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Chapter 75
Catharina
“What are you doing out of bed?” Ollie asked as I stepped into the kitchen, finding him and Dec at the island with Remi.
“I needed a drink. Water will be fine.” Remi turned away from me, running a glass beneath the fancy tap. Turning, he handed it to me, and our fingers brushed.
It was the most contact we’d had in a month. My operation was close to five weeks ago, and Remi and I hadn’t had a conversation since the day I kicked him out of my room.
And it only got more awkward during run-ins like this.
“How are you feeling?” He was the first to pull his hand away.
“I’m okay.”
He chose to be the bigger person because I was feeling salty that he hadn’t even come to see me in the last four weeks and didn’t feel like making an effort if he wasn’t.
He spoke again.
“I brought these over.” He lifted and dropped some brochures. “I know she’s getting cremated, but people often still choose a coffin, flowers, and other memorial stuff. I thought it best to let you have the final say.”
“Thank you.” I pulled them toward me, scooting onto a seat with Dec’s help. I flipped through the pages slowly. It was my way of giving Remi the option of talking to me more.
And he did. “It’s nice to see you out of bed.”
Dec coughed, disguising words that added to my confusion. “Cover blown.”
“Shut up,” Ollie warned. “And keep out of it.”
“Yeah,” I ignored them both. “Ollie insists I do stuff but also as little as possible. He has a lot of orders.” I didn’t look up from the white coffin that captured my gaze.
It was hard to believe I was picking out things for my sister’s funeral. It hurt, the pain deep in my chest. But it was overdue, put off for longer than it should have been so that I could heal.
“Are you okay?”
Ignoring that, too, I kept my eyes on the book and pointed out the coffin I wanted. “I think she’d like blue satin. She liked wearing blue. And she liked carnations because Dad would buy them for Mom every Friday after work. They were both hers and Rhylie’s birth flower. Do carnations even come in blue?”
“I’m not sure, but we can have them sprayed.”
“Thank you for all of this. And thank you for what you did for her. I appreciate it.”
His lips parted, and the sad look pulling down each handsome feature made me think he’d say something that would melt me on the spot. But his words were curt and blunt—a dagger to my soul that still craved its mate.
“I better go.”
I walked away first.
“Cat,” he rushed up behind me, his fast feet quickly catching my slow ones. My gifted heart stalled in my chest as he fought for his hands not to touch my waist.
I waited with my breath held.
His hands made it back to his sides with two clenched fists. “You can pick more than one flower.”
“You can pick the other. It’s fine.”
“Please, just flick through and take a look?” he asked me, handing me the brochure now riddled with crinkles from his harsh grip.
Nodding and taking the brochure, I walked away, inviting Michael and Shadow into my room, where their siblings were already waiting. One on Remi’s chair, one on my bed, despite Ollie’s better judgment. I left Remi standing in the hallway, privy to the not-so-quiet conversation between Dec and Ollie about us both being stupid.
