“I came so I could follow you home before I have to get back out there,” he answered quietly, that serious look in his eyes.
Clara turned around and so did Jackie, like they were giving us privacy, but I knew they were just pretending and were really eavesdropping. We’d already gotten just about everything done that needed to be finished in preparation for having tomorrow off for the holiday. We had ten minutes left before closing time.
Since there were no customers around and Walter didn’t count because he was becoming my friend… I took a step forward and hugged him. His jacket was cool against my cheek and hands. That big chest rose and fell once, and then he hugged me back.
Look how far we’d come.
“It’s starting to come down outside,” he said against my hair.
He’d come to follow me home because it was snowing. If my heart could grow a size or two, it would have right then.
“That’s really nice of you, thank you,” I said, pulling back after a moment, not wanting to be a total clinger.
“Do you need to finish anything before you close up?”
I shook my head. “No, I finished inventory right before you walked in. Now we just have to wait until three.”
He nodded, casting a quick look toward Walter before glancing back at me. “You never texted me back.”
“You messaged me?” Rhodes hadn’t texted me at all while he’d been gone, but since getting back, he’d messaged me twice, and it had been both days he wasn’t going to get home until late. According to him, he didn’t like talking, and he wasn’t much for texting either. It was pretty adorable. I wondered if it was because his fingers were so big.
“Last night.”
“I didn’t get it.”
“It was late. I asked Am if you had given him an answer about Thanksgiving, and he said he forgot to ask you about it,” Rhodes explained.
I didn’t want to presume. “What about Thanksgiving?”
“You coming with us. He always spends it with Billy’s family, and his mom and dad got here this morning as a surprise.”
My eyes widened. “His mom’s here?”
“And Billy. They picked him up on the way home from the airport, he’s spending the week with them until they fly back,” Rhodes explained, watching me carefully. “Am wants you to come over and meet them.”
“He does?” I asked quietly.
One side of his mouth tipped up. “Yeah, he does. I do too. Billy said I can’t come over if you aren’t with me. They’ve heard too much about you.”
“From Am?”
He gave me one of his rare, small smiles. “And me.”
My knees went like jelly, and it took everything in me to stay upright. It was a miracle in itself that I managed to even smile back at him—so big it made my cheeks hurt.
“Do you… want me to?” I asked. “I was just planning on staying in the studio and hanging out.”
Those purple-gray eyes bounced around my face. “We were wondering since you didn’t say anything about going back to Florida or seeing your friends,” Rhodes replied, sounding cryptic and not answering my question about whether he wanted me to come over or not.
“Yeah, I don’t really care about Thanksgiving all that much. My mom never made a big deal about it. She used to say that the Pilgrims were a bunch of colonizing pieces of shit and we shouldn’t celebrate the start of a people’s genocide.” I paused. “Pretty sure those were her exact words.”
Rhodes blinked. “That makes sense, but… you still get the time off anyway, and why can’t you just make the holiday about being thankful for the blessings that you have? The people that you have?”
I smiled. “That sounds pretty nice.”
“You’ll come then?”
“If you want me to.”
His mouth twisted into that not-officially-a-smile smile, and his voice was gruff. “Get ready to leave by noon.”
“You’re using your bossy voice again.”
He sighed and looked at the ceiling, his tone lightening. “Please come over for Thanksgiving?”
I brightened up. “Are you positive?”
That got him to dip his face a little, his breath touching my lips, his eyebrows up. My heart swelled within my chest. “Even if it didn’t make you smile like that, I’m positive.”
*
I didn’t want to think that I was nervous, but… I was nervous the next day.
Just a little bit.