Page 83 of I'm Not His Style
“Was there something going on between Angelique and Rhett before he fired her? Or did Bridget only tell me that to make me panic?”
The length of Adalyn’s pause was concerning. She shifted on her feet. “Honestly, I can’t really say. I don’t know. They were together a lot, but I wasn’t with them, so I don’t know the nature of their relationship. You’d have to ask Rhett.”
Her answer didn’t relieve any of my fears. “Okay, thanks.”
“You have my number,” Adalyn reminded me. “So don’t be a stranger.”
“Same.”
She left, and I pulled my phone out. I was going to try one last time. With the level of security that surrounded Rhett, I knew I wouldn’t have the chance to speak to him again after I left the hotel tomorrow.
That was it! Security. I texted Chad and Jax in a group message.
Me:I leave in a few hours, and I’d like the chance to say goodbye to Rhett. Can either of you help me?
Neither of them texted me back. Rude. When it passed one in the morning, I conceded defeat and changed into my favorite neon-pink joggers before crawling into bed. After twenty minutes of lying in the dark and staring at the ceiling, my phone lit up, sending blue light over the bed.
Jax:Up on the roof.
I sat up. The roof. Was Rhett heading there? Was Rhettalreadythere and Jax was telling me where I could find him before he returned to his room? I didn’t want to risk missing him. I threw on my Converse and typed out a thank-you message while I ran for the elevator.
The roof was lit with soft orange lights and littered with deck furniture. I walked along the narrow pathway through the chairs and around the corner. The wall behind was latticed, covered in vines, and I followed it until I saw Jax standing near the corner.
He gave a little jerk of his head, and I kept walking around another corner until I found Rhett. He leaned against the railing, looking out over the city. It was oddly reminiscent of our day at the Empire State Building, and I watched him for a minute, trying to decide what to say.
He must’ve sensed or heard me, because he turned, his eyes troubled and his mouth in a flat line. The sorrow in the bend of his eyebrows hit me like a punch, and I crossed to him. I simultaneously wanted to pull him into a hug and punch him in the arm for ignoring my texts earlier. How could I equally desire to both comfort and pummel the man?
“Bridget came up with a plan,” I said.
“She came up with a couple. Sorry I’ve been MIA. It took a while to agree on one of them.”
He’d fought back then? Just not hard enough, I guess. “It’s easier with one less thing you have to keep a secret.”
He breathed out. “Yeah. There’s too much going on right now that I need to keep under wraps, so I don’t know if I can add something else to my plate. I’m already at capacity with secrets.”
“Like your father?”
He straightened. “Who told you about that?”
“Not you,” I said quietly.
He looked a little chagrined. “I couldn’t. He’s my dad, Beth. I need to protect him.”
“Because I’ve proven I can’t be trusted?”
“You haven’t had enough time to prove one way or the other,” he said.
Ouch. His failure to step forward and close the distance between us was evidence that he wasn’t feeling the same way about me as I felt about him. All night I’d been reaching out to him, respectfully checking in, and even now I had to search him out. If I hadn’t come up here, would he have been satisfied without seeing me before my departure in the morning? Reality slapped me back a step. I’d been hoping, crossing my fingers, that Rhett was different from other guys, hoping he was like his character inJust Usthat I’d been drawn to all those years ago, holding the family values he espoused on his show.
But Rhett was just a man, and like all the others, he never planned on sticking around. Or, rather, he never intended formeto stay. I’d been a way to pass the time. A distraction. A fool, evidently.
“I don’t have to guess how you’ve really been feeling, then,” I said quietly. Lights flickered in the distance, but they were dimmer now, darkened along with my feelings.
He ran a tired hand over his face. “Beth, come on. That’s not fair.”
“Fair is irrelevant. It’s the truth. Something you apparently have trouble with.”
His jaw clenched. “I never lied to you. Protecting my dad’s legal battle is not lying.”