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Fuck, he was right.
A buzzing interrupted us, getting louder as Dec pulled his phone from his pocket. “Ollie.”
“Do not answer that while I’m here,” I warned. “I have to make a call. I won’t be long. No more than five or ten minutes. Can y’all keep a listen for her just while I get my phone from the truck?”
“You’re not going to Beyond Heaven?” Jolie asked.
“I’ll go in the morning. I can’t leave Cat tonight.”
She’d said her heart felt fine now, but doubt still niggled at me. She’d promised she’d speak to Rodregez this week, but that didn’t mean shit. Anything could happen between now and then. I’d have us there tonight, sleeping at his place, but he’d been pulled away on a family emergency.
“Your little friend will be disappointed.”
I nodded, agreeing with Hell, but I still slipped out of the room, stealing his sneakers from the rack rather than my boots from the tabby who’d take off my arm to keep them.
Taking my phone from the truck, I called Beyond Heaven and asked to speak to Rhylie. I walked around the house, stopping at my window to watch Cat peacefully sleep, unaware of the two furry companions doing paddy paws and snagging her lace dress.
She was out of it. Our busy day finally took its toll on the journey home.
We’d traded the vultures for seabirds, hanging at the beach. The bottom of her dress was still damp when I carried her inside from where the tide came in as she wrote love notes in the sand to me.
Seeing her enjoy something so simple was a world apart from the fear that battered me only hours before. It was because of that fear I’d managed to suppress the urge to fuck her in the sand with gentle waves slapping my ass.
There’d be days for that.
Today wasn’t one of them.
I couldn’t imagine losing her. I couldn’t bring myself to think about having to spend a single day without her ever again. And I would never survive a lifetime.
She was it for me. My reason for living and dying, if she was to go first.
I drew a picture for her in the fog I caused on the glass—a heart.
And I waited for Rhylie with the phone to my ear.
Chapter 35
Remi
Ican’t believe you. You’re an idiot, and so is she.
I read Rhylie’s note as she flicked through the dozen wedding photos I’d handed her, all taken by the vultures. Her eye stalled on the copy of the one Cat had taken, her face so happy and beautiful, I couldn’t help but smile.
“Like fools in love?” I laughed, but no smile lifted Rhylie’s lips. “Come on, I thought you liked me now.”
Rhylie scribbled another note from the window seat in her room, her judging stare dancing between me, stretched out on a nearby chair, the drizzle obstructing her view of the pretty daisies down below and her pink-lined notepad.
I like you fine, brother-in-law.
“So, the issue is?”
I still think this is a rushed and stupid idea, and I don’t agree with what I think your reasons might be.
“My reason is loving her.” I didn’t focus on the patch that covered Rhylie’s missing eye, my focus remaining on a pretty shade of blue that drilled into me and filled me with dread. “You knew we were together.”
Marriage is a big deal, Remi!!!! I just don’t want you to have done all this because you’re afraid she’ll remember stuff and want nothing to do with you.
“I do worry about that, but a wedding wouldn’t change her feelings. Nor does it change the fact that I’ll never be out of her life. I can’t lose her again. I won’t.”
