Page 46 of Bae

I pulled the phone away from my ear and hit END.

Fastest way to not hear what someone has to say? Hang up on them.

Did it make me an asshole? Sure did. Did I give a rat’s ass? Hells no.

“Romeo?” Rimmel’s voice called to me from behind. I glanced over my shoulder and smiled. “Hey, baby.”

“What are you doing?”

I held up my cell. “Phone call.”

“Everything okay?” She came closer as I shoved the device into the pocket of my jeans.

“Even better now that you’re here.”

She smiled. “Everyone’s leaving.” She hitched her thumb over her shoulder toward the house.

“‘Bout damn time,” I muttered. “Thought they’d never leave.”

She laughed. “Did you have plans?”

I caught her around the waist and lifted her. Her legs wound around my waist. “I got a hot date with my wife.”

She lifted a brow. “Do you?”

I nodded slow, stroking my thumb over her side. “What do you say, Mrs. Anderson? How about some one-on-one time with your husband?”

Her hands cupped my jaws. “I love that idea.”

“It’s a done deal.” I confirmed.

Her laugh floated behind me as I carried her into the house.

Rimmel

Never in a million years would I have thought life might bring me here. ‘Course it wasn’t really life that had my Ranger Rover pulling up this familiar drive.

It was circumstance.

For three months, I’d been frozen in time. I remained where I was while pages on the calendar turned and changed. Leaves on the trees morphed into colored jewels, then were gently shook free to leave behind bare branches that would, in time, bud with new life.

I wanted to be like the trees on our beautiful compound.

I wanted to gently shake away the chains that held me in place. I wanted to bud with new life, with change. No longer could the days and weeks pass me by, because that wasn’t living.

Even though I wanted to desperately claw through the veil between life and death, to reach out and find my daughter and pull her close, it was impossible. Right now, I existed between the two. Between life and death. Caught wanting to live, but also not knowing how to loosen my grip on death.

Everything seemed so unattainable. It was why I’d come to realize I’d remained this way for six long months. When one needs to do everything, one chooses to do nothing.

However, just because everything felt—at times—unfeasible, it didn’t mean it was. I had Romeo. He was already mine. And while I loved my lost Evie so deeply, the past week had made me realize something. Something I was terribly ashamed to admit I’d lost sight of.

I chose him.

Romeo.

I would always choose him no matter what choice there was.

I just needed a little help. Someone to show me how to shake free of the old so I could bloom with the new—but do it in a way that I could still bring the memory of my daughter with me.

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