Page 21 of In Every Chapter

And the next morning, I bought her pink tulips—courtesy of CVS. Because no one deserved corpse flowers on a date.

Chapter eight

Greyson

It’d been almost an hour since Paisley disappeared upstairs behind the guest room door. Stephanie and Liz had dropped Rosie off from her walk, then left to crash at Juliet’s house for the night, while my unusually sappy sister was still talking to her husband.

I rolled my neck, trying to stretch out the kink after spending the night in a plastic chair—I wasn’t twenty-one anymore—and now being hunched over my computer, researching anything and everything I could find on retrograde amnesia. Now I knew why they told you to never Google your symptoms. Some things you just couldn’t unknow.

But despite the mix of helpful and depressing information, I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t fault my sister and her happiness since just a couple of years ago, she complained Paisley and I were even worse. They were still technically newlyweds, but in a way so were we.

Not that Paisley knew that anymore.

My phone chimed, and I glanced at the lockscreen. It was Paisley and me on the floating boardwalk at Lake Coeur d’Alene last September. Her smile was infectious as she beamed at the camera. But me? My eyes were on her. She was tickled by the idea of it being the longest floating boardwalk in the world. We walked it multiple times during our stay at the resort for our anniversary, and each time a rambunctious child—or let’s be real, a teen boy on a mission to impress a girl—ran by, she’d grab her stomach with a soft groan. But despite the motion sickness, she kept walking until I used it as an excuse to pull her into a hug. The sunsets over the lake were majestic, all amber and coral, framed by the brushing tops of tall pines. The air was fresh and crisp. But seeing her giddy enjoyment was the best part.

Man, I love her.

When the phone chimed again, I shoved aside my thoughts and swiped to read.

MAMA:

The tiramisu is just about ready. Would you like me to drop it off tonight? Or is tomorrow better?

Delilah Satterfield loved big and loved hard. Despite having six children, she had more energy than all of us—plus my three sisters-in-law and Myles—together. Mama never met a stranger. Maybe it was the Southerner in her that never left or maybe it was just her big heart, but holiday meals were always an adventure growing up because half of our company was always someone Mama met who didn’t have family to spend the holidays with, so we became that family.

It only made sense she’d love her kids’ spouses just as well. No mother-in-law joke could be made about Delilah Satterfield. She was the gold standard.

ME:

Pais is already in bed for the night, so maybe tomorrow.

MAMA:

Of course. How is she holding up?

ME:

As well as can be expected. Did Jules fill you in about her memory?

MAMA:

She did. Has there been any improvement? *praying hand emoji*

ME:

Not yet. Hopefully the familiar environment, even if it doesn’t feel familiar, will help. So will you and your miracle-working diabetes in a dish.

MAMA:

Don’t sass me. *wink emoji* I’ll swing by in the morning. Just text me a good time. Love you. *pink heart emoji*

ME:

Love you too.

A sneeze echoed in the hallway, and Juliet rejoined me in the living room.

“You and Myles finally run out of things to talk about?” I asked, putting my phone away.