I couldn’t eat.
I couldn’t sleep.
The tension in my shoulders felt like it might snap me like a rubber band at any second.
For the most part, I just paced the house like a caged animal, a toxic combination of anxiety and anger fueling my every step.
At first, I’d felt better knowing that Remi had reached out to my mom at the PT center—even if she hadn’t realized she was my mom. Though as day number three without her was drawing to a close, the familiar hopelessness once again roared in my ears.
Giving her the time and space my mom swore Remi needed was killing me. I wanted to chase her, to force her to listen and put herself in my shoes. I wanted to bring her home—to my home. To my bed. To my life and our future. I wanted to hold her and tell her how much I loved her. How much I needed her. I wanted to go back to one week ago when everything had been perfect.
But perfect didn’t exist for me and Remi. We were battered soldiers fighting an endless war. A war I tirelessly waged day after day and night after night—for her. Remi Grey had been born to be mine, and I would die trying to keep her if that was what it took. Though the wait for that savage death was killing me in a different way.
I bolted upright when the clatter of pots and pans came from my kitchen. “What the—”
“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Cassidy chanted. “I was trying to wipe out the cabinets and knocked them on the floor.”
“And you’re done.” I marched over to the bar, grabbed her purse off the counter, and held it out in front of me as I said, “Get out.”
“What? Why? It was an accident.”
“Because I have a splitting headache and all of this hovering is making me crazy.”
“I’m not hovering. I’m helping out around the house.”
“Ah, see, there’s the problem. Right now, I really just need you to help yourself out of the house.”
She curled her lip. “Not happening.”
“I’m not exactly asking.” Grabbing her elbow, I walked her to the front door.
“Okay. Fine. Let me go,” she hissed, snatching her arm away. “I could stand a trip to the store anyway. You’re almost out of floor cleaner, and I need to mop.”
“Awesome,” I mumbled, handing over her purse. “Make sure that store is in California so you won’t be back until next week and I’ll let you mop anything you want.”
She patted me on the chest. “Nice try. I’m going to the grocery store three blocks away. You have an hour.”
“Cass—” I had every intention of saying her full name. I was also planning to lock the deadbolt when she left and never open it again. But all thoughts ceased when she yanked the front door open and a pair of unbelievably blue eyes collided with mine from the other side.
“Shit!” my sister yelled. It had less to do with the fact that it was Remi and more that she’d seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
My heart, on the other hand, felt like it was going to tear free of my chest. Stunned into silence as if I’d somehow conjured her into fruition, I wordlessly stared at her. Like she was salve to my soul, my headache vanished immediately.
“Hi,” Remi whispered, following it up with a shaky smile. Her gaze flicked from me to Cassidy and back again.
Oh fuck. She hadn’t met Cassidy, not since the plane crash. And there I was, not three days after Remi had stormed out of my life, standing with another woman in my foyer.
“This is my sister, Cassidy,” I rushed out so loudly and so fast that, had I not been on the verge of self-implosion, it would have been comical.
“I figured. You look just like Linda.” Remi extended her hand toward my sister. “Hello—again. We’ve met before, right?”
Cassidy nodded sheepishly. “You were one of my best friends, so I guess you could say that.”
Remi’s face paled, and she cut her gaze to the welcome mat. “I’ve been doing a lot of research recently and it’s hard for me to believe I was anybody’s friend back then.”
“Then you would be wrong,” Cassidy said. “Any chance I could give you a hug? I’ve really fucking missed you.”
Jesus, my sister had no boundaries.
“Cass,” I scolded.
I was alone in that reprimand.
Remi smiled. “Yeah, sure. Why not.”
In the next beat, my sister had her in her arms. Her tall, lanky body enveloped Remi. It was wholly dumb, but I’d never been so jealous in my life. Though she was standing on my front porch, hugging my sister, which gave me hope that maybe I was next.
“God, it is so good to see you again,” Cassidy said, releasing her.
I had to give her credit. She didn’t cry. I’d have been out a hundred bucks on that bet if we’d been in Vegas.
