We keep trotting toward it, and as we approach, the doors open and a man in black that looks remarkably like Pete steps out. Followed by another that could be Riley.
And suddenly standing across me, every inch of him beautiful, healthy, and vital, is Remington Tate. I see his gleaming dark hair, his sexy boyish face, his slightly scruffy jaw, and all of his manly tan skin and perfect muscles, and my heart stops.
I stop running.
Stop breathing. Stop existing.
My brain goes blank, my lungs close up, my ears shut off.
I look at him. And he looks at me.
And as we stare, my eyes on his, his eyes on mine, my heart resumes with one burst of emotion.
It leaps and runs to him, slams into him, explodes in him, and although it hurts like an open wound to look at this man, all my senses have sizzled to life and I can’t take my eyes off him, even if my life depends on it. A private Fourth of July is happening in my stomach as I feel Melanie’s nudge at my back, and we begin walking toward them at a slower pace.
A nerve-wracking pace.
It feels as though the entire world is in slow motion. Every step of mine takes ages.
Remington looks so … large as we approach. Larger than life itself, and I can’t even believe this striking creature was once a little bit mine.
The bad part is, my body cannot distinguish that he’s no longer mine, and every pore of me seems magnetized by him, like they all still think that he belongs to me.
“Holy shit, that man is hot,” Melanie gasps at my side.
I nod helplessly and drink him in several times, head to toe. Something rushes through me as if this is the first sip of water I’ve had in weeks, and every pore in me is dehydrated. A tremor wraps itself around my heart. I know there’s no doubt that I’m every bit in love with him as I was before. And this is nothing, nothing, compared to the instant, the very second, he briefly, almost bored, smiles at me.
“Miss Dumas?” Pete says with a grin, as we approach. “We believe this belongs to you?”
He signals in the direction of Remington who watches me with that bored smile, slowly vanishing as he studies me. My pulse goes so wild I can hear it in my ears, and then, I realize another figure is stepping out of the car. A female figure. That looks like … Nora.
I blink, and my heart stops. “Nora?”
“Nora?” Melanie repeats, sounding even more stupid than I’m sure I do.
“We just wanted to make sure she got home safe,” Pete says.
“Nora?” I repeat. And now I really sound more stupid than Melanie.
“It’s me!” She looks lively and like her old self as she comes to hug me, and she’s shaking in excitement as she does. “It’s me, big sis! I’m back! I’ve done work in rehab. Pete helped me,” she rushes to explain. “And I got the tattoo off.” She points to her rosy cheekbone. “I felt so little when you looked at me that day, Brooke. I felt so little and so … dirty.”
“No! No, never!” Reeling in surprise, I drag her in for another hug, still stunned and disbelieving that my little sister is in my arms, and then Melanie grabs her and gives her some Mel-love.
“Nora!! Nora Camora Lalora Crazyora!” She hugs and swings her around and squeezes her, and I turn to stare at the three men before me, and since I can’t make myself speak to the one I really want to speak to, I speak to Pete instead. “Pete, what’s going on?”
“Surprise,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows and signaling to Nora. “She’s done great. She’s such a sweet girl.”
I keep staring impatiently, and he nods at Remington, who’s just rammed his hands into his jean pockets. His eyes are raking me top to bottom, nonstop, making me aware of my athletic gear and the way it hugs my butt, my br**sts, and my expanding waistline from eating mood-boosting dark chocolate just to help with my completely frustrating heartbreak blues.
“The night Remy went to fight with Scorpion, Scorpion offered your sister to him instead of the championship. And Remy agreed,” Pete then tells me.
I stand motionless for a moment, blank, wavering, and very baffled. When my eyes confusedly seek out Remington’s, I feel a shock run through me at the intensity in his stare.
Then, I’m bowled over.
“You mean he agreed to … lose?” For Nora?
No, not for Nora, you idiot.
For you.
A powerful emotion zip lines through my body, settling like a burning bolt of light in my brain, illuminating me with the magnitude of something that sounds impossible, but which they have just told me to be true.
Briefly tossing my head side to side, I cling helplessly to those dark-lashed, achingly familiar blue eyes. My pulse spins with confused disbelief. A war of emotions rages within me as strange and disquieting thoughts race through my mind, clenching around my heart.
“You did this for … Nora?” I breathlessly ask Remington.
His face is so beautiful, I just want to grab his spiky hair and kiss him senseless, but at this point, I don’t think I even deserve to have this man standing here.
Looking at me without telling me what I jerk I am for leaving him the way I did.
Feeling painfully hammered inside, which is not the optimal feeling to experience when you’re told your baby sister is, thankfully, happily, back home, I sit down on the stairs leading to my small building, knocked out by my stupor as I furiously try blinking back a well of tears threatening to fall.
Pete grabs a green duffel bag from the back of the Escalade and heads inside with Nora. “Let me take this in for you, Nora.”
I’m left with Riley, whose gaze shifts from Melanie to me like a Ping-Pong ball, and I’m also left with Remy. My Remy. The Remy I abandoned in the hospital. The one I adore. The one I am mad over. The one that got his guts torn apart and humiliated for the sake of my sister. For me.