Page 166 of Before Now

Morbid to think about, sure. But I’m not rooting for the day to come soon. It might help me hurt a little less when I feel the sad, though.

“I’m cold.” Remi wraps her arms around mine. “Let’s go home and stay there.”

“No better place to be,” I tell her.

I kiss her forehead and then stand, dragging her up with me.

She cautiously approaches the headstone and touches the top. On her way to me, she smiles, and I slide my hand into hers. We walk toward the car, and her eyes focus beyond the iron fence surrounding the county cemetery.

Remi slows, and I let her go.

Colton’s leaning against the driver’s door, arms crossed, when I open the passenger side.

“This one won’t take long.”

He nods. “No rush at all. Piss on the fucker.”

I snort, snagging the box from the footwell.

Remi wraps her arms around herself as gravel crunches under our feet. Once we pass through the gate, she stops and holds out her palm.

“Your therapist check the legality of this, baby? I’m down either way, just need to give the guys a heads-up if a camera catches us.”

Her mouth turns up, and she flutters her fingers to prompt me. It’s legal. Colt checked. But I’d be right here with her regardless.

I’m so fucking proud of the progress Remi’s made the last two months. She still has her moments of panic—such as when her name was first officially linked to me—but she breathes through them quicker each time. Not even the incident with Felix dragged her backward beyond the effect it had on all of us. Now she’s here, more determined than ever to close the chapter.

After she scatters Daniel’s remains in the ditch, I toss the box and bag in the trash can on our return trip to the car.

Colton insists on driving, so Remi climbs in the back seat with her dad’s urn. He’s going on the mantel in the gallery. She hasn’t said it, but I know. He’ll be nestled between the picture of us and the one of him and her—because we looked at the SD cards. Right there in that room.

Colt’s eyes flash to her in the rearview. She told him everything after we flew back to New York, and I think he’d save her over me now. I wouldn’t want it any other way.

“Everyone cool?” he asks.

“Yeah, brother.” I glance over my shoulder, and she smiles at me. “Get us the hell out of here, and we’ll be perfect.”

And when we arrive at the house late that night, Dimitri Sinner goes right where I expected. She smiles as I wrap my arms around her from behind and press my lips to her neck, brushing over the curves of the urn. “I can’t believe this room exists.”

“It’s real.”

She rotates in my arms, and I kiss her. Her fingers twist in my hair when my tongue strokes hers, and a soft moan from her wakes up my dick.

“Now I want you real wet in our bed.” I slide my hand up to her throat, palming her ass while she drags my mouth back to hers. I groan and back up, bringing her with me. “Or shower. Fuck, I’ll bend you over the banister, so long as I’m inside you.”

I make it to the door and decide fuck it, picking her up. Remi throws her limbs around me and laughs until I crash her lips into mine, then she’s rocking against me as I walk through the house we decided to call home.

We only have two days before I need to be in the studio to pick back up on the album. Ideally I’d spend as much of it as possible buried in Remi. Literally, figuratively, or both simultaneously.

But Dev and Felix get in tomorrow, and we want to see them. Felix especially. I’ve only seen him once since he got out of rehab earlier this week, and then we left for Ohio. Remi hasn’t seen him since before he went in two months ago.

Since then we’ve bounced between here and the coasts, refusing to lose time together. The last of her stuff is being shipped to my apartment, but we’ll live here while we record.

A clause in our label contract requires all three of us for performances and in the studio unless agreed otherwise. It saved our asses from having to use a session drummer and finish the album without Felix. The guy would have flat-out refused the program otherwise.

Logistics turn messy for a while once we finish. We’ll stay in LA most of the time. She’ll work with Heath when he’s there and complete anything outstanding with the documentary, and the band will have music videos to shoot and appearances. The documentary coincides with the album release, so we’ll have crossover there. Of Men and Wolves also has to decide if we re-sign with Mac Records once our contract ends.

And if I know Christian, my Cali-boy roommate is already playing with scheduling another tour.

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