Too late for that. And didn’t that make him an idiot? How the hell had he gone and actually developed feelings in a month? Technically, it had been a month and a half, but god. He should have learned after his wedding. Or non-wedding, as it were. He should have had his walls miles high, and honestly, if it was anyone else, he would have.
Not Bella.
Bella was different.
He couldn’t exactly figure out why, other than that she’d been there at the exact time he needed her. She’d seen him at his worst, and she hadn’t turned away. She’d extended a helping hand and if there was anything more attractive than kindness, compassion, and wit, he damn sure didn’t know what it was.
“Bella?” Rhett realized belatedly that he was lost in his head and she was still there. If it was the last time he talked to her, he didn’t want her to go thinking that he wished her ill. Because he didn’t. He just wished that someone would give him a chance. Him. Not his bank account. Not his house. Not his things. Not his company. Him and him alone.
Which, really, he realized Bella had done. She’d never given two shits about his money. She’d never asked for anything. She was the one who kept trying to tell him it wouldn’t work out. She’d warned him. She hadn’t used him. She hadn’t meant to hurt him. If anything, he’d done it to himself. He’d pursued her. He’d tracked her down. He’d gone and got that damn tattoo, which he actually really liked now that it was finally healed. He wasn’t quite brave enough to show it to his mom yet, but that was another story.
“Yeah?”
He closed his eyes and savored the sound of Bella’s voice. She should have been on a plane on her way to Phoenix. He didn’t buy her the ticket. She’d paid for her own when she said she wanted to come to his place for a change. She should have been on her way, getting closer and closer with every passing minute. He’d been so stupidly excited he hadn’t slept properly for days. He’d been shit at work. The only thing he could think about was her. He’d counted down the days like a little kid getting close to Christmas.
She should have been on that plane, but she wasn’t. She was on the phone. Telling him she wasn’t coming. That she was never coming.
And damn it, he felt like he’d just been kicked right in the stomach. By a damn elephant.
Or run over. By all the busses in the world.
God, he felt worse than he had at his wedding when he’d left that church. If anything, he had felt relieved about finally figuring out who Sarah was. When he got over the shock, he was so damn thankful that he hadn’t made the mistake of marrying her.
“Rhett?”
“Yeah. Sorry.”
“I- uh- take care of yourself, okay? You’ll find someone. A good one. Just be patient. Stay away from high maintenance women like my sister. If they ask for trips to the salon or a designer handbag or a thousand dollar pair of shoes that’s a dead giveaway. Run. Run as fast as you can and don’t look back. And if you’re lonely and tempted to make bad decisions, don’t bother with five hundred dollars an hour therapy. Just keep getting tattoos. You’ll be a lot further ahead and a lot more colorful in the long run.”
Rhett could almost hear the smile in Bella’s voice. He tried. He really tried so damn hard to match it, but he couldn’t. He mumbled a depressed response, something that sounded close to you, you too, and hung up before he handed his balls in right along with the man card he nearly surrendered the day he got his tattoo.
Although, if that’s what it took, he would have done it. Bella was worth it.
He didn’t really know her. Not yet. But he wanted to. He wanted to spend weeks and months and years turned inside out. He wanted to keep making a complete fool of himself and feeling like some brat with his first crush. He just wanted to enjoy spending time with Bella. She was cool. She was nice, at heart. Real good. The golden kind of good that’s hidden under layers of dark eyeliner, black hair dye, tattoos, and snarky wit. She’d let him in, let him have a peek at her heart and soul and it was blindingly beautiful.
He was drawn to it like the poor moth to that flame. Okay, that was a shitty analogy, but at the moment, with nothing but his lit-up phone screen staring back at him and the silence closing in around him, he was all out of non-clichéd analogies to use for his life.
He just wanted Bella back.