“I do know why, yes.” She thumped him on the shoulder. “I’m surprised she told you. She wasn’t a fan of yours at all at first.”
“I wasn’t a fan of hers at first, either. You were the one I immediately liked.”
“Because I got you drugs.”
“Because you’re the best woman in the world.”
“Want to change your mind about Remy and date me instead?” she joked.
“Yes. Deal.”
She laughed her barking laugh. “Ayuh, you charmer,” she said as she walked off. “Ayuh.”
ChapterTwenty
Jeremiah arrived on Remy’s doorstep the next night as promised.
“No one’s at home!” she yelled in response to his knock.
He didn’t bother answering, just set down the large bag of food he’d brought and tested the knob. Locked. He used the knuckles of both fists to tap out the most annoying beat he could invent.
After three and a half minutes of that, she responded by turning up her music so it drowned out his tapping.
He tugged on the sill of the picture window. It lifted beneath his grip. Lax security around here. He stepped through the window into the living room. Remy was nowhere to be seen.
Bobbing his head in time to the music, he arranged the food on the kitchen counter in an assembly line.
When she finally did walk in several minutes later, wearing overalls and a white long-sleeved undershirt, her hair everywhere, she stopped short when she saw him. “How did you get in?”
“Window. Is this how you welcome everyone who brings you free food?”
“No. This is simply how I welcome you when you and I both know you should be on the mainland at the moment, dealing with . . . stuff.”
“I don’t want to be there when I can be here, sleeping on the bed in Leigh’s spare bedroom, which is as uncomfortable as one of those planks they use when water-boarding enemies.”
The edges of her lips tweaked up. “I warned you.”
“I had abucketin my room last night for catching the rain. Sadly, the single bucket was optimistic, seeing as how it indicated Leigh thought there was just one leak.”
She eyed the food. Baked fish. Potatoes. Green beans. “Is that sourdough bread from the mainland?”
“Yep.”
They filled their plates and were soon sitting in the places they’d occupied at her table before his chest infection had rushed them away.
Pleasure, deep and still as a forest pond, settled over him. Since she’d pulled him from the ocean, he hadn’t belonged anywhere as much as he belonged in this seat in this house.
In coming here, he’d had to pause his hypnotherapy and psych appointments. It wasn’t that he’d lost his hunger to get his memories back. He hadn’t. It was just that this—Remy—mattered more.
“Mm,” she murmured as she chewed her first bite.
It felt warm in here, so he unbuttoned the gray flannel shirt he had on over a white T-shirt. “Mm?” he asked.
“Mm,” she confirmed, nodding.
It took him a minute to remember what she’d told him about the inspiration behind her work in progress before they’d left here. “Are you back to work on your cosmic goblet?”
Immediately, he was rewarded when her face lit up. “Yes. It’s speaking to me and I’m starting to glimpse the path forward.”
