Rhodes. Isn’t it obvious?”
“Well, I thought so, but I don’t know anymore.”
“Don’t do this,” I pleaded, reaching out for him. He jerked his arm back. “Please. Talk to me.”
“What are you hiding from me, Natalie?!” Rhodes pounded his fists on the desk and I jumped. His voice boomed with anger, but his eyes gleamed with fear. It was the strangest combination.
I just stood there, dumbstruck, like his question was in a foreign language. What did he mean? I was nothing but open and honest with Rhodes.