“So, you’re number one,” Rhett smirks taking Sawyer’s extended hand.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Sawyer replies, running his other hand through his hair. “I was just another sucker, I guess.”

“Hey, man I’m the biggest sucker of them all,” Rhett says as they continue to shake hands. “I knew better.”

I stood staring up at them, still trying to wrap my head around what I was seeing, my first husband and my current husband together.  It wasn’t until Sawyer volunteered to take me to the airport to pick Rhett up that I realized they had never met.  Rhett went  back to Freeport after the raid and Sawyer was being held in jail when Rhett came to Florida to give his testimony.

Sawyer looked apprehensive and Rhett kept a grin on his face as they took each other in during what felt like the world’s longest handshake.

I didn’t know what kind of mood Rhett would be in when he came off his 15 hour flight from Alaska, but he was smiling and joking from the moment Mason spotted him at the gate. Mason was so excited to see him I had to hold him back so he didn’t run into the crowd. Even now he was still in Rhett’s arms, whispering in his ear.

 I’d started noticing how conscious Mason was of my energy. If I was upset around someone he’d get upset and it I was happy he’d want to be happy too. And despite it all I was happy to see Rhett. Even the baby must be feeling it, they had been  kicking and punching me all night.

“But seriously, thanks for taking care of her,” Rhett says finally releasing Sawyer’s hand.

“I think we both know we’re not allowed to say that,” Sawyer laughs.

We get into Sawyer’s car and make a brief stop at his house to drop off Rhett’s luggage and change clothes before  getting back in the car and going back to Atlantic Crescent Apartments. Raleigh and Rosa had rented out the apartment’s clubhouse to have a small party.

When we walk into the clubhouse I see everyone I know and a few ex-UL members who I didn’t know, but  lived in the area.

Greg is standing by the grill with hamburgers, Elisa and Rosa are in the pool already and Sam and Felicity are looking at some board games together. I even notice Rocket sitting off to the side, I don’t know if she’s working or not. She has her microphone with her but she’s also wearing a polka dot one piece bathing suit and thick pink flip flops.

The conversations quiet down as we walk in and Rhett reaches for my hand.

Raleigh is the first one to approach us. He holds a beer out to Rhett who shakes his head.

“Welcome,” Raleigh says to him and then lightly slaps his shoulder. “You make a pretty cool kid, assface.”

Rhett smiles.

“How is it that I’ve haven’t seen you in three years and you still haven’t managed  grown an inch of hair,” Rhett retorts.

They’re joking seems to break some of the tension and I am thankful for it. A few others walk up to introduce themselves to him and he manages to turn his charm on even without the beer.

I’d  spent an entire day in the outlet mall  finding a modest bathing suit that could cover both my stomach and my breasts that were getting close to an F cup. Mason is attached to Rhett’s hip, so  I make my way to  the shallow end of the pool to cool off and enjoy a rare moment to myself. I shrug off my cover up and run my hand over my stomach, massaging where I could feel the baby. The water seemed to calm the baby down some.

After a few minutes Elisa swims over to me and arches her back against the edge of the pool, she looks like a cover model in her dark red bikini with a gold accent in the middle of the top and her long wet hair dripping behind her.

“Okay, I get it now,” Elisa tells me, raking a hand through her hair and piling it on her head.

“What ?”

“Why you married him.”

I was confused for a moment. She had stuck by Rosa when we’d first come into the clubhouse and hadn’t even spoken to Rhett yet.

Then she nods her head towards the deeper end of the pool and I see Rhett swimming with Mason in his arms. Rhett was in a short swimming trunks that showed  nearly every muscle in his body. I could tell he was working out more, he was looking more defined than usual. Rhett was trying to teach Mason to swim, but Mason wasn’t listening. 

“He’s a good dad,” I say.

“Yeah, I’m sure but I just meant he’s hot as fuck,” she says and then puts her hands up. “By which  I mean, good job. I’m not shopping around or anything.”

“It’s okay,  I saw your ring--”

She shakes her head as Rosa swims over to join our conversation. Rosa didn’t seem upset with my anymore but she never really spoke to me unless someone else was already talking to me.

“I actually broke my engagement off months ago,” Elisa explains. “This ring is my grandmother’s and I just wear it to keep the creeps away.”

We sit in silence for a few seconds and I feel like I have to ask.

“I’m sorry you and Sawyer didn’t work out,” I say.

Elisa looks off towards the picnic tables were Sawyer was intently  listening to something Cece and Sam were saying

 “Sawyer was  my first real love you know ?,” Elisa sighs. “That UL stuff was a lot to handle and it kind of broke him. Even after it ended I still wanted to see and change the world and he just wanted to run a diner.”

“I think he was my first too,” I say. “ I mean  not in the same way as you  but he was the first person who looked out for me...Apparently not even my parents were doing that.”

“Sawyer is like that…” Elisa starts but then she trails off.

I look up and  see Rhett swimming towards us, he must have seen us staring. He looks pointedly at Rosa, who is clearly staring him down.

“I don’t think we ever met,”  Rhett says extending a hand to her.

I wonder what she sees when she looks at him. Her eyes lock on the band of black around his bicep. It covered up his UL  brand but if you stared long enough you could make out the impression. Rhett knew what she had said about him, the she thought he was responsible for Logan’s death, Rocket has asked him to fact check it.

“Nice to meet you,” Rosa says but it sounds strained.

 “You have a right to be pissed,” Rhett says.

“I’m not pissed.” Rosa says defensively. “I’m just...I wish it had all never happened.”

“Me too,” he says.

Raleigh and Sawyer walk over to our end of the pool together, I’m not sure why, I think Raleigh thought Rosa was going to go off on Rhett or the  other way around. Raleigh and Sawyer don’t say anything, they just put their feet in the water.

“Juliana says you guys don’t really tell people about UL,” Rosa says to Rhett.

“UL is a real negative thing where I’m from,” Rhett explains. “It was kind of like the boogy monster…Freeport was one of the towns near the commune  and parents would tell their kids to not to even look at any of the members…. a lot of people thought it was a suicide cult  or like sex cult--”

“I can’t believe people thought that.” Rosa balks.

“I don’t know, United Light does sound kind of suicide-y,” Elisa shrugs. “When I mentioned it to some of my co-workers they asked if it was a suicide cult too”

“People only think that because we only talk about UL to each other and not outsiders,” Raleigh adds.

“And well dressed reporters,” Elisa adds nodding over to where Rocket was now recording Cecilia and Felicity.

“If I could go somewhere where I didn’t have to talk or think about what happened I would,” Sawyer says and gestures to the scars on his arms. "I end up having the conversation about how I got them at least once a week.”

“You tell people the truth ?,” Rhett asks.

Sawyer shrugs and I can tell his nervous to talk about this to Rhett.

“Mostly. Not about the UL blackmail, but about the meth lab explosion,” Sawyer says. “I figure I can be an object lesson.”

“In that case I have some family members who need to meet you,” Rhett says with a hint of a smile.

After half an hour I pull myself out of the water  to get something to drink and find a seat on a pool chair, watching Rhett and Sawyer talk before Rhett gets pulled away by Mason wanting another swimming lesson.

 

-2-

 

I drift off to sleep in the pool chair and I’m woken up by the feeling of Rhett’s lips on mine.  I slowly open my eyes and realize  we’re practically alone. The clubhouse had mostly cleared out and I feel awful for not saying goodbye to anyone.

“Wake up, sleeping beauty.” Rhett says jingling  car keys in front of my face. “We got places to be.”

“Where’s Sawyer ?,” I ask when I notice the car keys in Rhett’s hand belong to Sawyer.

“Elisa drove him to his apartment and he said I could borrow his car.” Rhett shrugs. “Guess where we’re going ?”

“Somewhere with a bed?,” I venture. I was exhausted.

“No. We’re going to the beach.”

The moment Mason hears those words he starts jumping up and down and pulling me up so we can go.

I say a quick goodbye and thank you to Rosa and Raleigh before we get into Sawyer’s car. Rhett doesn’t know the area and I try my best to give him directions to the beach but we end up getting lost.

To my surprise he doesn’t yell at me about not knowing where anything was.

He just laughs. I’d never seen him this relaxed before.

When we finally get to the right exit and find parking near the beach Mason jumps out the car and runs off. Rhett has hold him still while I take the blanket and water bottles out the backseat. When we walk towards the shore, Mason arranges us so he’s between us and we’re  each holding  one of his hands.

There’s a full moon out and high waves crash loudly against the shore. As we get closer, Mason starts walking slower and puts his hands over his ears. Once we get to the wet part of the sand, he suddenly turns into my legs and holds his arms up for me to pick him up. He looks scared and  like he’s about to cry so I pick him up and exchange a look with Rhett, but Rhett only shakes his head.

“We shouldn’t have done this at night,” I whisper to Rhett.

“Hey, look at this,” Rhett says sliding his finger over Mason’s cheek.

Rhett takes off towards the darkened beach and walks right into a wave, I can hear him laughing from the shore. When he comes back towards us his hair is wet and he has a big smile on his face.

“C’mon, son. You’re not going to let me have all the fun are you ?,” Rhett asks, gently taking him from my arms.

Picking him up, Rhett walks slowly back towards the waves. I watch Mason reach down to touch the water with his hand and after a few minutes  Rhett put him down so the receding waves can run over his bare feet.  I watch nervously to make sure he’s okay before turning my back and setting up the blanket on the sand.

I lie on the blanket, reading a pregnancy book Cecilia had given me and watching them play. They jump into the waves and Rhett chases him around the beach, I hear him giggling loudly every time Rhett does a handstand for him.

“We’ll bring you next time,” I say to the baby in my stomach.

I didn’t usually talk to the baby, but they’d started kicking harder and hadn’t stopped for the last ten minutes.  Rhett brings a sleeping Mason back to the blanket and I realize he heard me talking to the baby.

 Rhett leans over me on his elbow and starts massaging the baby, I take his hand and move it around so he’s rubbing where I think they baby’s head is.

“He’s a fighter,” Rhett says when he feels the kicks.

“Cece says they’re just doing that because  when I’m happy or relaxed my body releases happy endorphins and it’s like caffeine for the bab--”

“You’re happy ?,” he asks.

“I am right now,” I tell him. “It’s been relaxing here.”

I’d been working with Rocket some, but most of my stay here had been lying in bed and knitting.

“Damn, I can’t believe it’s January and I’m on the beach.,” Rhett says. “What do you think about moving here ?"

“Moving here ? You’ve only been here a day,” I tell him.

He shrugs and looks off into the waves.

“I have to put my request list for my new assignment. I was going to ask for New Orleans but I could add the Miami…I bet there’s never a dull moment with all the drug trafficking and hurricanes.”

As much as I didn’t like the idea of him facing drug trafficking and  hurricanes I tried to imagine what living in South Florida would be like.

“Sometimes I wonder,” I admit.  “What it would have been like if I hadn’t gone back to Connecticut. If I’d stayed here after I got out of prison.”

“You think you’d be with Sawyer ?,” he says in an attempt to sound casual.

“No,” I tell him. “We were never together. You know that. But I’m glad I got to clear the air with Dad. I like Connecticut.”

“I could put in for New London,” Rhett says.

“You’d die there,” I remind him.

“That’s true,” he says.

“Rhett, I don’t care where we go,” I tell him. “Just as long as we go together. All of us.”

 

***

 

Rhett

 

I’d forgotten how to relax.

I hadn’t slept past 6AM  in months.

Juliana had fallen asleep with her head on my outstretched arm and Mason was sleeping squeezed between us.  I watch them sleep, trying to get myself back to sleep but I feel restless lying in bed.

I gently roll her head off my arm and she starts to stir.

“Rhett ?,” she mumbles still half asleep. She reaches her hand into the empty space of the bed and then wraps them around her belly.

“I’m going to go give Sawyer his car back and get my rental,” I tell her, kissing her cheek.

She nods her head and then turns her head, going back to sleep.

I’d learned that Sawyer Miller’s house wasn’t technically a house. He advertised it as a beach cottage and it had been his parents vacation home before he took over the mortgage. It had two small bedrooms and he’d renovated the floors and appliances so her could rent it for higher prices. Unlike our house in Freeport it  had no property. The house  was only inches away from the house next door.

Juliana told me she and Sawyer never consummated their marriage but I can only imagine they got to know each other well living in a space like this.

The living room has a small Christmas tree set up and there is yarn and toys everywhere. Juliana told me she’d tried to do a religious only Christmas with Mason, but everyone had brought him a gift anyway. I’d had Savannah buy some Legos to send to him since I couldn’t get much in Alaska

I get dressed and drive back to the Sunset Diner and again I imagine Juliana coming her for the first time, getting her first glimpse of life outside the commune. San Costa was a town made for tourist—everything was decorated in bright colors and there was flamingo paraphernalia everywhere. It’s not a bad first glimpse of the world, even if it was quickly tarnished for her.  Now that I think about how shitty the outside world must have been for Juliana I understand why she retreated into herself for so  many years.

I plan to leave Sawyer’s car at the diner and call a cab to take me to the rental car place, but Sawyer catches me in the parking lot when he’s throwing trash in the Dumpster. I try not to look at his scars but I can’t help it. The unsettling shiny pink color is stark against his skin and they crawl up his entire arm.

“Hey,--uh thanks for the car,” I tell him tossing his car keys.

He laughs, lifting his arm to catch the keys with one hand.

“You know…actually that Mustang is Juliana’s,” Sawyer says. “She bought it with money she got from—well, you know… I guess I should pay you guys or something.”

“Better idea.” I say. “How about you don’t pay us and we never mention it again.”

He nods in agreement.

“Hey, I need to find a gym,” I tell him. “You workout ?”

“Don’t really have the time,” he admits. “Want me to give you a ride to pick up your rental car ?,”

“Nah, I know you have to work--”

“It’s fine. I’m the boss,” he reminds me.

He drives me to pick up the rental car and I get why Juliana would have liked him. Cody and I had always called ourselves good guys because we were nice to our mothers, didn’t sell drugs to minors or have sex with drunk girls.

But we weren’t good guys.

Sawyer Miller was a real good guy—one who had fucked up—but still a good guy.

I start working in references to Juliana and I’s life together into the conversation. It was stupid, I’d never thought of myself as the jealous type but since being here I’d started to feel oddly possessive.

Since I can’t find a decent gym or pool in San Costa I take the extra room key that Juliana had been borrowing from Rocket so she could take Mason for walks around the resort. I drive to Rocket’s hotel in downtown Miami and use it to get into the gym so I can get a quick swim in and lift some weights.

I was currently leading my crew in PT times and I didn’t want to lose that lead.

“You’re not supposed to be in here,” a sing song voice says behind me when I’m in the middle of bench presses.

I sit up to see Rocket standing behind me in a tank top and yoga pants.

“Guilty,” I admit.

“Want me to spot you ?,” she asks.

I didn’t need her to, but I nod.

She stands over me while I lift and then we switch places. She’s not as weak as I would have thought.

“You still keep to the Coast Guard fitness standards ?,” I ask her.

“Oh, hell no.” she says standing up. “I just like having some decompression time. I’ve been doing interview after interview after interview. It’s like I get one and then they give me someone else and then someone else...it’s so weird there’s so many UL in this area. It like they all kind of emigrated here.”

“Well… they tend to flock,” I tell her.

“I’m kind of sad I’m losing Juliana after tomorrow. I like having her around,” Rocket tells me.

“She’s not dying,” I remind her.

Rocket smiles.

“I still want to interview you,” she tells me.

“Why?,” I ask her. “I thought you had more interviewees than you needed.”

“I do. But you interest me the most.” she says. “I mean you joined a cult, helped the girl being held prisoner  escape, survived the raid with her and then fell in love, got married and made the cutest baby in history. You’re a god damn hero and that is an amazing story--”

“Except…That’s not the story,” I cut her off. “I didn’t help Juliana escape. She ran away because she was scared and I was just trying to bring her back. She’s been branded, beaten and drugged by Caine. She cut me in the face so I wouldn’t take her back.”

I absently touch the small cut under my eye from when she’d come after me with a razor.

“I use to make bets with other TLs—other boys-- about when Caine would fuck her and how much she deserved it. I beat the shit out of a lot of…kids, basically.

And I didn’t fall in love with her until after we got married…I think part of the reason I asked her to marry me is because I thought she was cute and I knew I could provide for her. I thought being her husband would mean I could be forgiven for all the shit I did. And look, I love my son but I wanted her to have an abortion because being pregnant with him literally broke her brain and it’s probably doing it again. Your little fairytale story about us...about me…it doesn’t check out.”

Rocket runs a hand through her hair.

“But I am right about the cutest baby in the history thing?,” she asks

I stare at her and then she smiles mischievously. Damn, this woman was relentless.

“Fine,” I say rolling my eyes.

She does a small turn and points to the pool.

“Want to do some laps now ? I bet you could help me with my form.”

“Okay. Fine,” I sigh. “I’ll do one interview with you--”

I expect her to do a happy dance or hug me but she just nods her head.

“Want to come up to my suite ?,” she asks. “I have the equipment set up.”

-3-

 

I follow her lead, feeling regret settle in my stomach the closer we get to her hotel room. I’d been afraid Rocket was going to make me look worse than I was, but it seemed like her impression was better than it should be.

Fuck. Rocket was right.

 If I wanted the truth I was going to have to tell it myself.

Her hotel room is covered in paper boxes, takeout containers and recording equipment. I sit at the kitchen table of her suite as she does sound tests and then puts a microphone in front of me.

She shows me how to cut the recording off and tells me I can cut it off whenever I want something off the record.

“Should I say my name ?,” I ask her as she turns the recording on.

She shakes her head.

“I’ve been interviewing you for three years, I think I know your voice,” she smirks.

Suddenly I’m nervous.

 

“Are you going to ask me a question ?,” I ask her. I’d read some of her transcripts, she usually asked questions.

“No,” she says. “I just want you to talk.”

I think back to my time in UL and all the awful shit I could tell her, how jaded and angry I was, all the things I did that I shouldn’t have. But she’d probably heard most of that.

“You know what the worst part of all this shit is ?,” I ask her.

She shakes her head.

“Tell me.”

“I come from a family of real angry motherfuckers,” I start and she seems confused. “I mean...I've seen every man in my family raise his hand to a woman and--”

“Clark, you don’t have to--”

“No, there’s a point to this,” I cut her off. “My Dad, I love him, but he had PTSD or something and I remember when I was a kid he just snapped on Mama because we started eating dinner without him or something clichéd and stupid like that. He yelled, broke dishes, threw our dinner in the trash. Mama tried to stop him and he, just, like...backhanded her. When I tried to stop him he came after me too.”

“I can’t imagine your mom…,” Rocket starts but then she seems to switch mid-thought. “What did she do after that happened ?”

“We left,” I tell her bringing up a memory I hadn’t thought about ever. “We sneaked off to my grandparents house  that night and my Nana was pissed at my Dad but my asshole grandfather said Mama had to go back to her husband. My grandfather told Mama to fucking apologize to him. He wouldn’t let us stay so we went back that night and I guess maybe she did apologize. I don’t remember him ever getting that mad again but we couldn’t so much as look at dinner unless he was home.”

“And your Dad passed away, right ?,” Rocket asks.

“Yeah,” I tell her. “He hung him—took his own life. I think cause he was never diagnosed…anyway, I say all that to say I know all the trauma or whatever that Juliana’s been through because I’ve seen it in person. I’ve seen it a lot. Caine treated her like shit, and I knew it was bad and I know it's still hard and yet I still turn into a raging asshole sometimes—I mean , look, I never hit her or anything I—I,”

For a second I lose the thread of my thought

“I say that all to say that before we do anything I need you to know I’m not the hero of her story. Not then and not now.  If anything  I’m just a fuck up and Juliana saved me…if she hadn’t run off when she did I would have been with Caine during the raid and I would have been prosecuted and I’ve never gotten to go to the Coast Guard Academy and I wouldn’t have my job and...I’m not sure where I’d be without her.”

“Do you think that’s why you became a rescue swimmer ? To become someone deserving of being saved ?”

I want to tell her that’s lame, but I fucking  can’t.

“Joining the Coast Guard straightened my ass out,” I tell her. “I had good influences. It gave me the discipline I needed but unlike UL, it gave me a real purpose. Yeah, I like saving people, but also my job is exciting—I’m kind of addicted to it and I still can’t believe I get to do it.”

She looks down at something on her computer and then back up at me.

“More than half of the TLs arrested with Caine remained loyal to him, they wouldn’t work with the police and refused to take plea deals. Some of them got up to 10 years in jail. Do you think that would have been you ?”

I shrug and she reminds me the recorder is on.

“I don’t know,” I admit. “I used to admire Caine, he talked to me like an adult, he liked all the things other adults tried to pray out of me,  he wore suits—where I come from men only wear suits to funerals and even then not really.”

“Let’s go back to the very beginning,” she says. “Tell me how you first met Caine.”

So, I go back. I tell Rocket everything, about how I held up a store to get pills for my mother’s back. I turn off the recorder to tell her how Mama became addicted to those pills and got fired because of it.

I tell her how Caine offered me money and all the messed up shit he did to us—drugs in our food, shocking us, looking the other way.

I don’t even realize 3 hours have passed until she says she wants to pause it so she can send the interview to be transcripted.

“Can we do another interview in a few days?,” she asks me. “Maybe you and Juliana together.”

“Maybe,” I tell her. “But after I take Juliana back to Freeport I have to go back to Kodiak.”

“I have an extension from my editor,” she says unplugging the cords. “I’ll come up to Kodiak  if I have to.”

“I know you will,” I tell her.

***

-4-

Cecilia Winston Hill’s car wedged in the small driveway of Sawyer Miller’s beach house. When I open the door to the house I hear Juliana laughing, I hadn’t heard her laugh in a long time.

She, Rosa, Cecilia and Elisa are all sitting in the living room with suitcases opened all around them, packing. Juliana’s on the floor with Rosa who was showing her something with a knitting needle.

Mason comes out of nowhere and runs up to me, I pick him up in my arms and he starts giggling.

“Where have you been ?,” Juliana asks but she doesn’t seem all that concerned.

“I was talking to Rocket,” I tell them and Juliana does a double take. Her eyebrows furrow.

“She has a way doesn’t she ?,” Elisa says. “She had me crying over my break up with Sawyer, god, I hope she doesn’t use that.”

“Just admit you’re still in love with him,” Rosa teases and Elisa throws a sock at her.

The room goes silent and even though they aren’t looking at me I feel like they are all staring at me.

“Why don’t I take Mason back to the beach ?,” I say, realizing I’m interrupting something I’m not supposed to be apart of.

“BEACH!,” Mason shouts, running around the room.

I take him into the bedroom to change into his swim shorts and Juliana follows behind me closing the door..

“You don’t have to watch him,” she says. “You should get to relax-”

“I want to,” I tell her. “I’ll let you get back to your friends--”

“My friends ?,” she says.

“Cecilia and--”

“Oh, they’re not my friends,” she says quietly. “They’re just being nice to me because I’m pregnant--”

“That’s what friends do…I guess I never realized all your friends were here.”

“We’re not real friends,” she says. “Not like you and Cody or anything--”

“Good,” I smile. “Because I’m starting to think Cody and I’s friendship it the most toxic relationship I have.”

I drive Mason back to the beach and now that we’re here during the daytime he’s like an uncontrollable ball of energy. We walk along the boardwalk, play on a playground, swim on the beach and find seashells to give to put in a jar for Juliana. He’d grown up so much while I was in Alaska, he was getting to a point where he questioned everything and  we could have a back and forth conversations.

“Do you go back to work ?,” He asks me when we sit down at seafood dive on the boardwalk to eat

“Yeah, I have to go back for a few more weeks--”

“Why ?,” he asks.

“Because I told them  I would. I have to go back so other people can see their families.”

“I want you to stay, Daddy.” he says. “Please.”

“It’s only a few more weeks,” I assure him. “And then we’ll all go somewhere together.”

When we go back to the house it’s late and Juliana is in bed drinking tea and reading one of her pregnancy books. Mason immediately jumps into her arms, shaking the jar of seashells in her face and   telling her about what we did.

I have to wait for him to fall asleep before I can even get a word in.

“I’ve been thinking about it. I’m serious. We could move here,” I whisper to Juliana when he’s asleep.

“What if your mom or Savannah needed you ?,” she asks.

“I can catch a flight.” I remind her. “It’s only an hour and a half.”

“What about the house ? We’d have to sell it or you’d still have to pay the tax--”

“When did you get so unromantic ?,” I ask her and she purses her lips.

“When did you become romantic ?,” she counters.

“I’m romantic,” I argue. “I always bring you flowers,”

“Not the last few times,” she says and she’s right. Shit.

“This place still has some ugly memories for me,” she says lying on her back.

“So, let’s make new ones.”

***

I’m woken up at 4AM by the feeling of Juliana rubbing her fingernails softly down my bare back, the feeling is oddly erotic and I don’t know what she’s playing at since Mason is still in bed with us.

I turn to her but I can’t see her in the dark. I turn on the lamp that was by my side of the bed and I get a glimpse of her face. She’s smiling and her eyes are watery.

“Baby-,”

“Rhett, may water broke.”

---

A/N

There is a twisty version of UL where Rhett and Sawyer are the same person because they are literary never in any scenes together.