Page 79 of Cloud Nine Love

36

TAYLOR

“Ninety-nine percent of people are keeping a secret at any given time.” ~ Tim Rhodes

“Let’s go, Ana.” Remi held out his hand.

I stared at it but remained seated in his SUV, praying my phone would ring with an emergency. I’d never wanted to be called into work so badly in my life. It had been two weeks since Remi and I had made things official. In that time, I’d canceled on telling Kane and Ruby twice.

“Why don’t we just tell them separately?” I suggested.

“Because we tried that, and you bailed. You texted me to abort the mission, remember?”

I did remember. He wasn’t wrong. I panicked.

“Are you that embarrassed of me?” he asked, knowing full well that he wasn’t the reason for my hesitancy.

“I just think it’s too soon,” I explained for the twentieth time.

“Kenna already knows.”

“Kenna knows we hooked up under false names; she has no idea that we’re actually a couple.” She still thought I was dating Dr. Carson Mathis, and I hadn’t corrected her assumption.

“I’m done sneaking around,” Remi stated firmly. “Thanksgiving is next week. I’m not going to pretend that we’re not together in front of our family.”

Part of me knew he was right. Another part of me just wanted to keep what was going on between us…well, between us. But it looked like my two-week, or if we’re starting from the very beginning, six-week reprieve was officially over.

Control was not something I gave up easily. Remi and I knowing about our situation was controllable. Kane, Ruby, Otto, Kenna, Milo, Mason, my aunt and uncle, and the rest of the town knowing was not controllable.

I took a deep breath and placed my hand in Remi’s. My eyes met his as I climbed out of the truck. The second my fingers touched his palm, I knew, whatever my reservations about losing control were, he was worth it. What we shared was worth it.

He bent down and kissed me on my forehead as we walked into The Pig Pen, which was the nicest restaurant in town. We could have just told them casually at their house, but they’d actually asked us out to dinner to thank us for fulfilling our Man of Honor and Best Woman duties.

Remi approached the hostess stand. “Hi, we’re here to meet?—"

“They’re already here.” The cute blonde smiled up at Remi as her cheeks flushed. “Right this way.”

As we followed the blonde, whose eyes had turned into heart emojis when she saw my boyfriend, I decided maybe the whole town knowing Remi was off the market wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.

“Hey!” Kane stood from the table and gave Remi a handshake/one-arm hug.

Ruby stood and grinned as she asked, “Did you two come together?”

My first instinct was to come up with a reason for us to arrive together, but I figured there was no point.

I nodded as I sat. “Yep.”

We made small talk about Harper, who was at home watching a movie with Otto, until the server arrived and introduced himself as L.J. He read the specials and took our order.

When he left, Ruby asked Remi, “How’s mom doing today?”

“She was a little tired, but she took a nap after her online classes.”

Celeste had decided to go back to school. She was studying for a degree in psychology. She said that she wanted to specialize in helping people deal with grief and childhood trauma.

I already loved Remi, but seeing how he’d stepped up to take care of his mom, to give her a chance to not just survive her illness but to thrive only made me love him more.

“Oh, that’s great, I was—” Ruby began to say before I cut her off.

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