“Summer.” He groans and throws a hand over his face. “That doesn’t make it any better.”
“I know,” I reply, quietly.
“Someone should report him. Doctors can’t go around dating their teenaged patients.” His tone is biting.
My eyes go wide. I don’t want to make this a thing. I want to leave it all in the past where it belongs. I don’t hate Rob; I just want to move on from him. “Please, please don’t say anything. I shouldn’t have said anything to you. I was just... explaining myself, I guess.”
Rhett sighs raggedly. “You don’t owe me an explanation. It’s him who should be explaining himself.” He gazes out the window, shaking his head before muttering, “Saw you on TV, my ass.”
I glance over again, almost nervously this time. My hands twist on the steering wheel. “I don’t know. People pleaser, I guess. Things with Rob and I were complicated. I guess they still are. It’s like, logically, I know that our relationship was fucked up. But he saved my life. Before him I was very sick, and he fixed me. And it’s impossible to reconcile those two things.”
Rhett grunts. I bet to him a lot of my family relationships seem awfully complicated.
“You deserve so much better, Summer. It’s like you’re so busy forcing yourself to smile and be happy all the time that you don’t even realize when you’re entitled to be pissed off.”
His statement strikes me silent while I desperately search for something adequate to reply with. “Thank you for standing up for me today. To my sister. And with the...” I remove one hand from the wheel and wave it around almost spastically.
“Kiss?” he supplies.
“Yeah, that. I’m so glad we can go back to a professional working relationship after that.”
Rhett quirks a brow in my direction, watching me lick my lips and swallow while avoiding his gaze.
“And thank you for keeping my secret about Rob.”
Rhett’s only reply is to grind his teeth.