Page 69 of Dearly Departed

“I’m so offended that you’d say that. Can a wife not hug her husband?”

“You can hug me whenever you want, kitten, but I don’t need⁠—”

“Sorry. I have to stretch a little bit.”

Catherine readjusts. Naturally, this has the effect of rebalancing her weight against mine and giving her some leverage to ease me off the pillows. I find I’m not interested in doing anything but keeping my arms around her and my face buried in her hair.

“Whew.” Catherine leans me against the pillows. “I need to start lifting weights.”

“How long have I been asleep? I feel like I drowned in cough syrup.”

My wife cranes her neck to look at a clock on the opposite wall. “Like, twenty hours.”

“What? What time is it?”

“Noon.”

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Have I held anything up?”

“No.” Catherine leans in and puts her hands on my face. “There’s nothing to hold up. The plane will take off when we’re ready.”

“What plane?”

“The plane to France.” Catherine’s face lights up. “Nobody wanted to have Christmas without us, so they didn’t open any of the gifts. We thought it would be more fun to open them at the villa.”

“It’s going to be—kitten, it’s going to be cold and rainy and miserable.”

“It’s going to be cold and rainy,” she corrects. “We’re not going to be miserable. We’re going to be inside a lovely French villa with our family.”

I’m too tired to put up a fight.

Instead, I shower—an embarrassing production involving me sitting on the tiles and a gloriously naked, flawless Catherine washing my hair for me—dress in a set of Gabriel’s traveling clothes, and go down to the kitchen, where I attempt to apologize for sleeping all day.

Gabriel pats my face and refuses to hear any of my apologies. Then he launches into a series of reveals.

He reveals that the rest of his family—Mason, Charlotte, Robin, Remy, Jameson, and Lily—have gone ahead on a separate plane.

“Oh, God, Gabriel.” I lean against the kitchen counter. “We can’t take two separate jets to France. There are environmental impacts.”

“I’ll make up for it,” he promises. “And you didn’t want the nurses coddling you in front of everyone, did you?”

“You’re going to coddle me in front of everybody.”

He gives me a pleased grin. “I’m so glad to hear you’re warming to the idea. Put the flight out of your mind.”

“I can’t put the flight out of my mind. I recently survived a plane crash.”

“I’m fine with the plane,” Catherine says, soothing and bright. “The security is very good. And the pilot comes highly recommended.”

I take a moment to study her honey-brown eyes. “Have you taken a Xanax?”

Catherine winks. “A lady never tells her secrets.”

“She has,” Gabriel announces. “Personally, I think it was the right choice. And now it’s time for us to get into the SUV.”

By the SUV, he means two separate SUVs—one for Gabriel and Elise and Nate and Lydia, and one for me and Catherine and my two nurse-shadows.

I’m about to tell Catherine that there’s no need for this—these lovely people should go back to the base where they work—when my phone buzzes.