Chapter 3 ~ Rhett

After he'd finished his story and Taylor understood everything that had happened, except a couple non-important details, they had started rounding up dishes.

Taylor's excitement had come back when he mentioned the dirty dishes, and she lit up when she realized she would get to use the dishwasher. He watched her jump off her stool and rush around the island into the kitchen. The island had been an inconvenience that he'd wanted removed since the house was first. It was a nuisance that cluttered the small kitchen even more than it already was.

She was still in his hoodie and now had on a pair of his sweatpants too. The pants, too long for her because of their height difference, made her appear smaller than she already was. Despite the size, when they realized she was still barely dressed and he handed them over, she appeared grateful. Now, he wasn't so sure they were a good thing. He watched in slow motion as she stepped on the dragging pant leg and tripped herself. His quick instincts kicked in and he grabbed her by the shoulders before she nosedived to the ground. She appeared stunned for a moment as she stared at the ground before composing herself.

"Careful now, Tae," he chuckled as she regrouped from her almost accident.

She was cute when she was all ruffled.

She glared up at him, "It's not my fault your pants don't fit me. You're a giant."

She appeared to be actually upset with him because of his long legs. He had to fight back a laugh at her disapproval.

He looked down at her with feigned mock pain.

"Well, that cut deep. I know I'm abnormally large, but you don't have to rub it in, you know," he said rolling his eyes.

He sounded so sincere to his own ears that it startled him.

She looked startled as well and started to apologize. "I-,"

He chuckled at the regretful face that she was giving him.

"You should see your face right now. You look like you just killed my cat," he said between laughs.

He found it hilarious that her big tough-girl act could crumble so fast. As much as she wanted to pretend she was hardened, she was really just a big softy and Rhett thought it was adorable.

"You have a cat?" she sat back, distracted from the matter at hand.

He laughed to himself at her gift of getting sidetracked when they were talking. He shook his head to answer, before elaborating.

"No, I do not have a cat. It's just an expression. Besides I'm not really a cat kind of person. I'm more of a dog person. They can actually be helpful," he said shaking his head once again.

He thought of the cat his brother's girlfriend had had at one point. The evil thing had coughed up hairballs constantly, and somehow they always happened to end up at his feet.

She looked at him pouting. "You should get a cat. It may even help you grow a heart, cowboy," she said smiling coyly.

Thinking again about Rachel's cat, he almost gagged. He didn't feel like dealing with hairballs and litter boxes every day. He'd pass.

"Yeah, no thanks," he said. Cats were not something that he wanted to have to worry about.

"I do have a dog, however. He's at the farmhouse though so my mom can look after him. I'm too busy running around to keep him on a good schedule. He's normally with me, but on days when I know I'll be working late or something, I leave him in the farmhouse yard. My mother treats him like a grandchild, and he brightens her day."

"Why isn't he here right now?" she asked.

"I dropped him off in their yard when I left at three o'clock this morning to go fix a fence," he explained.

"Oh, you must have been exhausted, then I came in a screwed up your day even more," she huffed as she made her way to the sink.

"No, you brought excitement and laughter to a very boring day," he said smiling. "The only time I ever see any real laughter is when my mother stops by."

Thinking about his mother, he wondered why he hadn't heard back from her. Her normal nosy tendencies would have had her calling him to ask about Luke already. But for some reason, he hadn't heard a thing from her.

Taylor looked at him curiously and he shrugged his shoulders. She looked around the room and he watched as her gaze landed back on the dishwasher.

She bit her lip and he knew that she was struggling not to ask if she could try it. He slowly carried the dishes to the sink and opened the dishwasher up. Stepping back, he looked back where she stood against the counter.

"Okay, I'm going to take a shower and let you experiment. I'll help you if you need it when I get out. Don't try to start it until I'm out though, okay?"

Finally, her gaze rose to him and she smiled.

"Okay, I've got this. See you later," she said, already turning to the sink.

Her mind was set on doing it perfectly all by herself it seemed. Rhett liked her level of determination.

He chuckled as he walked down the hallway to his room. He looked down and realized there was mud tracked through the house. He'd need to take care of that later, but for right now, all he wanted was a hot shower.

He looked at the blank walls as he walked to his room. He realized he'd never taken the time to decorate the house. His mother had hung up a few pictures here and there, but other than that, his house was mostly bare. He could see why Taylor laughed at it. It was pretty sad that he'd lived there for a couple of years since he built it, but never really made it his home.

Not paying attention, he stubbed his toe on something on the floor. Cursing, he picked up his boot and threw it into the pile in the corner with the others.

The boot pile worked well until he was running late in the morning. Then, it seemed he was never able to pick a matching pair. He always managed to pick two different ones and put them on before realizing they were mismatched.

He turned the water on as he stepped into the bathroom. He hoped Taylor didn't have any trouble with the dishwasher, but he could tell that she was going to have more fun doing it on her own than if he hovered and watched over her shoulder.

As he stepped under the spray of the hot water, his muscles relaxed. It had been a long day and his muscles were aching.

After getting Tae home, he'd instantly taken her to his bed. He'd fought with his conscience for a good ten minutes before giving up and getting into the bed with her.

She'd stopped shivering after he'd wrapped his arms around her, and he too soon fell asleep. She woke up a couple of times with a start, he brought her back to him and she went right back to sleep. It had felt good to finally sleep after being out in the elements all day. He hadn't slept that hard in months, maybe years, in fact.

As he washed the mud off his ankles, he thought back to her eyes when she'd woken up this morning; she'd looked like she'd seen a ghost. He still didn't know the whole story, but the bits that she had told him were putting together a very unpleasant picture.

He couldn't imagine losing his house and job in two days back to back. But where were her things? Didn't she have a family? These were the things that he needed to know to help her out, but he didn't know how to ask without making her break down again.

He could tell she was in a bad mental space at the moment, but she seemed like an extremely strong person. But, even the strongest of people needed breaks every once in a while.

He remembered a lesson his grandfather had taught him when he was younger.

Rhett had spent the entire day with Papaw in the hayfield, and that evening they were sitting out on the porch drinking sweet tea. His mother was running around like crazy trying to prepare for a gettogether that they were hosting the next day.

While he was watching her work, he began wondering how she did it all. He asked Papaw, and Papaw explained to him how she was a strong woman who could do a lot, but every once in a while, she needed a break too. This would be when the boys came to stay at the main ranch, and she and Jack, their father, had the weekend to themselves.

"But Papaw, if she needs to take breaks, then why does she keep doing so much by herself. If she let other people help her, then she wouldn't need to take so many breaks," he asked.

"She tries to do everything on her own to prove herself. She's been trying to prove she deserves to be here since the first time she came around with your daddy," Papaw said.

"What if we try to help her without her noticing? Then, she won't realize what we're doing, and she won't be working so hard," he supplied.

"That might just work, son. You try it out," Papaw said before getting up.

Rhett hopped off the porch and came up to his mama. He took one of the boxes out of her arms, then followed her to where she dropped off the other one.

He spent the rest of the evening quietly following his mother making things easier for her, without making it obvious.

The day with his grandfather had taught him to never take her strength for granted, and to help her as much as he could so she wouldn't be so stressed between breaks. It was a lesson that had stayed with him till this day.

He realized his mother and Taylor were a lot alike. Both were stubborn in their pride and wanted to be strong on their own, but both needed a break.

He heard a clunk outside the bathroom and decided he better hurry before Taylor got into trouble. As he turned off the water, he heard the distinct sound of a vacuum. Confused, he dried off with a towel and wrapped it around his waist. He peeked out the door to see Taylor vacuuming the mud down the hallway.

He watched for a minute as she seemed to be in her own world. She was singing to herself as she worked, and although her song was extremely off pitch, it wasn't too bad. He appreciated that she seemed happy to clean, but still, he didn't want her to feel as if she needed to clean to stay there.

Shaking his head, he quickly pulled on a pair of jeans from the bathroom floor. Walking into his bedroom, he looked around in bewilderment. Where were his things? Everything was rearranged. He rasped out a breath, then turned around to see the rest of the room. He had been in the shower for twenty minutes, how had she done this much damage?

Turning around, he saw Taylor leaning against his door frame.

Smirking to herself, she looked at him and said, "Your house is a mess, Rhett. Do you ever clean?"

He blushed when he realized that, yes, it was a mess. But then he looked around, saw that his boot pile was no longer in the corner, and magically, his anger was back.

"Where is all my stuff?" he growled at her.

She didn't even begin to look fazed. She just smiled bigger and pointed at the closet. She seemed pleased with herself for getting under his skin.

"It's all in the closet like it's supposed to be. You have a huge closet, why not use it every once in a while?" she asked as she waltzed past him.

As she went by he caught her scent of roses. His brain was muddled by the fragrance until she opened the door, and sure enough, there was all his stuff.

He looked into the closet, then looked back at her.

"But that's not where I put it," he said stubbornly.

"But that's where it belongs," she answered.

She looked at him again and rolled her eyes. She didn't appear to care what he thought about his stuff being rearranged.

"Get over it, cowboy. You'll thank me for it later," she said shrugging her shoulders.

There's that sass that's been hiding, he thought to himself. He was glad to see her opening up, but he was still upset about her moving his stuff.

He stomped over and looked down on her. She was staring at his chest and he realized that he was only in his jeans. He watched as her cheeks flamed. He tried to not let it affect him, but he was struggling.

Tipping her chin up, he made her look at him.

"Did I say you could rearrange my room, Tae?" he asked gruffly.

She smiled up at him, and he realized he wasn't going to be able to scare her.

"You said experiment. I experimented," she smirked back.

Putting a finger in his chest she continued, "You live like a pig, cowboy. If you would pick up after yourself, you wouldn't stub your toe on everything you leave laying around," smiling, she poked his chest again, "and yes, I did hear that earlier."

This time it was his turn to blush. He quickly recovered and got control of himself. He grabbed the finger she still had on his chest and returned it back to her.

"Get out so I can put some clothes on," he said gruffly.

"Aye, aye, captain," she said sassily.

She smiled and sashayed out of the room. As she walked out the door to his bedroom she called over her shoulder.

"Just wait, you haven't even seen the living room yet, Mr. Frankly," she hollered.

He inwardly groaned. He was glad she was getting more of her memory back, but he had secretly hoped she wouldn't recover that lost memory. His middle name would have been a good thing to stay lost.

Cursing under his breath, he stepped into his closet. After throwing on a clean pair of jeans, he didn't wait to put on a shirt. Grabbing a t-shirt off of the washer in the hallway on his way out, he hurried to the living room.

As she had said, it looked very different than it had before tornado Tae hit it. There wasn't anything on the floor, and the clothes that were all over the couch previously had disappeared. The cups that had been on the coffee table had been removed as well.

"What the hell?" he asked turning towards her, "What happened in here?"

She was too busy staring at his shirt to hear what he asked her. She was frowning and staring at the white cotton covering his chest.

"Uh uh," she said, "I just picked that shirt off the floor and put it on the washer. Go put on a clean one," she said walking over to him.

She pulled it away from his body and pointed out the stains to him. He hadn't noticed them when he put it on.

Raising his eyebrows, he looked at her curiously. She was reminding him of his mother again.

"First my room, then my living room, and now my clothes? Yes, mother, I will go change," he said mimicking a little kid.

"I'm not your mother," Taylor said.

"Well you're acting like it," Rhett fired back.

"If I was acting like your mother, then I'd take a wooden spoon to you," she said with an evil grin.

Rhett caught himself almost smiling at her expression.

She looked at him pointing towards his room.

"Hurry up," she said in a bossy tone.

He didn't know who this new Taylor Houston was, and he wasn't sure if he loved or hated her.

Chuckling to himself, he walked into his bedroom. He grabbed one of the white t-shirts that were hanging up in the closet. He noticed that his clothes had been organized too. He'd never thought to put the different articles of clothing together. He looked at the basic white t-shirt he'd just picked again. Throwing it on, he let the other one drop to the floor.

"Put the dirty one in the hamper please!" Taylor yelled through the house.

The woman can read my mind. Chuckling, he picked it up off of the floor and put it in the hamper. He liked seeing this side of her. She'd been too quiet and sullen for him to see her personality earlier, but now he was getting a good glimpse at it.

Walking back through the house, he found Taylor curled up on the couch shivering again. Concerned, he went back to his room and grabbed another blanket. Coming back to the couch, he tucked it around her.

She looked up at him and gave him a sweet smile. The intensity of the effect of her smile startled him. He could feel himself instantly softening and smiling back.

She might have taken over his house, but deep down, he knew she really had been only trying to help, and even though he wouldn't admit it, her changes were probably for the better.

"You probably overdid it a little. You need to rest. You won't bounce back overnight. My mom said it will take a few days for you to feel one hundred percent," he said to her gently.

She looked over at him with wide eyes. The expression would have been funny if she didn't seem so scared.

"Your mom knows I'm here?" she squealed.

He laughed at the look on her face; she looked almost terrified.

"No, I called her last night when you passed out. I told her your situation, but I said it was my best friend instead. It was the only way to keep her from coming down here. She doesn't know anything about you, so don't worry," he reassured.

Tae nodded seriously.

"Okay."

Chuckling to himself, he sat down beside her. As much fun as it was bickering with her, it was time to get to business.

"All right, I do believe we have a story to hear. Now what's going on, and I want the whole truth. How did it all start?" he asked patiently.

She looked as if she was trying to get out of it, but eventually, she nodded and looked out the window. Just when Rhett thought she was going to let down her walls, she spoke again.

"I'm not sure it really matters," she said quietly.

"Of course it matters, Tae," Rhett argued. "You'll feel better if you talk to me about it."

Taylor's big eyes looked up to him.

"You say that now, but-" he cut her off.

"But nothing. I'll always believe it," he said sternly.

"I don't want to be a burden to you," she whispered.

"Taylor I say this with the utmost respect, but shut up. Just tell me. You aren't going to be a burden to me, I'm not going to judge you, and I sure as hell won't kick you out of my house," Rhett said.

"Okay," Taylor relented.

She sat back on the couch and seemed to gather herself.

Rhett prayed that her story would help him better understand the situation that he was struggling so hard to understand. He prepared himself for the worst, but hoped it was anything but.