Chapter 10: Way Back to You

“What the hell was that?” It was Katherine who broke the silence in the small huddle they had formed. “What were you thinking?”

Rhyne took a step back when Katherine came at her. “What do you mean? I did nothing wrong.”

“How could you let your boy-toy talk to my brother like that? Why is Jake here in the first place?” Katherine shouted.

“Lower your voice.” AJ pulled her back, but Katherine shook off his arm. Her usually pale pink face was now burning bright red.

“I didn’t do anything wrong.” Rhyne emphasized each word through clenched teeth.

“You think so? Look at the people around you. Point one out and they will give you a grocery list of the things you did wrong!”

Rhyne looked at the faces of everyone there, and besides Jake, everyone seemed to look at her accusingly, even Reno, who had found no fault with her so far. “Okay, so why didn’t you say anything?”

“It wasn’t my place. You are the one who brought your boyfriend here!”

“He is not my boyfriend.”

“Really? Who are you trying to lie to? You are a player. You strung my brother along while you had this sugar baby on the side.” Katherine spat out her accusation, the words laced with venom that burned Rhyne inside.

“Kat, you have to admit that he was wrong,” AJ contributed.

Katherine turned to her husband with an incredulous look on her face. “You are the man I married. He is my brother. You’ve turned your back on me once before, remember? He was there for me. We forgave each other: now here we are. This thing,” Kat pointed an accusing finger at Jake, “had no right to bring it up. It’s none of his business. He is just the hired help that Rhyne has taken in.”

“Hey! That’s enough!” Reno cut in. “Duke was wrong, and he hurt a lot of us.”

“You’ve known your sister two minutes; I’ve known my brother my whole life. He doesn’t have time to be vicious or fall in love. Those are just luxuries he can’t afford. But he gave you the time and his heart and you betrayed him. So now you are out of the equation, he has convinced himself that he can live without you. And I, for one, I’m glad.” Katherine turned and left, causing Rhyne irrevocable injury.

Rhyne took a seat at the picnic table. She watched as Kat walked away, AJ hot on her heels. They were having an argument and from the looks of it, AJ wasn’t winning. She regretted everything from the moment she’d woken up that morning. Yes, inviting Jake had been partly because he was a friend. A friend who would have understood that his presence annoyed Duke and who wouldn’t have minded not being invited. The other part was that she knew it would irk Duke and she’d extended the invitation purposefully for that reaction.

Rhyne thought to annoy him, just as he had annoyed her these few weeks. What she hadn’t expected was for Jake to toss fuel and light a match on the whole situation. Rhyne stared at her hand and wondered why she hadn’t realized Jake had been holding it. She hadn’t noticed because she didn’t care. Duke’s touch always electrified her nerves, while with Jake, it was just like holding her brother’s hand.

Reno took a seat next to her and rubbed her back to comfort her.

“What do I do now?”

“Now, we cut the cake, give the kids their presents, and send them home with their parents. Then, later, you go talk to Duke.”

“He is not going to talk to me,” Rhyne admitted.

“Make him talk to you, but this time, do it without Jake being there.”

“I messed up, didn’t I?”

“You did.” Reno laughed. “Listen, it’s okay to chew out your significant other. What’s not okay is having someone else do it. Especially if it’s a man that everyone can see is interested in you.”

“No, he is not. Jake and I are just friends.”

“You may think so, but he doesn’t. You need to make that point clear to him. And maybe you two shouldn’t hang out together until you and Duke are on the same page.” Reno nudged Rhyne with his shoulder. “Trust me on this one.”

“Okay, so we cut the cake then fix my mess?”

“That sounds like a plan.”

Reno herded everyone into the house for the final part of the day. As Rhyne brought out RD’s cake, she was glad the day had come to an end but disappointed that Duke had missed the most important part. RD didn’t seem to mind; instead, he kept reminding everyone that they had to save a piece for his dad. Rhyne was impressed with RD’s loyalty to his father. It might be something that she needed to learn. She looked up at where Jake stood, almost imposing himself into the picture. He was recording RD with his phone, a proud, fatherly look on his face. For some reason she hadn’t seen what everyone kept referring to until Reno specifically pointed it out. Having Jake be in love with her would only complicate her life.

It was her fault, she guessed. Rhyne had never seen the need to tell Jake that they were just friends. Ninety percent of the time they spoke, it was always about Duke. Sometimes she complained while at other times she praised him. It should have been obvious that she was completely, irrevocably in love with Duke. So, she didn’t get why Jake would think there was a chance for the two of them—although Reno’s insight did help her understand the animosity Jake had for Duke. All this time, Rhyne had thought it was because Duke had fired him, but it wasn’t. Duke had marked his territory and it was driving Jake mad.

Rhyne hit the side of her head, chastising herself for being so foolish. It was her fault. But part of it could be blamed on her abandonment issues. Rhyne had the habit of letting people she should have shaken off hang on for longer than they should. She always felt that it was better to have them around instead of not having them around at all. Even after she realized that having Jake around wasn’t going to benefit her relationship with Duke, she still had been unwilling to let Jake go. She would have to find a way for the two of them—Duke and Jake—to coexist. She had a large family and no matter how many people were around her, she couldn’t stand the thought of losing one of them. Rhyne was determined to get Reno and Duke to get along, as well as Duke and Jake. She smiled, pleased with herself for coming up with the first step to the solution.

Rhyne spotted Katherine at the corner of the room, pushing her cake around her plate. In the name of peace making, she decided to start with her not-so-sister-in-law. AJ was cutely trying to calm his wife’s annoyance and it was a spectacular sight to see. It was weird to see such a brawny man reduced to antics only a teenage boy in love would do.

As she approached them, Katherine’s lethal gaze caught hers. For a moment, Rhyne faltered. She even thought of turning back and hiding behind one of the Grecian pillars at the side of the house. But she steeled her nerves and marched on, never dropping Katherine’s gaze. She didn’t want to blink, out of the fear she would lose her courage if she did, and because she didn’t want Katherine to think that she was intimidated by her.

“Can I talk to you for a second?” Rhyne asked, and Katherine just stared on. Okay, Rhyne thought. She was determined to say her piece even though Katherine pretended not to hear her. “The thing is—”

A loud beeping noise cut through the air, interrupting her train of thought.

“Sorry,” AJ said as he pulled out his phone. His brows furrowed as he tilted his head to the side.

Katherine’s phone went off almost immediately, but as she went to answer it, AJ snatched it from her hand. He turned around and walked a few feet away from them. Rhyne watched as Katherine looked on, annoyed. She didn’t make a peep of protest but followed her husband with dagger-eyes. However, those eyes slowly turned to worry when AJ covered his face with his hand. What began as an intentional scratching of his chin turned into a scrubbing of his face and then he reached around and grabbed the back of his shoulder. Katherine’s back straightened, a haunted look on her face as what Rhyne assumed were her husband’s looks of concern seemed to go up a degree with each second. It was when he hung up the phone and turned to look at them that Rhyne’s chest clenched. Her breath became laboured as AJ walked back toward them. AJ took Katherine and Rhyne’s hands in each of his own. He lowered himself and in turn, looked each of them in the eyes.

“It’s not good but don’t lose hope,” AJ said in a calm tone, the grave look on his face quickly switching to a comforting one. “Stay here. I’ll be back.”

Rhyne looked on as AJ pulled Duke’s parents to the side. It might have been Caroline’s whimper or the way Henry’s fist clenched. Rhyne wasn’t sure what had rendered her paralyzed. She slowly sank to the ground. Her brain had gone into panic mode, making her forget how to do the simplest things like breathing, standing, and seeing. She saw shapes moving toward her, their voices drowned out by the gravitating pull. It was the loud noise of blades cutting the air that brought her back. She wasn’t sure who was next to her. She could vaguely see a face. However, one thing she recognized for sure was the helicopter.

That was what was going to take her to Duke.

She scrambled to her feet, tripping once or twice before she could find steady ground. Rhyne was running, but it felt like she was dragging her feet through a mudflat. She wasn’t getting there as fast as she wanted to.

Rhyne reached her hand out as she finally felt like she was at the finish line. But something curved around her waist and yanked her back. That pulled her back to her senses.

“Let go,” she said, as she struggled with the unknown assailant. She threw her body around and came face to face with Jake. “Let me go! I need to go to him.”

“Wait!” Jake said.

“For what!” she yelled back at him.

“You can’t come.” Katherine appeared with her mother on her arm.

“Why not?”

“AJ is the best trauma surgeon in New York. He needs to go with us,” Katherine pointed out as she helped her mother into the helicopter, her father following. “And we are his family.”

“So am I!”

“That’s what you keep saying, but your actions show otherwise. Anyway, legally you won’t be of any help. We need to make decisions about his care, and honestly, that doesn’t concern you,” Katherine said bitterly.

“Let’s go.” AJ rushed his wife into the helicopter as Jake pulled Rhyne back.

Rhyne massaged her now sore throat. She hadn’t realized she’d been shouting. In fact, apart from the first time she heard the loud blades of the helicopter, they hadn’t registered to her after that.

“Come on. I’ll drive you to New York,” Jake offered.

Soon, there was a whole convoy of terrified people making a rush from the Hamptons to New York City. Rhyne sat in the passenger seat, staring on at nothing as her nails dug into her palms.

***

It was like he was at the theatre watching a 4-D movie. An out-of-body experience, they called it. Duke didn’t feel like it was happening to him; instead, he was watching it happen to someone else. Duke didn’t remember closing his eyes, but the loud, honking noises snapped him awake. He was on the wrong side of the road, a large truck coming toward him.

Move, screamed his brain and Duke obeyed. Using the weight of his body, he turned the steering wheel, sending the car spinning. The loud screech of tires against the asphalt road was soon met with the sound of metal crushing against concrete. On a stretch of road just before the Midtown Tunnel, Duke had lost control of his car, hit the concrete wall of the bridge, then skidded and spun a hundred feet across, into the other side of the bridge. He heard the pop of the airbag launching, felt it punch him in the face. The crash drove the engine through the dashboard, and the steering wheel into his chest. The sound of metal folding was soon followed by a copper stench that claimed the air. Duke sat there for the longest time, lost in an oblivious haze. The first siren sounded before he plunged into the warm water that was soon drowning him. His eyes closed as he drifted into a slumber.

Duke struggled to open his eyes. His hands tried to brush off the weight sitting on his chest, but it was impossible. He couldn’t move at all. At least he wasn’t drowning anymore. Instead, someone had taken a hammer to his head and was refusing to let up. Whatever he was lying on top of was moving fast. It was loud, too. Duke wanted to escape from the chaos unfolding around him. He closed his eyes and hoped for peace.

***

Rhyne sat silently in the waiting room with the rest of the family. AJ had gone into Duke’s surgery three hours before and they were waiting for news. Everything around her seemed silent, but in her head the voices were loud, and rebuking. With her fingers, she counted every single fight she had with Duke as they replayed in her head. Every time she had left him behind, lied, or disagreed with him. The smallest, and what would have been considered insignificant, also took a place in her list of regrets. Rhyne’s chest hurt. She had to remind herself that she was not having a heart attack, but instead it was guilt slowly gnawing at her heart and was very soon about to consume it.

Rhyne wanted a chance to apologize, to make it right, and to have a happy family. There had been an opportunity only hours before, but she had wasted it being petty with random, stupid stuff. It all seemed like random, stupid stuff at that moment.

“I lost count,” she whispered.

Reno crouched in front of her, taking her hands into his. “What are you counting, sweetheart?”

“You know I ran away from him three times. Okay, more like two and then the third one, you came and got me,” she rambled on. “I’ve lied to him from the moment we met. Do you know that?”

“Rhyne, you can’t think of that right now,” DJ said, taking a seat next to her.

“I’ve hidden things from him, stolen precious moments that I’ll never be able to give back.” Tears clouded her eyes as her breath rasped past her lips. “I need to be able to make amends.”

“Hey, listen to me.” With two fingers under her chin, DJ turned her head to face him. “Once upon a time I was right where you are. I got the worst news of my life, but then a miracle happened. The Kents have been through a lot. We are entitled to a couple of miracles. You are going to get yours. Duke is going to be fine. Besides, he is too stubborn to die.”

“Does stubborn count during times like this?” Rhyne asked.

“Definitely!” DJ tried to reassure her with a smile. It didn’t help, but she was willing to claim DJ’s false optimism as her own.

“Hey, AJ is an amazing trauma surgeon. The best,” Reno added.

Rhyne let herself fall into the warmth of Reno’s hand and DJ’s arm around her shoulder. She felt secure, in a way, like it would be fine even if it wasn’t. Her family was here for her, comforting her and keeping her sane. She looked across the waiting room, where Duke’s parents sat with Kat. They held hands as their faces seemed to turn ghostly white with each ticking second. She looked into the eyes of his frightened mother. She looked like she was holding her breath, waiting for the moment when they would tell her it was okay to breathe again. Just like Reno had done for her, Rhyne moved to where Caroline was, crouched in front of her, and took her hands. Then they waited.

It was another three hours before AJ finally came out to brief them. They were giving Duke’s body a break before they operated again. Nothing was for certain. They had so many odds and outcomes before them, but to Rhyne it was fifty-fifty, just like everything else in life. He was either going to live or die.

Rhyne and everyone else’s attention turned to Katherine when her phone rang. At that moment, they all expected that any news she would get would be about Duke, but it wasn’t. Danny had gone into labour and Kit wanted her to take care of the delivery of his twin boys. Rhyne was glad that in the midst of all the tragedy, there was a ray of happiness for their two families. Her little sister as about to become a mom for the first time, and Duke’s little brother a dad. She quietly watched as Reno put DJ on Danny-duty. Mr. Henry asked his wife to go to Labour and Delivery to support their son. She obviously didn’t want to go, but a little forceful encouragement had her on her way.

The waiting began once more, not just for Duke, but for Danny. Rhyne rubbed her chest, all the anxiety catching up to her faster than she was able to deal with it.

“Are you okay?” Reno asked.

“I’ll be better when Duke is better and when Danny delivers safely. Today has just been a little too much for me, but I believe that it will all turn out for the best,” she said.

“You have a lot of faith in that.”

“Faith is all I have right now.” Rhyne had come too far, suffered too much, to give up hope on her happily-ever-after.

***

“Hey twinnie!”

Rhyne looked up to see DJ standing over her a sympathetic smile on his lips. She sat back and sighed. DJ sat next to her, and she tried to return his smile, even though nothing inside her had any warmth to offer him.

“You know, when I found out about you and Reno, I was so mad, and lost,” DJ smiled despite himself. “Suddenly I felt like I was missing part of me. Like a limb or something.” Rhyne didn’t interrupt and let him go on. She didn’t really know what to say to him anyway. “I just couldn’t reconcile with reality and not knowing where you were, made me sink even deeper in that hole I ug for myself.”

“I’m here now,” Rhyne took his hand. She looked up when she saw another nurse walk into Duke’s room. “How long is he going to keep being mad at me?”

“Two to three years,” DJ chuckled. “That’s how long Evie was mad at me for, and how long I was mad at her for.”

“I know about Ava,” Rhyne said and watched him wince.

“Yeah, that would have been cleared up if I had just told Evie about Ava being in my apartment,” DJ said. “Our lives could have been easier if we had both picked up the phone. If I had told her about Ava and if she had told me, she wasn’t dead.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“We were mistaken when we took you from him, twinnie,” DJ said. “It wasn’t our place to come into your relationship like we did. Now it’s your job to make sure that it’s just the two of you in this relationship. Talk to him and don’t stop talking until you reach a place where you are both comfortable. Be honest and leave your pride out of it.”

“Is that what you did?”

“In a way,” DJ blushed. “Now we have three children and a happy marriage.”

“I want another baby, but he said no.”

“Try to get the happy marriage before adding another Henry to the pile,” DJ laughed.

“I already named her,” Rhyne confessed.

“You just gave birth, twinnie,” DJ exclaimed.

“I didn’t ask you to carry her for me, twinnie,” Rhyne laughed. “That’s what we are good at. Creating our own love bubble in the bedroom. Even though he brings his work into the love bubble, it’s still special. Then we emerge out of it with a baby.”

“Love bubble?”

“The first one lasted one night, the second one three months-,”

“Aim for forever.”

“Forever just seems like a dream.”

“One you can live if you don’t give up.”

The room door opened once more, and the nurse walked out. “I have no intention of giving up.”

***

It had almost been a month since Duke’s accident, and the birth of Danny’s twin boys, Tristan and Travis. The twins were perfect, and Duke was getting better. Everything was turning out just fine, health-wise. The only problem was Duke had refused to see anyone. The only person who had managed to bully his way through was his father. Whatever they had talked about had left the old man sour, and he hadn’t returned.

Rhyne had trusted the care of her children to her brothers so that she could come see Duke. She sat outside his hospital room every day, hoping that one day he would be in a good enough mood to let her see him. No one understood why he was acting like this. AJ had managed to play spy for the family for a short while, before Duke had him removed from his case. He didn’t want to see anyone from his family, and they were all flustered as to why. The only person who would receive regular calls from him was the children’s nanny. Rhyne would stand to the side as Duke chatted endlessly with their son on video-call. He had a camera installed on Sophia’s bed that streamed live to his phone. At that moment, the only people who existed for him were his children, and no one else.

Kit had warned her about Duke’s ability to write people off. Kat had as well. However, she’d delivered her message in a less-friendly tone. According to her, Duke barring them was all Rhyne’s fault. Apparently, Rhyne had catalysed everything from the night RD was conceived, through the years of lies, abandoning Duke, and having Jake hang around even when Duke hated it. That was fine with Rhyne. In exchange for Duke’s recovery, she would take the blame, but Katherine’s words chilled her to her bones.

The day of the crash, they hadn’t been able to see Duke. After his third surgery, he was well enough for visitors, but unfortunately, Duke had been conscious long enough to give his no-visitors order. That day, Katherine turned to her and said, “My brother breaks everything down into compartments. That is the only way he can bear unhappiness. You broke my brother’s trust, and now you will be paying the consequences. I’m sorry, but I don’t feel sorry for you.”

Rhyne wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do anymore. Without the support of his family, how was she supposed to reconcile with him? She turned toward the subtle clicks of heels against the tiled hospital floor. And as if her day couldn’t get any worse, Jessica swayed her hips in her direction.

Jessica walked past her, stopped at the door, snickered, and then made her way in. Duke’s nurse in charge walked out with a clipboard in her hand. Rhyne stopped her. She was curious about who else could get past this no-visitors-bullshit rule.

“Why did she go in?”

“The patient asked to see her.” The nurse sighed deeply before she said, “I’ve never seen a man come back from death and refuse to see his own family. What, exactly, did you guys do to him?”

“Nothing. He is just peculiar that way. Thank you,” Rhyne said, as the nurse went back to work. She lay against the wall, gently banging against it while trying to come up with an idea. That was when it hit her: there were no guards at the door, the nurses seemed busy with the other patients. She could just sneak in. A bright idea turned out to be the dumbest one when she tried to push the door in, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Someone from the inside needs to buzz you in.”

Rhyne jumped, startled at the sound of the nurse’s voice. She hadn’t seen her circle back and her tennis shoes were so silent, she might as well have been floating.

“I know that,” Rhyne mumbled under her breath.

Just then, the door opened, and Jessica walked out. This time she didn’t spare Rhyne even a glance and that irritated the hell out of her.

“Why won’t he let me in?” Rhyne shouted after her.

Jessica stopped and slowly turned to face her. “Excuse me?”

“Why won’t Duke let me in? Why did he see you when he wouldn’t see anyone else?” Rhyne asked once more, reining in her mounting irritation.

“He trusts me.”

Rhyne let out an unamused laugh. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You should go in. He wants to talk to you about something.”

“Why didn’t you say that from the start? You just walked past me like I didn’t exist.”

“Because in my head, you don’t exist, and hopefully you’ll be out of our lives soon enough,” Jessica said, leaving Rhyne in a cloud of confusion and fear.

What exactly did she mean by that?

The nurse held the door open for Rhyne and with her head, signalled for her to go in. At first, Rhyne would have done anything just to see Duke, but right now she wasn’t so sure. Minding every step she took, she walked into the private ward, and the nurse led her to Duke’s room. He was lying in a raised position, his eyes closed. There was an IV in his hand that was connected to two plastic bags raised over his head. His gown wasn’t tied properly, so she could see the large bandage wrapped around his chest. Rhyne hadn’t seen him when he first got to the hospital, but his recovery had been termed a miracle. Rhyne just attributed it to his stubbornness.

Duke still looked a little pale, thinner than normal and exhausted. Rhyne didn’t know what she expected but she was just glad that he was alive.

He turned his head toward her as he slowly opened his eyes. She didn’t expect him to be excited once he saw her, or have any kind of emotional reaction, but the flatness in his gaze surprised her.

“Hi. I’m glad you are okay.” She choked on the tears that seemed to be closing her throat. “Are you in any pain?” Duke didn’t respond, just stared at her through heavy eyelids. “The kids are okay. RD keeps asking when he can come see you.”

“I want to take them with me,” he said in a husky tone.

“What did you say?” It wasn’t that she hadn’t heard his words; even with his raspy voice she’d heard him loud and clear. Rhyne was in disbelief. What did he mean, take the children with him?

“As soon as they let me out, I’m going on a trip, and I am taking the children with me.”

“You are taking them?” There was nothing in his statement that sounded remotely close to a request. Duke was notifying her of his intentions, and it didn’t sound like she had an option. She knew all too well that Duke had custody of their son, but he had never made any attempt to take him from her before, so why now?

Rhyne wanted to flip out. She was ready to, but she decided to keep calm and let him explain himself.

“I’m going to take a break from all of this. Mentally, I was ready to tap out a long time ago. The accident was just a wake-up call. I need a break, need to reorganize my life and reprioritize everything.”

“Okay.” She took a seat in the chair beside his bed. She thought she was handling the situation well, considering. “Go back to the part where you are leaving with the children. How?”

“Jessica is helping me figure that out.”

“Uh-huh, so Jessica is coming with you?” She heard her heartbeat in her ears when she asked him that.

“No. I just made her vice president in Christopher’s place. She’s going to run the company while I’m away.”

Rhyne slowly let out a sigh of relief. “Okay, so where do I come in?”

“Where do you want to come in?”

“I don’t understand.”

“The children are my responsibility, you aren’t. You can do whatever you want.”

“And if I say that I am coming along to the trip?” Rhyne chewed her bottom lip anxiously. “I could decide that I am coming along, or do I have to ask?”

Duke stared at her for a couple of minutes, then said, “You can do whatever you want.”

“It’s not the yes I was expecting, but I’ll take it.”

Rhyne sat in that room for the rest of the day. Apart from a few two-second glances from Duke, he made no effort to communicate with her. He slept for most of the time, and for the rest of it, stared out the window. He seemed a little broken and that hurt Rhyne’s heart. A couple of times, she thought of addressing the issue with Jake, but she decided it was better left in the past.

When it was time for her to go home, she placed a kiss on his forehead and said, “I’ll be back tomorrow. You better tell your nurse to let me in. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone else that you have suddenly become social.” Duke just huffed in response but never said no. And for the next couple of weeks, it was the same thing. She could go to the hospital once she had dropped RD off at school and organized Sophia’s meals and care. They would sit in silence until it was time for Rhyne to go back home again.

***

When Duke woke up, he had barred his family from visiting him. The people who had so easily turned against him wanted to show their concern. Duke was not interested in helping them ease their consciousness. He was perfectly okay with having them feel guilty and think that they had driven him into that accident. But when his father forced himself in there was nothing, he could do about it.

“I’m tired,” Duke said.

“Of what?”

“Of being your son, of being the first born and of being the CEO of these companies.”

“So, what do you want?”

“I want everyone to be responsible for themselves, I want to hire more people to help me, and I just want to be free of it all,” Duke cried. “I want to play my guitar. I want to be there when my children are growing up. I missed so much with RD, and I don’t want the same with Sophia Marie.”

“You still can,” Harry had insisted.

“No, you don’t get it. I don’t want to be like you. I want to be a dad, not just a father, but a dad. You wouldn’t understand,” Duke said.

“Are you saying am I bad father?”

“You were never there for me; how would I know.” That drove his father out and he hadn’t come back yet.

Duke needed a break from his life, from New York and sailing around the Atlantic seemed to be the answer.

***

When the day came for them to leave, she bid her newly found family goodbye and followed Duke straight to the marina. He still hadn’t seen his family yet, but there they all were at the dock, apparently to say goodbye. Rhyne wasn’t sure where Duke was going, but she followed him closely, hoping that once they were out on the open water, they wouldn’t get the urge to throw each other overboard.

Once she boarded the boat, Rhyne realized that their nanny was there, as well as a nurse and a full staff. Part of her had thought that Duke would pilot the boat while she took care of everything else. Her vision of the trip seemed more romantic. But this made more sense. Duke was slowly getting his strength back and having people there to help her take care of him was a smart decision.

“Are you ready?” Duke asked her.

“Sure,” she said. “Where are we going?”

“Away, and hopefully when we come back, we will be different people.”

“Hopefully.”