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Rio sits on the island counter just like he did when they first met only this time he waits for her alone. When Beth comes home, she’s alone like she was during the first time. She screams like before only this time there’s nothing in her arms to drop on the floor and instead of looking scared or cautious, she simply glares at him. Rio shrugs a little, a small smile in place.
“What’s up, sweetheart?”
She tosses her handbag and coat onto the couch before entering the kitchen. She walks right past him to the coffee pot and pours herself one. Rio watches her over his shoulder the entire time. She drains it surprisingly fast and pours herself another. With the cup clasped between her hands, she comes back around to his side of the island counter. His eyes follow her the entire time until she settles before him with enough space to put her just out of reach. She looks over the edge of her cup as she sips quietly. It takes a moment for him to realise that she’s not going to speak.
“You miss me?”
The fact that her face remains blank, tells him everything. She considers him for a moment. “What are you doing here?”
“Can’t I just drop by?”
“I told you I’m done.” She swirls the contents of her cup. “The business is being sorted. You won’t be left empty handed.”
Around two weeks ago Beth had come to him with the news that she wanted out. She was going to focus on her family. It made sense especially with the whole debacle with her missing kid, Rio had almost expected it to come up. She even came armed with a plan to gradually phase out their business arrangement so he would have the money and time to move on to somewhere else. She even gave up some of her cut, the rest she had to keep for Annie and Ruby whom Rio had been dealing with the past two weeks instead of her. That’s when he realised that stepping away from the life of crime didn’t just mean the business but him as well. He thought that was the biggest punch to the gut until he figured out her husband was still living at home and when she picked her family, that included him.
He hadn’t really thought that what he felt towards her could be more than just lust. It was always a bit of harmless flirting, some sincere admiration, all very tame in the grand scheme of things. But then she was gone. He had been away from her for much longer than that but this time was different because she wasn’t planning on coming back. Maybe that’s why it struck him so hard but regardless of the why, it did, and that was the problem.
None of this - waiting in her house for her to come home - has anything to do with business. “I ain’t here for that.”
“Then what do you want?” Her voice is crisp. Cold.
Rio’s eyes rake over her. There’s a twist in his stomach every time he sees her that he had always put down to the same thing: lust. But seeing her again, he found himself committing every inch of her to memory and with every inch of her that his eyes settled on, the word beautiful echoed in the back of his mind. Still, he’s not so sure he can let himself feel that openly just yet, so he changes the subject slightly. “Still happily married I see.”
Beth’s face finally falters as she frowns. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Figured after our little bathroom break you were gonna end things.”
She scoffed. “Why do you care so much?”
“Didn’t peg you as someone to cheat.” He didn’t mean it. Not really. The way she always talked about her family, it wasn’t hard to figure that things weren’t going so great in the whole marriage department nor was it difficult to deduce that cheating wasn’t her thing. He had no qualms with having sex with her while she was still married. She was capable of figuring out if her marriage was broken enough to see someone else. She wouldn’t have invited him to the bathroom with her if she was still happy.
“We’re not together.”
“Uh huh.” He knows she means her and Dean but his heart does a little somersault regardless and he has to fight to keep the evidence from showing on his face.
“You don’t get to do that.” She’s angry now and he quirks a brow at her, challenging her to elaborate. She comes close enough to put her cup on the island counter but then steps back again. “You don’t get to judge me. You knew I was married when you followed me into that bathroom.”
“Like I was gonna turn down that invitation.” Rio certainly wouldn’t have suggested it himself. He had always waited for Beth to make the first move. It just thrilled him that she actually had. “Figured your marriage must have been in pieces already.”
“It was- is.” She’s glaring at him now and he’s not entirely sure she’s noticed that her voice has risen in volume. “I’m miserable, is that what you want to hear?”
No, is his instant thought as he slides off the island counter. He doesn’t want to hear that at all but before he can say anything, she begins to talk again.
“He cheated and he lied and he made me face the very real possibility that he might die.”
She was talking faster now and Rio has to step closer. His hands are raised, shushing her softly. “Slow down, darling.” She took a deep breath. “Explain it to me.”
Beth turns away from him. “He got us into some serious debt. That’s why I robbed the grocery store. He cheated on me, with multiple women over several years, I was.. I was…”
Rio steps closer as her voice breaks. He stands right behind her, so close that if either of them made a move his chest would be flush against her back. “You were what, sweetheart?”
“Pregnant at one point and I wasn’t so great afterward.” He can tell from the way her words catch that she isn’t going to elaborate.
“The dying part,” Rio says, voice low and as soft as he can make it. “You talking about when I…?”
Beth shakes her head a little. “He told me he had cancer so I would let him back in. It was that day we had Kenny’s birthday party. When you came to pick up your boy.”
Rio stiffens. “And you let him stay after all that?”
“I didn’t really have a choice,” she mumbles. “You shot him. Someone had to take care of him.”
He doesn’t let that sit with him for too long. Back then he didn’t care. She had hurt him. Past him would have relished in knowing she had to take care of her scumbag husband and in knowing how miserable she was. He hadn’t felt that way since she looked at him, no light in her eyes, asking if he was going to kill her. Now the thought of her being so lost and miserable and broken made him feel sick.
“And now?”
Beth shrugs a little before her shoulders slump. Rio instantly reaches out, placing his hands on her shoulders. At first, she stiffens but, as he begins to gently massage, she visibly relaxes. His thumbs rub circles, firmly pressing out the knots between her shoulder blades and she lets out an unexpected moan.
Rio rolls his shoulders a little to shake it off before leaning in so that his lips are close to her ear. “That’s it. Just relax, baby, okay?”
Maybe it’s his actions or perhaps it’s his words but Beth suddenly wriggles from his grasp and turns to face him. She steps back from him and looks up, her head tilting to the side a little. Her eyes are red from where she’s been trying not to cry. Rio can feel his heart begin to quicken and that feeling - something between frustration and sadness - swells up inside of him at the sight of how hurt she really is.
“What are you really doing here?”
She asks it so softly that he has to take a second to consider his next words. “You wanna quit the business. Fine.” She blinks a few times, clearly a little surprised by his laid back attitude towards the whole thing. Admittedly, he had been a little crass with her when she first wanted to leave. It was going to screw with his business and he wasn’t happy about that but things cleared up quickly and he had bigger reasons to be concerned with her departure. “You sorted out the business just like you said. It’ll make us square.”
“But?”
The slightly hopeful tone catches him off guard for just a second. But that soft light in her eyes, her slightly parted lips, and the fact that she edges just a little bit closer to him gives Rio every excuse he needs to keep talking.
“You quitting me as well?”
Beth’s eyes grow a little wide at that and she seems to be thrown because her mouth opens and closes a few times before she can speak. “I didn’t think there was anything to quit… Outside of business.”
He thinks about all of the things he’s done for her. Things he wouldn’t do for anyone else. The number of times he should have killed her but didn’t. Even if you put that aside. He really did want to give her the keys to the kingdom and hell, not that long ago he went and got her kids damn blanket from a drug dealers house. He still remembers the initial shock of realising what the drama had all been about.
It really doesn't matter what he did for her because he was no saint, he had hurt just as many times as well. However, between all of that, along with the countless times he had to snap himself out of looking at her, of standing too close, or losing his focus, he thought he had been so obvious. Apparently not.
His tongue runs out over his bottom lip. “Come on, ma.”
“You only had me around for business reasons,” Beth declares. “What use am I to you otherwise?”
“It ain’t about use.” When Rio steps forward, they’re forced to press up against each other and this arm snakes around her waist to support her. “You make it sound like I own you.”
“Don’t you?”
He tries not to let the sincerity in her question get to him. “Nah.”
“Okay, so if I’m not working for you and you don’t own me,” Beth starts, her finger lightly drawing patterns on his chest. “Then what am I to you?”
“Let's just not label it, okay?” Rio says, repeating her past words.
“Yeah, yeah, you're right.” Beth nods her head a little as she repeats his words, the faintest of smiles spreading across her face. “It is kind of early, huh?”
With that, he tightens his arm around her waist. The hand that’s on his chest suddenly grips at his shirt while Beth’s other hand rests gently against his side. He tilts his head a little as he watches her. She chews gently on her bottom lip as she looks up at him and after her eyes have searched his face, she brings her hands up to rest on his shoulders. Her fingertips gently ghosting against his neck tattoo. He shivers.
“Elizabeth.”
Rio’s eyes are just about to drift shut as she leans in and kisses him. His free hand immediately wraps up in her hair as he kisses her back. Holding on tightly to his shoulders, she lifts herself up onto her tiptoes to press into the kiss a little more. As the intensity grows, he feels his heart begin to race and that all too familiar twist in his stomach and he relishes in how good it all feels. Especially when topped with the overwhelming realisation that she had answered his question but he needed to be sure.
“My question,” Rio mumbles against her lips. She just hums in response. He kisses her softly, nipping a little at her bottom lip. “You quitting me as well?”
“I never did,” Beth admits as she presses a gentle kiss to the corner of his mouth. “I don’t know if I could.”
He pulls away just enough to get a proper look at her. She really is beautiful and although he really doesn’t have to anymore, he still looks her over and once again commits every inch to memory. As she slowly begins to smile, Rio reaches up and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. Her eyes drift shut for the briefest of moments as her smile grows.
“That makes two of us.”
Rio gently cups her face as he once again leans in to press his lips to hers. This time when they kiss it’s slow, lazy. He’s too busy wrapped up in Beth to care much at all about anything other than how good it feels to be so close to her, to know without a shadow of a doubt that he was going to see her again, that she wasn’t completely walking away. He’s already decided that he’s going to dedicate every spare second he has to her. He’s pretty sure he made that decision long before tonight.