Maia sat down on the nearest chair and Riley plopped down on the sofa.
The front door opened and Cristie and Remi walked in. “Remi’s going to help me get the rest of my stuff. We might have to make two trips.”
“Remi!” Maia called out. “We got to see Cristie earlier but I haven’t seen you yet,” she said, getting up and walking over to hug Remi.
“Hi, Maia,” he said, hugging her back. “Thank you for the cookies.”
“You’re welcome. There’s plenty more if you want them.”
“Always. Feel free to send all leftovers to our house.”
Maia kissed his cheek. “Congratulations, and welcome to the family.”
“Thank you,” he said.
“Want some help? I do have a truck out there y’all can load some more stuff into,” Riley offered.
“That’d be great!” Cristie said excitedly as she started up the steps at a jog.
Riley looked at Maia with a surprised expression. “She actually wants my help!”
“I’m going to see what else she’s planning on bringing,” Remi said, starting up the steps after Cristie.
“I’m going to back the truck up to the porch, then I’ll be up to help, too,” Riley said.
“I guess I’ll go see if I can help, too,” Maia said, setting her glass aside and going up the stairs right behind them.
Chapter 21
Later that night Remi sat on their new sofa, his arms spread out to either side, resting along the back of the sofa as he sat right in the middle of the sofa, his gaze slowly taking in the new look of his home. It was filled with touches here and there that indicated a female lived there — his female. Everything in the house was touched by her, and he loved it. She’d somehow managed to transform it into a home that spoke of her presence, while at the same time choosing the colors and textures that he’d chosen when he built his house back in Louisiana. He turned his head to admire the wall to his right. It was covered with a collage of framed family photos. In the center was an elaborate yet empty frame. Right above it was a frame that held a photo of himself and Cristie as little kids. They sat together on the grass with sunlight dancing through their hair, both of them laughing. And placed here and there around that framed photo were others. There were photos of Riley and Maia, and of Sebastian and Cristie. He didn’t know how she’d managed it, but there were photos of Daniel and Avaleigh, and himself and Angelle, too. There were candid group photos of the members of their Pride and the members of their Shifter Clan. The entire wall had become an homage to everyone they loved, and all that helped them grow into who they were today.
He heard a door in the back of the house open and kept his attention on the hallway, waiting for Cristie to come toward him. When she finally walked into the living room, she was barefoot, wearing a pair of faded jean shorts and one of his torn teeshirts. She carried an over sized cigar box in her hands with what looked like rubber bands around it keeping it closed. It was about the size of a large jewelry box.
“You finish putting your things away?” he asked. “I could have helped with your clothes.”
“No need. I got it done. And this is the last thing,” she said as she lifted the box a little to make sure he knew she was talking about the box she carried. She held the box reverently like it held the most precious of jewels inside as she took a seat next to him and tucked her feet beneath her, sitting cross-legged and facing him on the sofa.
“What is it?” he asked.
“When I was little, my mom and dad would take me on wonderful vacations and adventures. Sometimes they were only a town over, but I didn’t know that, and didn’t care. We hiked new places, tried new things, went to amusement parks, and water parks, and rode horses and went to the beach. We went somewhere new and had new adventures every year, at least once. But during the very first vacation, I felt like something, or someone was missing. My dad noticed and asked why I looked sad. I told him that you weren’t there.”
“Me?!” Remi said, surprised.
Cristie nodded. “We’d just moved to Missouri not more than a year or two before that first vacation, and even though I had friends, and I had people around me that loved me, I missed you. You were my first friend, and you always took care of me.”
Remi lifted a hand and gently ran his fingertips across her cheek.
“My dad told me that it was okay to miss you, and that I should make a special effort to remember what I really loved about the places we went so that when I saw you the next time, I could tell you all about it and share it with you. It made me feel better, but I decided that I could do better than that. I knew you loved rocks and collected your own. So, I picked up a rock that I thought was pretty near the river we hiked beside during that vacation, and put it in my pocket so I could give it to you the nexttime I saw you. It became a ritual. Everywhere we went, when I noticed I was at my happiest, I’d look around for a pretty rock and take it home with me. One day after I’d collected a handful of them, I had them laid out on my floor in my bedroom and was making sure they were each where they were supposed to be. It made me feel closer to you. Anyway, Roman came upstairs one day and saw me playing with them. He went home and came back with this box and gave it to me to keep them in. I’ve opened it so many times over the years to add rocks to it, take rocks out to just hold and remember, that it now needs rubber bands to keep it sealed. I didn’t know why then, but it was important to me to make sure I brought you back a rock from everywhere I went. I had it with me at Havoc’s wedding and wanted to give it to you.”
“I’m so sorry, Cristie…”
“No, that’s not… no. No apologies. It wasn’t the right time to give them to you, then. But it is now. So, here they are. One rock from every place that ever made me so happy to be there. These memories are yours. I collected them for you, because though you didn’t know it, you were with me everywhere I went.” She held the box out to Remi.
Remi reached out and took the box from her very carefully, setting it on the sofa between them. He looked up at her, not sure how to express what he was feeling.
“Go on, open it,” she encouraged.
Remi removed the three rubber bands, two side to side around it, one top to bottom. He picked up a rock, a pretty dark green and rust colored one and held it in his hand, feeling the weight of it and the feel of its smooth surface against his palm. He turned it over to see the back and realized she’d written the name of where she’d found it. “Tennessee.” He looked up at her. “You thought of me every single vacation you took?”
