Zeke huffs out a frustrated breath. “How the hell am I supposed to get to the range then, April?”
This time, the sheriff can’t hold back his laughter. “I guess you’d better hop on Hi-Ho Silver there and get to galloping.”
Video Remi and the Remi sitting next to me snort in unison as Zeke approaches the horse warily, still cursing up a storm. I can only catch snippets of it here and there, but every time he swears at Remi, she giggles beside the camera.
Zeke manages to heft his beefy foot up into the stirrup and hoist himself up into the saddle, but Remi nearly loses it and gives herself away when he overshoots his mount and almost goes ass over head to the ground on the other side.
Brant leans closer to the screen. “Is there something painted on the horse’s side?”
Remi snorts again. “Yep. It’s says, ‘Happy April’s Fools Day, Neigh-bor.’”
All three of us bust up laughing.
“He didn’t notice it was there until he was halfway to town and people kept honking and neighing at him. Or at least, that’s how he tells it,” she laughs, but there’s a hint of melancholy to the sound of it.
“You seemed like you had a good childhood, so what happened?” I ask, not able to stave off my curiosity.
Sheriff said they hadn’t talked in a while, and that seems out of character for the doting father and rambunctious daughter that I just saw in the video. You can tell that Remington hangs the moon in Sheriff April’s eyes. Remi leans back and huffs out an exhale.
“That’s a long, boring story. I just couldn’t handle living in that town anymore, and my dad hated me for leaving it. To him, I should’ve stayed inside Endstone’s borders and lived next door to him for the rest of his life. But that town…” she trails off, shaking her head. “I couldn’t do it. I needed to live and experience life outside of Endstone.”
Brant scratches Puddles’s ears when she sets her big block head in his lap. Remi reaches over and rubs at her muzzle, and I don’t miss the slight tension that creeps into Brant’s shoulders. If I weren’t so used to keeping an eye out for it, I probably wouldn’t have noticed, but I cock a brow, immediately wondering what that’s all about.
Brant clears his throat and drops his hand. “Before we moved there, I wasn’t sure how we’d fit in, but we actually like Endstone and how they do things there. It’s tight-knit and welcoming, which isn’t a bad combo to have to adapt to,” he confesses. “Sure, you don’t have the anonymity like you would pretty much anywhere else, but it grows on you. Granted, we’ve only lived there for about ten weeks, but so far, so good.”
Remi closes her laptop and leans back. “Of course you three would like it,” she says with a slight roll of her eyes. Then she turns to study the two of us. “Anyway, let’s talk aboutyou.If you guys don’t diddle each other’s pickles—which I would be totally cool with by the way, especially if you let me watch—then how did you meet and decide to move to a small town like Endstone?”
“Madix and I met at Fort Benning and then were assigned to the same squad. We met Theo on our second deployment when he was reassigned after we lost our Radio Operator. We were buddies on our squad, and then on our last deployment, we were three of the seven that came back,” Brant’s voice trails off, and it grows quiet in the living room.
Remi doesn’t press for information, but she also doesn’t let us off the hook. She simply sits quietly, stroking Puddles’s head and giving us time to decide what we want to share.
“We were too close to an IED when it went off. I sustained a head injury which affected my vision,” Brant offers, and taps on his glasses. “I also have flashbacks and trouble knowing where I am sometimes, but that’s what she helps me with.” Brant pats Puddles’s head again, and she moves to lick his hand.
I wait for theI’m sorry,or some other form of sympathy to tumble out from between Remi’s lips, but she stays quiet. Silence wraps back around us, and we all seem to settle into it.
My heart thumps boldly in my chest. Brant opened things up, even admitting he has PTSD, but none of us like talking about what happened when we lost four of our squad members. Not even me. But it feels weird to just sit here and not say anything. I feel the pressure closing in on me, which is odd, since it’s not like we even know this girl. I’ve never felt compelled to talk about my injury before this.
I find myself opening my mouth to talk about what happened to me, but before I can get a word out, a white ball of fabric falls into my lap from out of nowhere. I jump, startled, and then go still when two black, beady eyes stare back at me.
“Fuck,” I exhale, looking at the opossum that’s still wrapped in Remi’s scarf and looking at me like she’s trying to decide if she wants to bite my nose off or snuggle.
I freeze, my hands hovering over her in alarm. “What...what do I do?” I ask, too afraid to look away from the animal in case it decides a side profile of my nose becomes too tempting.
Remi gives me a look. “What do you mean? You just pet her, silly,” she says, reaching over to grab my hand. My eyes snap to the contact, and I watch with tunnel vision as Remi’s smaller fingers wrap around mine. She pulls my hand down to her weird ass wild pet and helps me go through the motions of petting Cocoon through her...scarf cocoon.
Her beady black eyes continue to watch me as Remi guides my hand awkwardly down her side. But I’m not focused on the pink-nosed, triangle face of the opossum. Instead, I’m honed in on where Remi is touching me. I’m oddly content with the contact, even though I wouldn’t admit it out loud. “See? Isn’t that better?” she asks.
I nod, and she beams a smile at me before releasing my hand, much to my disappointment. When she gets up to put her laptop away in her room, I glance up and see Brant’s cocked brow and sardonic expression.Busted.
I look away and focus on the damn opossum who is now trying to stuff her snout under my t-shirt. I tug it back down over and over, trying to push her away, but after the fifth time, I give up. She ends up crawling under my shirt and settling against my stomach, and her little claws are fucking sharp.
Brant snorts out a laugh. “Nice baby bump,” he teases.
“Shut it,” I tell him. “How was your cold shower?”
He shrugs. “Necessary. You held her hand. I made out with her on the roof with the damn chickens,” he says quietly so that Remi doesn’t overhear.
My mouth drops open. “Youkissedher?”
