Page 71 of The One

“I’m the asshole?” He folded his arm behind his head. “Looks like you’re the one who’s taking her for round two. She likes it doggy style, if you don’t already know, and her ass slapped nice and hard.”

I flipped him off as I walked us out of the room and down the hallway to the stairs. As I reached the bottom, Lainey was almost at the first step.

“You forgot to text me when you found her.” She held Penelope’s bare feet. “Is she okay?”

Too much shit had been happening, and I’d forgotten.

“I found her in one of the bathrooms. She’s sick, Lainey.”

I’d give her all the details—most of them anyway. I just wasn’t sure telling her the things Penelope had said to me was such a good idea—but not here.

Lainey rubbed her hands over Penelope’s shins. “You’re going to be okay. We’ll get you home and get you straight to bed.” She looked at me. “Should I go look for her shoes?”

“You’re absolutely not going up there,” I told her. “Lead us to the car. I need to get you both home.”

Lainey turned toward the door, and as I followed, Penelope whispered, “My hero,” in my ear.

SIXTEEN

Rhett

Present Day

When I heard the knock on my office door, I had a feeling who was behind it. A feeling that was confirmed as the knob twisted and Ridge’s face appeared in the crack. He was the only motherfucker in this universe who had the balls to come in without waiting for permission. Rowan was behind him, the two walking in like they fucking owned this space. They closed the door and took seats in front of my desk.

My hands left the keyboard of my computer, my arms crossing over my chest as I eyed down my siblings. “What?”

“You know what,” Ridge said. He waited, and when I gave him nothing, he continued, “When you dropped Daisy off, you wouldn’t stay to talk. You’re not answering any of our calls or text messages. This can’t continue, Rhett. We need to know what the hell is going on with you.”

“Talk to us,” Rowan said.

Concern was etched across their faces.

It should make me feel bad.

But it didn’t.

In fact, it did the opposite. It pissed me off.

“What do you want to hear me say?” I pounded my palms on the desk. “What’s going on with me should be fucking obvious.”

“The date, the anniversary—we get that,” Ridge said. “But is there more?”

“We’re assuming there is,” Rowan said softly. “And that Trista has something to do with it because whenever we reach out to her to ask where she is, she tells us that we should ask you.” She chewed her lip. “So, we’re here … asking you.”

I’d told Trista to keep her mouth shut about her assignment. It pleased me to no end that she’d followed my order.

“What’s going on?” Ridge asked.

I had known this conversation was coming. That didn’t mean I wanted to have it. But I wasn’t taken by surprise, and that mattered when it came to this.

“Lainey’s back.”

My gaze shifted between their faces as the words registered with them. Their reactions were exactly what I’d anticipated.

They were shocked as hell.

“You mean …back, back?” Rowan asked.