Chasing Rhodes (Rock Falls #1) (20 page)

2 Weeks Later

W
ELL I’LL BE
honest. Sharing a house with three guys isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, especially when it’s your brother and his friends. Not that I don’t love them, but well…it can be a little much and, frankly, a little smelly. I know Kai told me that I could stay as long as I wanted, but I felt like I was starting to cramp his style. I didn’t want to go out to the bar, so he would stay home with me. He managed to drag me to the movie theatre and I went to watch him play hockey, but other than that, I mostly stayed at the house. I kept my phone off but listened to music constantly. I missed Greyson more than I’ve ever missed anything or anyone in my entire life. My heart hurt like hell. I’d never had a broken heart before, and up until now, I wasn’t really ever sure it existed. I spent most nights in his City and Colour T-shirt, and although it had long since stopped smelling like him, wearing it was like having a piece of him with me.
I’m a glutton for punishment, remember?

I called the girls almost every night from Kai’s phone to let them know how I was doing. They seemed worried, and the fact that they couldn’t text me on a whim was hard for them. They never mentioned Greyson and neither did I. It was like we were all avoiding the topic, and that was fine by me. I needed to figure out how I felt about him without everyone else weighing in. It was part of the reason I’d needed to get away. I wasn’t trying to punish him by leaving. It was simply a necessary evil. If we are ever going to have a chance at making this work, I need to be able to stand on my own two feet. Somewhere deep down I know he didn’t mean the things he’d said, but it dosdn’t stop them from stinging any less.

I am sitting cross-legged on the couch when Kai’s house phone starts to ring. I get up and make my way into the kitchen to get the portable phone, checking the caller ID.
O. Rhodes.
It’s my parents’ home number. I haven’t talked to them since everything had happened. I only texted them to let them know I was going to visit Kai for a few weeks and wouldn’t have my phone.

I click the talk button and put the phone to my ear. “Hey. It’s Hannah.”

“Hi, honey.” My mother’s voice sweeps through the phone and I immediately feel homesick.

I walk back over to the couch and sit down. I’m still in my pajamas and it’s the middle of the day. I’m really not taking the breakup well. I look like shit. “What’s up mom?” I ask. It is odd for her to be calling during the day—on a work day no less.

“Oh, you know, not much, honey. Just doing some laundry and taking care of a few things around the house. The office was slow today, so I came home early. What have you been up too?” she questions.

I look down at myself and sigh. Telling my mom that I haven’t worn real clothes in days probably wouldn’t ease her mind. She called to check on me, no doubt. I’m not exactly the type of daughter to up and leave with just a text. I am surprised she’s lasted this long without calling. My best guess is that she’s been keeping tabs on me through Kai.

“Not much,” I say weakly.I can hear her sigh on the other end of the line. Then there’s a long pause. “Mom?” She is kind of starting to freak me out. Mom is just like me—a chatter box, a waterfall. She is never this quiet. “Mom?” I ask again.

“Do you love him, honey?” she says, her voice soft.

“Do I love who, Mom?” She is being so vague and I am confused as to what the heck she is talking about.

“Greyson. Do you love him?”

Well, there goes my hope that no one had told her about what happened. I really should have known better though. Nothing gets past Anna Rhodes.

I don’t even hesitate before I answer her. “Yes, I love him.” I don’t embellish or dress it up. It’s just the plain truth. I love him.

“Then you should forgive him,” she says in a matter-of-fact voice.

I put my head in my hands. “You don’t even know what happened.”

“I don’t need to know what happened, honey. If you love him and he loves you, you can figure out the rest later on… But Hannah, you can’t figure that out if you’re halfway across the country. You need to work through this together. You can’t run away because it scared you.”

“I’m not running away, Mom. I just…” I start to argue with her when the realization hits me like a ton of bricks. That’s exactly what I did. I ran away.

I kept telling myself that that wasn’t it, but at the end of the day, I got scared, I panicked, and I ran. I did exactly what I’d been telling Greyson not to do. Instead of waiting for him to cool off and communicating with me, I took my wounded pride across Canada and shacked up at my brother’s house.

“Oh my God.” I don’t even realize I’ve spoken out loud until I hear my mom answer me.

“All the best things in life are worth fighting for, Hannah,” she says, and I can feel her smile through the phone even though I can’t see it.

A sob escapes my lips, and this time, I don’t try and stop it. It’s not from sadness. It’s from overwhelming relief. The relief that I’ve finally found what I came here looking for. I finally know what I am going to do.

“I’m coming home, Mom,” I gasp out as the tears slide down my face.

“I figured as much, honey. Go get him.”

I know it seems silly that a small conversation with my mom could bring on such overwhelming clarity and emotion, but it has.

“I love you,” I say to her.

“I love you too, sweet girl,” she says and hangs up the phone.

As soon as I hear the dial tone, I hang up and punch in a familiar number. She picks up on the second ring, no doubt figuring that it’s me calling from Kai’s house.

“Hannah,” Beth says, sounding worried. “I just talked to you last night. What’s wrong? Is everything okay?”

“I’m coming home, Beth. I’m coming back to fight for him,” I say confidently. The quiver in my voice is gone now. I don’t feel weak. I feel determined.

The relief in her voice is palpable. “Oh, Han, I’m so happy for you!” she squeals into the phone.

I make our conversation brief, letting her know that I’ll text her from Kai’s phone with the flight information once I’m booked. I’m still not turning on my phone. I don’t want anything to deter me from marching straight up to his front door and telling him that I’m here whether he likes it or not. She sounds happy, and I make her promise to fill Lennon in on everything before we say our goodbyes and I hang up the phone. I pull out Kai’s laptop and begin searching for flights home. The earliest one is tomorrow morning, and I book my ticket before I start packing my bags.

Loving Greyson might be like walking into a burning building, but that burning building is my home. My heart is in there with him, and I am going home to get it.

I
T TOOK ALMOST
the entire two weeks, but I am ready. I am finally fucking ready for my girl to come home. When Beth called me yesterday night to tell me that Hannah was coming home the next day, I was so happy that I didn’t sleep the entire night. These last two weeks without her have been hell. I miss her so much that I feel like my chest is going to break in two. Beth, Lennon, and I have worked tirelessly while she’s been gone. We’ve moved every single one of Hannah’s things out of girls’ house and into mine.
My girl has a lot of shit.
I am done living without her—literally and figuratively.

I’ve been dicking around for way too long, letting my fear of breaking hearts keep me from committing to my girl the way I wanted to.
Fear of breaking hearts
—
what a fucking joke!
Beth helped me find a counselor in town, and when I wasn’t moving shit into the house, I was having sessions. We’ve worked through a lot of my issues, but I still have a lot of healing to do. As much as I’m doing it to show my girl that I am trying, I’m also doing it for me. I am tired of living this way—all fucked up and scared. I wanted to change; I needed to change.

“Fuck,” I say, checking the time on the dashboard. I’ve been so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t notice how long I’ve been sitting in the truck for.

I left early to pick up flowers before heading to the airport, but the main highway in town is an absolute clusterfuck, barely moving at all.
Of course there’s no traffic in this tiny-ass town any other day of the week, but on the day I’m going to get my girl, it’s at a fucking standstill.
Her plane is landing in a little over twenty minutes and I’ll be damned if I am going to be late.

I pull Bagheera up onto the curb, flying past the sea of parked cars. It may have been a complete jackass thing to do, but I am chasing my girl, and this time when I catch her, I am never fucking letting her go.

T
HE FLIGHT HOME
feels like it takes for fucking ever.
I guess it always feels like that when you’re coming home,
I think to myself and then smile.
I am coming home.
I got up early this morning and spent time on my appearance for the first time in two weeks. I hadn’t thought to bring any of my hair products with me, so I let my long hair dry in natural waves down my back. Luckily, one of the girls had packed all of my makeup and my tweezers.
God bless those girls, because after two weeks of no attention, my eyebrows needed some serious help.
I put on black mascara and a little bit of blush, not wanting to overdo it because I never wear that much makeup anyway. I am wearing one of the few nicer outfits I brought with me.
And by nice, I mean that it doesn’t make me look entirely homeless.
I am wearing a pair of cut-off denim shorts that are frayed slightly at the ends, a loose-fitting, green tank top, and a beige sweater—one of those big, comfy ones that feels like a blanket. Planes are always cold.

I pick up my checked luggage at the carousel and make my way towards the arrivals section of the airport—the section where family, friends, and loved ones are always waiting eagerly for the person visiting or coming home to walk through the doors. It is silly, but sometime during the flight, I let a romantic movie scene play out in my head where Greyson is waiting for me at the arrival gate.
The scene even came equipped with its own soundtrack.
I know the possibility is slim, but as I walk through the sliding doors, I search for him anyway. The older couple in front of me is greeted by their two teenage children, and the guy to my left is nearly been taken out by his girlfriend as she comes barreling through the crowd to get to him.