ROUTLEDGE | rafe cameron

- • THIRTY SIX • -

I walked into the empty house, it was depressing, when I came home and no one else was here, the boys were at work, we all knew where Rafe was, I hadn't seen Topper since that night and I planned on keeping it this way. I slipped my heels off, flicking the lights on, I walked through the living room, making sure I had locked the front door. I paused at the bottom of the stairs, setting the alarm, neither John B or JJ were getting home until late tonight, it was Friday so they were able to work late shifts. I sighed as I was halfway up the stairs and the doorbell rang, I turned, heels still in hand and walked back towards the door, I turned the porch light on, looking out to see no one, I was about to disregard it but then I saw a vase of flowers on the doormat. I looked around the dark front yard as best as I could when I opened the door, hurriedly taking the flowers inside, surely they had to be from Rafe, I had just spoken with him this morning, he had only been there for a few days, but he was already doing better. "For my pretty woman." I furrowed my brows at the note on it, that's all it said, and it was definitely not a pet name Rafe used, he would always say pretty girl, sometimes even lady, but he just hated the way it sounded when he would use woman, but I shrugged it off, surely the florist made a simple mistake. I placed them on the kitchen island, smiling at them, I took a mental note to thank him next time we spoke, probably in a couple of days, based on his treatment plan. I stopped, resetting the alarm once more before finally making it to my bedroom, I had eaten dinner in the truck, Rafe left his truck here and I've been driving it since my car was in the shop, I was beyond exhausted but had more computer work to do, so I changed into something comfier and started my laptop up, going to the bathroom before getting situated.

I had been on the computer for a couple of hours, not even realizing what time it was until I heard the door open, the alarm going off, I heard someone enter the code and sigh in relief, "Lizzie?" JJ called, "in my room!" I replied, I heard him doing something down stairs before he started climbing up the stairs. He walked into my room, plopping down on my bed beside me, offering me a sip of his beer, I shook my head, I haven't touched one since that night. "Whatcha doing?" He asked in a childlike manner, watching as I typed away, "writing a description for an MLS." I responded, chewing my lip in thought, waiting for the right words to hit me, and finally they did and I concluded my summary, saving it before shutting the laptop. "I'm going grocery shopping tomorrow, did you want anything specific?" I asked him, opening the list on my phone, I was like the mom of the house, I took care of the bills, the food, everything. The boys contributed financially of course, as much as they could, but I was doing damn good for myself with my new job, thanks to Rose. "Not really, I'll eat anything." He muttered scrolling through his phone, "did you see the flowers in the kitchen?" I asked, glancing at him, he nodded. "Yeah, they're nice, from Rafe?" JJ responded, shoving his phone back into his pocket, just like he had done a few minutes ago, the door opened and the alarm stared going off, we both sat up a little bit when it continued to go off. "JJ." I whispered, he nodded standing up and walking out there, I followed behind him, he rushed to the alarm, disabling it as the noise was piercing our ear drums. "What fuck man? You gave us a heart attack!" I heard JJ laugh, followed by John B, thank god. "I couldn't remember the code, I was looking for it!" My brother admitted sheepishly, I rolled my eyes, "0903, it's not that hard!" I responded, going back to my room now that I had known it was just him.

"Hey," my brother stuck his head in my room, "who the flowers from?" He asked, walking in, "Rafe, I'm guessing, they weren't signed." I shrugged, not thinking much of it. "Landon used to talk about you like that, pretty woman, made me wanna punch him." John B sighed, "what?" I mumbled, eyes shooting wide open, "yeah, you didn't know that?" Booker leaned against the wall. I shook my head, suddenly feeling uneasy about the flowers sitting downstairs, but again I pushed it aside. "They probably just messed the note up." I assured him, more for myself, again.

***

"Hey, Rafe." I smiled, answering the phone as I put the truck in park, I had just gotten to the store when he called, "hi." He responded, and I could hear the normalcy in his tone, it was so hard for me to not just confess my love for him right then. "Did you send me flowers?" I asked, smiling to myself, not thinking he was going to answer the way he did. "No." He answered quickly, my face fell, thinking back to what John B said last night. "It must've been a client then, there was no note." I lied, not wanting to put ideas in his head, "I just thought I'd ask you." I smiled, the only way to make my voice sound convincing, "well that's nice of them." Rafe shook me from my thoughts. "It is, how's it going today?" I questioned him, changing the subject, "good, I've got a group session soon, I just wanted to talk to you." He sighed, and I could hear him laying back on the bed. "I'm sitting in front of Walmart, in your truck." I told him, making him laugh, "who said you could take my truck?" I could picture the way he had to be biting his lip right now, "me." I sang, glancing up as a car drove down the row in front of me, slowly, almost creepily slowly as I saw them facing towards me, narrowly missing an old woman who was walking to her car. "Well then I guess I'll just have to forgive you." Rafe mumbled, and I laughed under my breath, taking the keys from the ignition, deciding to shop and talk until he had to go. "What should I make for dinner tonight?" I asked him, and this is how most of our conversations went, we swore to not talk about our relationship, not until he was home, and with me. We talked about anything, and it was nice, it was nice to just talk mindlessly like when we first met, but it felt good because I already knew everything about him.

I was walking down an aisle, listening to Rafe tell me about how the guy in the room next to him went crazy yesterday and I was cringing hard while I bent over to grab the last pack of water. I pressed the phone between my ear and my shoulder, sighing once I got the water into the bottom of the cart. "So what did they do to him?" I asked with a laugh, "they sedated him or something, I don't know, but it was kind of funny." I rolled my eyes at his response, "be nice." I chuckled lightly, glancing behind me when I felt like someone was staring at me. I made my way through the store, Rafe had hung up a while ago, having to go to his group session, he said he'd call me again tomorrow if he can.

I threw the last thing I needed into the cart and began my way to the checkout, standing in the horribly long line. My phone buzzed in my pocket, a text, I opened it and furrowed my eyebrows, "did you get my flowers?" I nearly dropped my phone, darting my eyes around, the person began typing again, and in came a picture of me looking around. "Who is this?" I slowly moved forward as the line got shorter, "come on, you know, you're living in my uncles house." I inhaled sharply, Landon. I blocked the number, putting my phone back into my pocket and loading the groceries onto the belt, continuously looking around, trying to spot him, but I couldn't, the store was too busy.