Page 42 of Against The Tide

He’s so good to her. The thought breaks my heart in a completely new way. Knowing his past and seeing the way he dotes on her…it doesn’t seem fair. Especially when Carl never showed any interest in her.

“It’s not rocket science, sugar,” Jo purrs from behind me. “It’s all about heart, and Rhett’s is big.”

“I know, and it’s what makes it harder.”

“Avery…” Standing beside me, she wraps her hand around my waist, leaning into me as much as she also holds me to her.

“Look at them, Jo, just look at them. As much as I’m terrified that he’ll obliterate me, it’s her that I don’t want to hurt. I’ve done that enough.”

“I understand that, sugar, but you are not the one that hurt her. You can’t blame yourself for something that quite simply isn’t true.”

“I should’ve listened to Rafe, and she would’ve never seen…”

“Maybe, but a real man would never raise his hand to a woman, especially not one he’s promised to protect and cherish.”

“He should’ve told me he didn’t want me. Instead, he used me and lied…and then he hurt me. Why?” I choke the words out with every viselike squeeze of my heart. When she doesn’t answer, I turn to face her. “Rhett could’ve told her he was unhappy or that he couldn’t deal with it all…he could’ve walked away instead of cheating on his wife.”

“You’re a good girl, Avery. Smart. And you know as well as I do that we all make mistakes. Isn’t that human nature?”

Of course I know that—it’s part of the reason I can’t bring myself to completely push Rhett away.

“Human nature sucks.”

“Yeah, I agree with you on that,” she scoffs, putting all her weight on her stick with both hands. “You know, there is no one I trust more with my life than that man. After Duke died, Rhett could’ve forgotten about me. Instead, he kept coming over here even when I told him to go.”

“Sounds about right.”

“He sat on my porch step for days after the funeral, and then one day I woke up and there he was looking after what was left of my life. Shoveling horse shit and posting ridiculous checks through my door.” With trembling hands, she tries to tuck my flyaway hairs behind my ears, giving up when her fingers don’t cooperate. “Rhett’s nothing like the man that hurt you.”

“I know, and it’s why he has the ability to crush me.”

“Between you and me, I think he feels the same. You’re not the usual Dr. Reynolds groupie.”

“Wait, is that an actual thing?”

“Oh yeah, he’s got a real fan club full of pretty bimbos with more tits than brains and absolutely nothing to make him pause and want more than…well, you know the story. All he’s gotta do is smile and they get all weak at the knees.”

In an instant his words replay in my head, making my stomach turn. I can have that effect, you know—make you weak in the knees.

If I wasn’t already wondering what he could possibly see in me, her statement makes my heart fall to my feet.

Why would he want me when he can have any woman he smiles at?

“He cheated on his wife because she was a two-bit, money-hungry hussy, and he might feel bad enough for what he did, in the circumstances that he did it, not to tell anyone the straight-up truth about Sarah, Willa, and all the women that sniff around him.” Turning, she starts for one of the trees on the farther side of the orchard before shaking her head and coming back to where I’m glued to the dirt. “You know, perfect doesn’t exist, Avery. And even if it did, we’d probably scratch at it so hard trying to find a flaw that we would taint it ourselves.”

My heart falters at her words, so much like my father’s that a deep pang of longing hits me hard in the chest, nearly knocking me off my feet and stealing my breath. I look up at the sky, and a fat drop of rain hits me straight between the eyes.

There are only a few bright white clouds, and the sun is beaming down so hard that it burns through my eyelids, and nothing else follows.

“Look at that, your own drop of luck,” Jo chuckles, still looking at me. “It’s a good omen, sugar.”

Don’t you just love the rain, baby girl? It’s good omen, a promise of beautiful things to come. I remember my father dragging me and my mother out into the yard when it poured and how they would laugh because they were so happy. I want to be that happy that Iris will feel it like I did. All I’ve ever wanted was to have a drop of the bliss they shared, even when she was told she was too sick to fight through it.

“Don’t waste it.” Jo smiles at me with tears swimming in her green eyes. Pressing a kiss to the top of my head, she turns and ventures back to picking the fruit.

I grab the basket from the ground, the weight making me wince with the slight ache the pull on my side radiates. The bruises have pretty much disappeared in the last few weeks; they seemed to get worse the first couple, and then they started to gradually fade.

Following her around to another tree, I keep glancing back, trying to catch glimpses of Rhett and Iris. And every time I do, she’s the happiest I’ve ever seen her, making my heart throb in my chest, completely at odds with my fears and the rationality behind them.