All Rhodes Lead Here

We love you—I love you—because you’re mine. Because being around you is like being around the sun. Because seeing you happy makes me happy, and seeing you sad makes me want to do anything I have to to get that look off your face.

m sorry I was jealous. I don’t give a shit about your money or your notebooks or if you never write a single word down again.”

“Did you finish dinner? Can you come home?” he asked, his palm moving up and down my spine.
Home. He kept saying it, and my soul gobbled it up.

I want you to come home. I don’t want you thinking these things that aren’t true at all, about us not wanting you around or wanting you to be with us for the wrong reasons. You matter, angel, and I want you here with us. You decided, remember? You don’t get to change your mind anymore. I’m not your ex, and you don’t get to leave. We go through things together, we don’t give up on one another, and not over something like this. Isn’t that right?”

“I don’t know how anybody would let you walk away, and it isn’t going to be me. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. Are we clear?”

just kept on staring at her, but noticed out of the corner of my eye that Rhodes started heading over.

Come stay at the house with us.”
“Tonight?” I pretty much croaked.
The hand that had been on my throat for all of thirty seconds landed on my thigh. “I’ll drive you in the morning if your flight is still on. You won’t have to walk back and forth across the driveway,” he said, like it was a half-mile walk from the garage apartment to his house.
My own mouth twitched. “Sure.”
Rhodes stood and set that same palm on top of my shoulder. “Want to come over now? I’ll help you carry your things.”
“Sign me up.”

There was nothing about this man that was hesitant or withdrawn. He was quiet, yeah, but it had nothing to do with him holding parts of himself back. I loved how serious he was. How deep his thoughts and actions went.

When everyone started talking about a big storm that was supposed to roll in the day before Christmas, I didn’t think much of it. We had been getting steady snowfall every few days for a while. I’d gotten more confident driving in it, even though any time he could, Rhodes came to the shop and followed me back home.

!” a yell came from the house, surprising us both.
I peeked over Rhodes’s shoulder to find Amos standing at the doorway, still in his pajamas and looking even more sleepy.
“You okay?” he asked, confirming exactly why I’d come here.
Because it was a place where a sixteen-year-old and a forty-two-year-old who I’d only known for about six months worried about me more than people I had known for over a decade.