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“No, actually. I see enough filth.” He straightened the book and then his tie. “Woody was playing here last night, nosing at all of Jolie’s special books. He put everything back, but none of them are in the right places.”
“She won’t mind. He could murder one of us, and she’d argue he was provoked.”
Ollie turned to see the smile on my face. His mouth opened, but I got in first with what I wanted to say.
“Don’t.”
His eyebrows drifted higher up his forehead.
“I know what you’re thinking. I can see it on your face, but it wasn’t there yesterday. Yesterday, you seemed okay with our situation here.”
“She’s nice. I like her.”
“Then let’s leave it at that. What even got you talking?”
“Something Azrael did. Then we ended up watching cat videos online.”
I smiled, and Ollie did, too, but something hid behind the façade of happiness.
“If you’re going to really give this a go, you have to tell her who you really are.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why not?” I respected that Ollie’s voice was hushed, even if I hated what he was saying.
“She has a heart defect. Rodregez told me no stress. That would bring a lot of stress.”
“She is so blindly in love with you, Remi, I’m not even sure it would make a difference.”
“Believe me, it would.”
“You don’t see it from an outside view. You don’t see how she lights up when you walk in or how she looks for you whenever she hears a noise because she’s hoping it’s you. How she watches each step you take when you disappear to Beyond Heaven, and her heart breaks a little because you’re going to see another woman.”
“She knows that person is just a friend. And so do you.”
“A friend you haven’t introduced her to.”
“That isn’t my decision. I can’t just spring another person onto someone who is high-risk.”
Ollie nodded, agreeing with me. “She still deserves to know the truth about the past you share, even if you’re keeping your special friendship away from her.”
“Well, I’m not telling her. And if you’re a good brother, neither will you.”
It was time for that coffee.
Ollie’s feet followed mine to the kitchen. The patting of his shoes annoyed me as much as his voice.
“Do you know how awkward a position you’ve put everyone in? We all like her. We aren’t comfortable with keeping this kind of secret within the family, and if she’s with you, that’s what she is now.” He leaned over the island, his stare cold on my neck, raising my hackles.
I turned on the coffee maker and placed my cup in position before forcing a sense of calm on myself and turning around.
“It’s for her own good. She’s had one heart attack. I’m not willing to risk her life on a past that is better left forgotten. She is happy to let our pasts be forgotten.”
“Because she doesn’t know how bad it was.”
“She has ideas. She has nightmares, too. You don’t know what that’s like, not wanting ever to fall asleep because the dreams are so vivid, so terrifying.”
His eyes told me I was wrong, but his mouth cut me again so deeply I thought I’d bleed out and die.
