Chapter 16 ~ Rhett

Rhett sang along to the radio as he drove along the winding road that headed toward the lake. Taylor sat in the passenger seat, attempting to hid her amusement with his singing by looking out the window. He smiled at the ease that was about her. She'd relaxed so much since she had started staying with him.

His thoughts changed to Levi, and he looked into the rearview mirror to check on him. Thanks to the mirror that Tae had found on the internet, he could see into Levi's rear-facing car seat without having to turn around. It was a lifesaver. Levi was blowing raspberries, content as ever, and Rhett's eyes went back to the road.

Three months had passed since they'd first taken the little guy home, and they'd finally officially adopted him yesterday. Thanks to the judge being a family friend of Mama's, it went smoothly. Now, they were headed to the lake to meet with the rest of his family.

Mama was the only one who knew the big news, but they would tell the rest of the family today. Picnics were big with his family, but it would be a first for Tae. She looked over at him then, and his heart fluttered. The thought almost made him chuckle.

Flutter, yeah that's very manly.

He didn't think he'd be telling anyone that.

He turned onto Lake Drive which would take them into the park and down to the pavilions, and Taylor sat up in her seat.

"Oh, it's so pretty," she said, pointing at the meadow full of flowers.

He nodded his agreement and pointed to the little spot on the outside of the meadow. A massive oak tree sprawled out creating a large shadow.

"Want to hear a funny story?" he asked.

He thought back to the time he had to pick up Axel in this same spot.

She looked over at him and nodded.

"Sure. Oh, please don't tell me you had a date there," she said looking nervous.

He laughed at the thought. He'd only ever taken three girls out for dates, and all three of them had been in high school. He'd been too busy since then to make that big of an effort on a woman.

"No," he assured her and she sighed in relief.

"I never took a girl there, but Axel did once," he laughed thinking back. "Well, it hadn't exactly been a date. He'd brought his best friend out here, and she didn't take to it very much. In fact, if I recall, her exact words had been, Axel you really think you can bring me out here like one of your girls to roll around on a blanket? Yeah, I don't think so," Rhett said mimicking Layla's voice.

Taylor's eyes were wide when he looked over at her.

"Wait, why did you have to pick him up? Did they walk out here?" she asked.

Rhett chuckled and shook his head. This was his favorite part of the story.

"No, in Layla's rage, she clocked Axel and while he stood there shocked, she slipped his keys out of his pocket and drove herself home," he said laughing.

"Oh, so she just drove back to the ranch by herself then?" she asked, laughing.

Rhett shook his head.

"No, she drove herself home, home. Axel never got his truck back. He never tried real hard though," he said shaking his head.

Taylor sighed in understanding.

"He had a soft spot for her," she guessed.

He nodded but said nothing more. Their relationship was one of question. He'd never really understood what had happened, and he didn't try with the way Axel bowed up if you brought it up.

"Did they ever make up?" Tae asked with wide eyes.

Rhett chuckled.

"That, they did not. She still drives his truck every day, if I see her she smiles and waves, she still comes out to see Mama, but if she sees Axel, she shoots a glare his way and disappears," Rhett explained.

Taylor laughed but looked disappointed.

"Does Axel miss her?" she asked quietly.

Leave it to Taylor to get sentimental. He loved that about her.

"He pretends not to, but I think he does. They were extremely close. They'd been best friends since elementary school, and then all of a sudden she was out of his life. He always had a soft spot for her, but I don't think he ever truly opened his eyes to her. If he had, he would have realized that she had the biggest crush on him all through school," Rhett explained.

Taylor giggled.

"Oh Axel, the ladies' man," she said.

"That's the thing, he wasn't ever really girl-crazy, until after the feud with Layla. I think it really shook him," Rhett said shaking his head.

"Ahh, so you think that if they worked it out, then they could be a real couple?" she asked.

He thought it over. They technically had acted just like a couple until Axel ruined it.

"I guess," he said.

"You're such a man," she groaned.

"What do you mean?"

"You think it would make you less manly if you talked about love or relationships," she said with a smirk.

"I believe no such thing. I just don't know if love is in the books for Axel," he admitted with a smile.

"Oh, you're so mean. He's your little brother. Of course, there's love for him too," Taylor laughed.

"I love my brother. I'm closest with him than I am with either of the others," he said. She seemed to be waiting for him to finish. "But, I don't know if he wants love. Lord knows I don't think he's ready for it," he chuckled.

She giggled then quieted.

"Sometimes you don't have to be ready for love for it to strike," she said softly.

He slowly looked over at her in the passenger seat. She sat looking out the window at the landscape.

"Oh look, there's the lake," she squealed.

Levi squawked in the back and Rhett laughed.

"Well, it seems he's as excited as you are," Rhett said with a smile.

"Well hopefully he'll take after me and get my bubbly personality," she said with a wink.

"I hope so," he said softly.

He didn't realize he'd said it out loud until Taylor sent him a questioning smile. Instead of answering, he hopped out of the truck.

He unhooked Levi from his car seat and carried him around to Taylor.

"There's a lot of people here, Rhett," she whisper-yelled.

"Well, I do have a big family," he said.

He started walking away, not waiting on Taylor.

"Wait, wait, wait," she screeched as she ran to catch up with him.

He laughed at her expense. She was so outgoing that it surprised him she'd be scared of his family.

He saw his cousins wave him over, and he turned to head that way.

"Wait," she said. "What do I tell people when they ask who I am?" she questioned.

He rolled his eyes but smiled.

"We've been over this, Tae," he said as he handed Levi over to her.

She tucked the boy close to her.

"Just be yourself, and everyone will love you," he said.

"I don't know," she began.

He huffed and silenced her with a kiss. Once she fully relaxed into him, he pulled back.

"You're beautiful, smart, and the sweetest person I've met. They'll all love you," he said with a heartfelt smile.

She took in a gulp of air, and he pointed his mother out in the crowd.

"Look there's Mama, and she's coming over here. There you go, have her introduce you to everyone," he said as he escaped.

He heard his mother scold him for slipping off, but he was already halfway to his cousins.

"Gentlemen," he said as he joined the circle.

"Gentleman? I'm no gentleman," his cousin Nate said with a smirk.

Nick sent him a look.

"So the rumors are are true," Nick didn't ask, but acknowledged.

Rhett decided the best plan of action was to play dumb.

"What rumor?"

Nick shook his head with a laugh.

"The baby, Rhett. What else would we be talking about?" he asked

"Yeah, it's true," Rhett said with a proud grin.

Nick sent him a look with raised eyebrows, and Rhett stepped closer to him.

"Later," he promised under his breath.

Nick nodded in understanding and moved away.

The guys all bombarded him with questions, and Rhett began trying to steer the conversation away from himself.

"So, whose new truck was parked in the back?" he asked.

They all shook their heads and laughed.

"That would be mine," Luke said.

Luke technically may not be family, but he'd been around enough to be at all the family gatherings.

"How'd you afford that?" Rhett asked with a deep laugh. "I just saw you two days ago and you didn't have it then."

Luke, Rhett's usually can't-get-him-to-shut-up best friend, shrugged.

"My birthday came early," he said simply.

Rhett's eyes bulged. His birthday. His twenty-fifth birthday meant he got to see his mysterious inheritance.

He raised an eyebrow in question, but Luke shook his head.

"Not right now," he said silencing Rhett.

Rhett nodded in understanding, but his mind was still wandering. He wondered who the mysterious donor was, and what all Luke had found out. The men all looked behind him at a chaotic crowd.

"Hey, Rhett, you may want to go save your girl," Max said with a laugh.

He turned around to see the women all crowding around Taylor, and Taylor with big, wide eyes. She looked over at him, and her expression pleaded with him to help her.

He chuckled as he walked over. He pushed two of his second cousins out of the way to break the circle, then he stepped in.

"Ladies," he said, and Taylor let out a relieved sigh. "What's going on here?" he asked the women.

They looked at him like vultures circling on a carcass. He was the carcass, they were the vultures.

"We're just trying to get Taylor here to tell us the real story," his great Aunt Linda said.

"We don't believe the one that they told us," Margie said motioning at Taylor and Mama.

Mama had just stepped back with Levi in her arms. Levi had been fussing, and Rhett had seen her leave earlier on a walk to try to calm him. Levi was still squalling, and Rhett held out his hands for the boy.

Once Levi was in his arms, he quieted, and Rhett turned back to the women.

Caroline was glaring at her family.

"I leave to take my grandson on a walk and y'all think it's okay to attack Miss Taylor?" she questioned.

She was glaring and almost seemed to be blowing smoke out of her ears. The women all cowered and looked embarrassed. Then Margie stepped up.

"Sorry, Taylor, we just didn't know if the story was true because we've never seen Rhett with a girl, let alone a child," she said.

"Yeah, and you've only been around for a couple of months. You'd have to be an angel to get him to settle down," Linda added.

Tae was blushing and looking at her feet.

"It's okay. You just startled me, that's all," she said quietly.

Rhett was upset that the women had treated her this way on their first meeting. He'd told her they'd all love her, and they'd proved him wrong. His cousin Callie seemed to notice how embarrassed Taylor was, and stepped in.

"Hey, you said you knew how to make those noodles out of veggies," she said with a friendly smile.

Taylor looked surprised and nodded.

Rhett was so happy with Callie that he could have kissed her, but of course, being cousins and the fact that she was talking to the only woman he ever wanted to kiss, he didn't.

They began to talk about the wonder of a veggie cutter, and when they started to move to a table under the pavilion, Callie shooed him away.

"Go be a guy. We're good here, aren't we, Taylor?" she asked.

Taylor smiled and nodded. She sat down beside Callie and they quickly continued their conversation.

Rhett stared in wonder for a few more minutes before leaning down and kissing her on the cheek.

She looked up at him sweetly and smiled, then shooed him away.

He chuckled as he walked back over to the men. His uncle put a hand on his shoulder.

"Those women. They're all so nosy," he said with a shake of his head.

Rhett laughed and nodded.

"That's for sure. Taylor's going to kill me for leaving her alone when we got here," he said sighing.

"Oh those women, they don't mean any harm. They're just trying to know what's going on in the family," Ralph said as he nodded toward the group of women.

Looking over, he could see the women were all gathered together laughing and talking.

He sighed in relief at Taylor's obvious happiness. Deciding she would be all right, he leaned back with Levi in his arms and relaxed.

The guys around him were arguing about the best time to bale hay, and he laughed as he listened to the discussion.

"Obviously the best time is the dead of night on December 25th," Tyler joked.

All the guys laughed and began to open coolers. Kyle pulled out a beer and went to hand him one. Rhett thought about it, then looked down at the baby in his arms and the woman across the pavilion. They were worth too much.

"No thanks. I'm driving and it's not just me in the truck anymore," he said as he passed the beer back to him.

Luke laughed.

"And that is why I'm never getting a girlfriend. Why have all those problems when I could just have a girl, then return her the next day and not have to worry about any of it?"

Rhett had thought the same as Luke until he'd picked up Tae off the side of the road. Then, his opinion changed.

"Oh, you say that now, but just wait. Some girl will come out of nowhere and knock you on your ass," Uncle Eddy said to Luke. "I was the bachelor, prowled all the bars, was never lonely, then, that woman over there appeared out of nowhere. I was over at the McDougals to help load up steers, she happened to be their daughter's best friend and was there too. Those two stood there gawking and swooning over all of us cowboys, and as soon as my eyes met hers, I knew I was done for. I was twenty-eight years old, and all of a sudden, the last decade of my life that I'd spent running around didn't seem to even make sense. Why had I done that when my woman was just a town over."

Rhett had never heard how Eddy and June had met, but the story didn't surprise him. They seemed to be so in love, even in their fifties, that he'd suspected that some kind of epic love story had happened.

He'd never admit that to Taylor though.

Luke chortled and shook his head.

"That's not going to happen with me. If I were you, I would have taken her for a spin, brought her back to her friend, then never seen her again. That would be the smart thing to do. I'm too smart to ever fall for a girl, I know all their traps."

Rhett and the rest of the guys shook their heads. There was no telling Luke. He was sure that women were good for nothing tramps so sure to ruin his life. His mama leaving him at such a young age to be raised by his grandpa didn't help the matter.

"Oh son, I'm going to remember this day, and when you finally meet the girl, I'll remind you of this day. You know what they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. And you, bud, are going to fall so hard," Eddy said with a small smile.

Rhett couldn't help but wonder what the look on Eddy's face was about. It almost seemed as if he was planning something, but you never knew with Eddy. His wandering might have stopped after meeting Aunt June, but he never grew out of his mischievous nature.

Rhett looked down at Levi and saw him staring up with the biggest blue eyes known to mankind. The same blue eyes were owned by Rhett. He couldn't help but think of the irony. He could be his father looking down at little him, or in this case, Levi.

He got lost in his fears and demons every time he stared into the baby's eyes. He was so innocent, he hadn't deserved what had happened, but neither had Rhett. Levi was like a joke from the universe.

Look here Rhett, we've put you through the system again, you can even have your mini self.

The thing was, he didn't want the daily reminder of what had happened. He didn't want to be his father, but every time he thought about it, he realized he was. His temper had come straight from his father's loins, and he couldn't do anything about it. He tried to pretend he was nothing like his father, but every single time he'd punched a guy into oblivion was like a reminder of just how much he was like the man.

He didn't want to raise Levi the same way he had been raised. He wouldn't. But, he didn't know how to break the cycle. He was so afraid to even touch the baby wrong and hurt him. He was afraid that just looking at the baby would make Levi hate him, and he didn't know how to change it.

The chorus of cheers around him broke him of his trance and connection to the boy.

"Finally, I'm starving. It takes a lot of effort to get this shape, and if I don't eat regularly, I can't keep it," Tyler said as he rubbed his gut.

Rhett laughed and shook his head. He stood up with Levi carefully and walked over to Taylor. Everyone was forming a big circle for prayer, and he slipped his arm around her waist.

"Rhett, are you all right?" she asked forming frown lines.

Rhett smoothed them out then moved behind her and rested his chin on her head.

"Never better sweetheart. Never better," he said, laying a kiss on the side of her head.

..........

Rhett had enjoyed the afternoon with his family in the sun. Levi had been happy to be around people, and Taylor had radiated happiness throughout the day. Both of them had needed to get out of the house, and today had been the perfect cure.

Now, heading home, he looked over at Taylor in the passenger seat and smiled to himself. She had her head propped up on her arm and was asleep. Looking in the rear view mirror, he saw that Levi had fallen asleep as well.

"I've got a whole crew of quitters," he said to himself, but secretly, he was happy they'd both enjoyed themselves enough to wear themselves out.

He turned into the ranch drive and sighed. Looked like he was carrying in both his babies tonight.