Page 16 of How Dare You
His brows rise at my obvious lie, and then he moves on to another topic I don’t want to discuss. “Well, it’s still a delicious surprise to run into you.”
I tilt my head, rolling my eyes up at him. “You run into me constantly.”
“And I eat it up, every time.”
Nathalie swings open the door to the office we’re meeting in and immediately dives into conversation.
“I’ll let you go,” Rhett says, as I follow her toward a conference table.
I don’t realize he hasn’t handed me back my things until I find them at the front desk sometime later. I don’t discover he’s made an addition to my schedule until I finally get a chance to clean the asphalt scuffs off it.
-Dinner with Rhett. You know you want to.
Not happening.
-Dinner with Rhett. You know you want to.
Chapter 6
Rhett
Got back-to-school photos of all my nieces and nephews
-From Rhett’s Most Important Things notebook, August 8th
“Tell me you’re here to help,” Luke says in greeting as I walk up Allie and Devon’s driveway.
“Brian mentioned you might be able to use an extra set of hands at golf this morning.” I follow Luke into the house, where nothing looks out of place and there isn’t a box in sight.
“Turns out Allie’s idea of ‘fully packed’ and mine are not the same,” Luke explains, with a hint of teasing towards Allie, who smiles adoringly at him as she emerges from the hallway.
“Most of this stuff is Devon’s anyway, but you could move the coffee table out of the walking path.” She points through an archway toward the kitchen, telling me, “Your coffee’s in there. Brian said you were coming. Thank you so much for being here.”
Minus the sleeping pit bull in the sunny spot by the window, walking into the living room is like being in a museum curated by Devon Blake. The pale blue couch, vintage mid-century furniture, and what I’m sure are custom curtains couldn’t have been placed by anyone else. I’m surprised Luke couldn’t tell the same.
After helping him move the coffee table aside, I retrieve my coffee from the kitchen. It has half a dozen sealed boxes stacked on the ground as well as three open, partially packed ones on the dining table. There’s a yellow stand mixer that has to belong to someone other than Devon and a set of neutral-toned abstract paintings that couldn’t belong to anyone but her.
It takes all of my restraint not to walk straight into her bedroom to find her and see what the most personal space in her home looks like. Instead, I join the tiny crowd, that’s glaringly devoid of Devon, gathered in Allie’s room. I’m here today partially because Allie and Luke have been good friends to me, but mainly because I want to see Devon—spend time with her.
Allie introduces me to their friends, Sadie and Cam. Sadie’s a medium height woman, with fair skin a few shades warmer than Devon’s and blonde hair that turns into bright pink before it stops above her shoulders. Evidently, she moved in a few days ago, and she’s taking over Allie’s room. She seems a bit shy when she greets me and moves back to the work she’s doing at Allie’s dresser.
Cam, I saw briefly at the Voyeur Café opening earlier this week, where I spent a few hours helping set up before I got to hang out with baby Emery. He’s an inch or two taller than I am, with bright red hair, freckles, and tattoos covering him from neck to hands. I didn’t realize he was Luke’s best friend at the time, but I recognized him immediately as Cam Hacker, the Race Naked guy. He has a huge following on social media, more than a million if I remember correctly. He’s a motorcycle racer, but most people follow him for the personality and antics. He greets me with a hug, wrapping me tightly in his lanky arms, and thanks me for helping with as much gratitude as Luke and Allie did.
They work smoothly together, laughing, telling stories, and everyone stopping by to pet Betty whenever we pass through the living room. Allie and Cam sing along loudly with dated pop music while Sadie organizes boxes, and Luke and I start breaking down furniture.
Aside from how much I’m personally enjoying their company, I’m pleased that Devon has such good friends in her life. I want as much of her as she’ll let me have, which so far is not much, and I also want to give her everything I can. Which so far is also not much, so it’s a relief to see there are good people who she does allow in.
Sadie answers her phone while Luke and I are disassembling Allie’s bookcase. “Dev, you’re missing all the fun!”
I ask Luke in a hushed tone, “Is it odd that she’s not here?”
“Very,” he answers, matching my volume, but not giving me any information.
Allie presses her head up against Sadie’s, speaking into the phone, “I understand if you can’t, but I want to say goodbye to you today. It feels really weird to be moving out of our house without you here.”
Luke tilts his head at me meaningfully, and after a few beats Allie and Sadie say goodbye and hang up the phone.
“She’s coming.” Allie bounces on her toes, smiling ear-to-ear. “She’s been working so hard lately. I mean, she always works hard, but it’s on a whole other level these last few months. It’s getting out of hand. I barely ever see her anymore, and we live together.” Her smile drops, and Luke’s quick to wrap a comforting arm around her shoulder. “Lived together. She needs a fucking break, but she never takes them.”