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I opened my arms, and she rushed into them, relief filling me as I held her, inhaling the scent of her shampoo and her skin which had always been uniquely hers alone. “I know you can’t stay. I’m trying my hardest to understand, baby.” I attempted to soothe her, rubbing my hand up and down her back in long strokes, the fabric of her T-shirt warming with my repetitious touch.
She sighed deeply into me as her body relaxed against mine. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and planted a kiss on the top of her head. “Come on, darlin’. Let me take you downstairs, and I’ll cook up some eggs, just the way you like them.”
“I don’t… I’m sorry, but I don’t like them that way.” She pulled her face back to look at me, a smile almost breaking as she bit her lip. “I’m not sure I ever did. I just let you think I did because I wanted to have sex with you.”
“Are you kidding me? I begged my mum to teach me how to cook them to impress you. This entire time we could’ve been not eating eggs?”
“Yeah?” She tilted her head to the side and grew serious. “How is your mum?”
“She has good days and bad. Just like the rest of us.”
My mother had been diagnosed with an early onset of dementia. The fact Alina knew about her to ask surprised me. I had no clue as to how she knew about it.
“Maybe before I go, you’ll take me to see her?”
“Yeah, she’d like that.” On the occasion when she was lucid, she’d sometimes ask about Alina, and on other days she thought we were married or that Simone was her.
Seeing her on the bad days was heartbreaking, but we did our best to prepare ourselves because it wouldn’t get any easier for any of us.
* * *
We’d cooked and burned pancakes for breakfast, which was fine considering the round of hysterics that ensued.
The power still hadn’t returned, making me nervous about leaving Alina here on her own. In truth, I didn’t want to leave her again at all. I wanted to wrap us up in a cocoon and hide away here forever.
She was settled between my legs, with her back resting against my chest while I sat against the couch on the floor, watching the flames dance. She was sliding her fingers into mine, then sliding them out in a touch so gentle it felt like silk sliding between my fingers.
“So, it’s tomorrow,” I said to the room.
I was still hoping for some sort of miracle she might change her mind about leaving. I knew in my mind she couldn’t stay, and I did my best to understand why she couldn’t. Her soul was trapped here, but that didn’t stop the hope in my heart, which surfaced every time we sat or lay together. I was hoping she would develop an addiction to me and our lovemaking and realize she couldn’t leave after all.
“It is.” Her hand stilled for a fraction of a second before it began moving again. “And there is going to be another tomorrow.”
“I guess that means we have today?” I asked her, just as an unexpected loud pounding on the door interrupted us.
There was only one person with timing this lousy, and they weren’t expected until later this afternoon.
“I’ll go,” I offered.
Alina was still dressed in a shirt and panties. And fuck if I was letting my brother see her like that, married or not.
Alina sat forward as I climbed out from behind her to answer the following round of knocks.
Pulling the door open revealed Charlie with a smug-ass smile bearing down on the other side.
“Sorry for interrupting.”
The lying bastard wasn’t at all, judging by the speed at which his smile grew.
“I’m surprised to see you still alive. Thought for sure she would have had your nuts by now.”
Charlie’s eyes wandered past my shoulder. I heard Alina climb the stairs behind me, and I stepped sideways to block Charlie’s view.
“But, maybe she did.” He chuckled in spite of himself.
“Fuck off, Charlie.” I glared at him, his amusement irritating me.
“Road’s clear.”
