“From where I stand, it’s inevitable.” She pats Helen’s cheek. “Best get used to it.”
Helen blinks a few times before laughter bubbles out of her, which is mostly amusement with an edge of hysteria.
“Uh-oh,” G-Bets whispers out of the side of her mouth, “did I break her?”
I pull Helen into my arms and love the way her body molds to mine. “You can’t rush a good thing,” I tell my grandmother.
“Babies take months to cook, I’m just thinking ahead,” she defends herself, but there’s no defensiveness in her tone. “I guess I can be patient,” G-Bets sighs. When she points between us, her voice is stern, “I do expect you both to be at Sunday dinners from now on. No more excuses.”
“Really? You want me to come to Sunday dinner? Isn’t that a family thing?”
My grandmother’s eyes sharpen slightly and her voice turns fierce, “What do you think you are?”
Helen’s mouth opens before she snaps it shut. “Family?”
“Exactly,” G-Bets agrees while stabbing the air with all the finality she can muster. “Now, tell me about yourself, Helen.”
As the two most important women in my life, put their heads together and chat I memorize the moment. Because it is valuable and one I never imagined I would have.
“Do you have embarrassing baby pictures of Rhodes, G-Bets?”
“Save me,” I groan without any real heat.
If they want to look at baby pictures of me and ooh and ahh over them, I won’t put up a real fight. I want Helen to be so at home here in Sweetwater Valley that she never wants to leave.
And now I feel like I’m one step closer to it happening.
CHAPTER 22
HELEN
Rhodes gives me a gentle shove out of the kitchen and toward the living room. For a moment, I don’t move as I look up into his grey eyes and get lost. He’s so handsome. There are times when I can’t believe that he’s really mine.
But he is.
He’s made it very clear about being all in. And I am too, but I’m cautious. It’s not a matter of not wanting to get hurt again, it’s knowing if things were to go bad then I would never be the same again.
I would heal, sure. That’s what we do.
Even healed, I wouldn’t be the same.
“I’ve got the dishes tonight, Sweetheart,” Rhodes’s deep voice wraps around me. “You go and relax.” His grin turns wicked and sexy as hell. “I love seeing you curled up on my couch while reading a book. It’s cozy and it feels like you’re making this place your own.”
The warmth in my chest with his words has me grinning from ear to ear. This man. My man.
I love him.
The words almost fall from my lips, but I swallow them down.
When Rhodes gently pushes me toward the living room again, I don’t put up a fight. Why would I? He wants to do the dishes? That’s fine with me.
Before I step away from him completely, I tip up on my toes and kiss the underside of his jaw. The way he clenches his fists as if he has to stop himself from reaching for me makes me feel giddy. I practically float into the living room to curl up in the corner of the couch.
The sigh I let out is full of relief as I pull the cozy blanket, which one day appeared across the back of Rhodes’s couch, across my body. I have no doubt he got it just for me.
He keeps showing up that way. Keeps putting me first. Keeps finding ways to watch out for me and take care of me.
I love him.
