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Lavi has barely left Nina’s room since finding me next to Meredith’s dead body. Sometimes I feel like she thinks I had something to do with it. Which is ironic, because sometimes I think she had something to do with it.
* * *
I reach the top of the staircase and step onto the second-floor landing. Careful to avoid the creaking planks, I tiptoe down the hall, my gaze locked on the closed door at the end.
As I near the room, my heart starts to pound. I don’t want to see it again, but I keep coming upstairs out of sheer curiosity.
I press my ear to the door. When I hear nothing, I quietly turn the knob and push it open.
My pulse roars in my ears as I peek inside.
My stomach sinks.
Lavi is asleep, curled up next to Nina, her body pressed against my wife’s. Her arm is around Nina’s waist, her hand clasping Nina’s.
Just like she was this morning.
Just like she was the day before.
And the day before that.
22
Tristan
“Hey, Lavi ...”
I’m purposely announcing my arrival so that I don’t walk in on another strange spooning scenario. Even then, I take a second to pause once I’m at the master bedroom door, just to give Lavi a moment to crawl out of my wife’s bed if she needs to.
The whole thing creeps me out.Shecreeps me out.
I hear thepat,pat,patof footsteps, then the door opens.
Lavi’s brown hair is stringy and tangled, and I wonder when she showered last. Her eyes are red and puffy, as if she recently awoke from a nap. Nina is seated in her recliner, staring out the window. An open book sits on the coffee table.
I force a smile. “Do you remember when you asked if Nina had a wheelchair, so that you could take her outside on a walk? Get some fresh air?”
Lavi nods. She speaks to me as little as possible these days.
“Well, sorry it took me so long, but I remembered I do, in fact, have one in the garage. I cleaned it up. It’s at the bottom of the stairs now.” I gesture to the window. “It’s a beautiful morning. I thought you could take her out before the storms roll in this afternoon.”
Lavi considers Nina as if silently consulting her, then turns back to me. “That sounds good.”
“Great. I’ll carry her down now.”
“Now?”
“Yeah, why not?”
“O—oh, okay.”
“Great.”
I step past her and breeze into the room. It smells different in here. It doesn’t smell like Nina anymore. It smells like Lavi.
“Hey, Nina,” I say, feeling like I am speaking to a stranger. In a way, I am. “Lavi is going to take you outside for some fresh air. Doesn’t that sound nice? I’m going to carry you downstairs. I’ve got a wheelchair. You ready?”
I feel Lavi’s judgment as I scoop Nina into my arms. My legs wobble, my thigh muscles instantly ignite. I am incredibly out of shape.
