Can't Fall in Love With You ✧ Rhink

Take It

Link sat at his desk quietly, going to town on that video we shot yesterday. I was getting anxious, today was Wednesday, and Link hasn't kept a secret for anyone this long. He couldn't even keep his engagement to Christy a secret for more than 12 hours. It has been three days.

My phone buzzed on the bed side table.

"You can take it, I've got the editing," Link said, taking another sip of his coffee. I decided not to say anything about our snuggle-situation last night.

I quietly shut the bathroom door behind me.

"Yello?" I asked, answering the phone.

"Hey Rhett, sorry I missed your call last night... And this mornin'. My phone was on silent," Jessie said, apologetically.

"That's okay. Are the kids home? They didn't have school today, right? End of the quarter for them?" I asked.

"That's right, but Stevie's babysitting 'em. Christy and I are havin' a girl's day," she said.

I heard some scratchy noises, on the other line.

"Hey Rhett!" I heard Christy say into the phone.

"Hi Christy. Link's editing something right now," I said. I quickly put the phone on speaker, and leaned out the bathroom door.

"Link, say hi," I demanded.

"Hi," he said, still focused on his laptop.

"Hi hun!" Christy called. Link stared at me, furrowing his brow.

"You called my wife?" he asked.

"No, they're together. I called, Jessie," I tried to explain.

"We're havin' a girl's day," Christy chimed in. "I'll give the phone back to Jessie, bye Rhett, bye honey!" she called.

"Bye," Link and I chimed back. I returned to the bathroom.

"Anyways, Stevie said you can call if you wanted to talk to the kids. She's got all of 'em, so Link can call too. I'm gonna spend some time with Christy, it is girl's day afterall. Bye hun," Jessie said quickly.

"B-bye," I mummbled, only to be hung up on. I stuffed my phone back into my pocket, returning to the bedroom.

I plopped onto the bed, searching for Stevie's number through my contact list.

"Here, come check this out," Link said, pressing play. Soft music played in the background, showing a beautiful video based around the town were we grew up.

"I need one more shot, but we can get it tomorrow," he said, leaning back in his chair.

My heart felt as if it had been shattered into a million pieces.

"W-what about your little surprise?" I asked, trying to hide the disappointment in my voice, but failing.

"I haven't forgotten about it," he said nonchalantly. With those five words my heart was immediately mended once again.

I looked down at my phone, dialing Stevie.

"Hello?" Stevie's soft voice asked, as she answered.

"Hey Stevie, Jessie told me you were babysitting the kids, how are things?" I asked, putting her on speaker for Link to hear.

"The kids are with Stevie?" Link whispered to me. I simply nodded.

"Things are good, I called Mike and Alex to come help me out, 'cause five versus one is not a good ratio," she laughed.

"Can we talk to them?" Link asked.

"Sure, I'll put you on speaker," Stevie said. Link and I waited in silence for a while.

"Hey boss," Alex said.

"Not you for cryin' out loud, our kids," Link said, burying his face into his hands.

"Ouch, okay," Mike mummbled.

We waited once again.

"It's your dads," I could hear Stevie whisper.

"HI DAD!" Lincoln immediately shouted into the phone.

"Hi buddy!" Link said.

"Hi dad," Lilly and Lando said in unison.

"Dad!" Locke could be heard shouting in the background.

"Where's Shepard?" I asked, after not hearing him for a while. Right after asking, I could hear a loud cry in the background.

"HE'S FINE I PROMISE" Mike shouted in the background.

"What happened... Or do I want to know?" I asked. This time it was me burying my face into my hands.

"He just did a wicked faceplant... into the floor," Alex said. We listened to the kids explain their week, talking about what they did at home, and how much time they were getting to spend together. After about thirty minutes of talking, we finally hung up. I missed them.

Only two more days of North Carolina, and then I could go back home.