Chapter 33
ELARA
There’s a lot of mess to clean up at the cabin, but I’m glad to do the work.
I’m doubly glad when I hear Mira humming under her breath as she wipes down the kitchen cabinets.
It’s been two days since it all happened, since I looked into the eyes of the man who killed my parents and extinguished his light forever.
Mira looks up with a giant smile on her face when Rhett walks into the room. He’s wearing a T-shirt that hugs those oh-so tempting arms of his. They’re mouthwatering even with a bandage on one of them.
He winks at Mira, kneeling down to pull her into a hug. She laughs and throws her arms around him.
“Is this little lady too old for an airplane ride?” he asks.
“No way!” She cries.
My heart glows as I watch him run around the cabin with her, Mira’s arms at her sides, laughing in delight as she turns this way then that. I’ve had my fair share of crying and breaking down since I took my first life, but it’s been nowhere near as bad as I thought it could be.
The thing is, and this is cold…
He deserved it. He deserved even worse than he got. He was an evil man who’d done evil things, and if it means I’m a little broken for not hating myself for what I did, then fine, screw it. Maybe I am. Maybe we all are, the three of us, this perfectly imperfect found family of ours.
Rhett puts Mira down. Mira tugs on his hand, and he leans down as she whispers something.
“Keeping secrets now, are we?” I tease.
Mira skips over, tugging on my hand. Rhett stands a few feet away, a small smile on his lips. I love when he looks at me like this, that smile tugging at a mouth that was once so stern and serious.
“Sissy,” Mira says. “Me and Rhett have got a surprise for you.”
“A good surprise?” I ask.
Mira swallows audibly, then nods. “I hope it’s a great surprise. Do you want to see?”
“Sure.” I look around. “Where is it?”
Mira turns to Rhett, who walks across the room and wraps his arm around me. This has felt natural ever since he first did it, but now, it’s like we belong together. I’m being careful with those sorts of thoughts, though.
What if I’m still in shock? What if I need time to process all this craziness?
“We need to take a drive,” Rhett says, kissing me on the cheek.
“Oh yeah? Where are we going?”
“Sissy!” Mira says, laughing. “It’s a surprise, duh.”
As we drive toward the Peaks, I smile at Mira in the back seat. She’s one of the main reasons I can’t feel guilty for what I did, for what Rhett helped me do. Let’s say Lucian got caught, returned to prison, then was released in just a few years…
Who’s to say he wouldn’t find us again one day? Perhaps in his warped mind, he’d become obsessed with Mira next instead of me.
Rhett reaches over and squeezes my hand. When he looks at me with one of his eyebrows raised like that, I know he’s asking me if I’m okay. I give him one squeeze back, which means yes. Two squeezes mean no, and I’ve only had to use this one…
We were with Marshall and Lucy last night, and I just needed a moment to calm down and decompress. Rhett was so smooth, making an excuse so that we could leave early. We’re having dinner with them tomorrow to make up for it.
The closer we get, the giddier Mira becomes, bouncing up and down in her seat with a big smile on her face.
“Are you sure you don’t want to tell me what’s going on?”
Mira giggles. “And ruin the surprise? No way!”
When we pull up outside the gallery where Lucian pulled one of his stunts, I glare at Rhett, looking for an answer. He leans in and gently kisses me on the cheek, then whispers in my ear, “Remember last night, when I asked if you’d ever like your work on display?”
I nod, savoring the feeling of his breath moving down my neck. I remember the conversation well. We were lying side by side, naked after we’d just made love for the first time following the murder.
He asked me, and I said, I would, but I wouldn’t want a big opening or anything…
My heart flutters wildly in my chest. He leans back with a smirk on his face. “Good news, then?”
“Can we go inside, please?” Mira pleads.
“Yeah, sure.”
I push open the door, then go to the back seat, but Mira is already climbing out. She shoots me a I’m not a baby look, and I hold my hands up in defeat. In one hand I hold Rhett, and in the other, I hold my baby sister.
“Are you ready?” Mira asks me, so giddy I could weep.
“Hell yeah!”
We walk into the gallery together. The manager, Marjorie, is wearing a slick suit, just like before. She smiles warmly and offers me her hand. “I had no idea you were so talented,” she says. “To think I had such a legend in my gallery and I never knew!”
I laugh, rolling my eyes. “I don’t know about that.”
“Come on,” Mira says, tugging urgently on my hand.
We walk deeper into the gallery. When I see the first photo of Mom and Dad and Mira standing at the edge of a forest backlit by the moon, I almost break down in tears. Rhett steadies me with his hand as we walk through the gallery, my work bordering me on all sides.
There’s a photo of our old house that looks like it’s smiling with the light reflecting off the windows. There’s a photo that appears as if Mira is holding a big knife, but it’s a trick of perspective that becomes clear after a few moments of staring.
My favorite is of Dad leaning against his car, hands in his pockets.
“He looks like a cowboy,” Mira says, grinning up at the photo of our father.
Tears fill my eyes as I look at her, then the photo, then back at her. For so long, she’s struggled to talk about or even think about Dad. Now look at her.
We spend some more time walking around. Rhett studies each photo, a warm smile on his face. I rest my head against his chest when we come to one of the oceans. Mira is behind us, talking loudly with Marjorie about the picture which features her firing a bow and arrow.
“What now?” I whisper.
“I was thinking we’d grab some dinner…”
“No, Rhett. What now? What happens next?”
“I’ve been thinking, Sunshine. I know it’s fast. But things have moved fast for us. What if you and Mira moved i—”
I cut him off with a passionate kiss, pushing my body against his. I dig my fingers into his sides as I lean back in his embrace, gazing up at him.
“I want that,” I murmur. “There’s so much I want, Rhett. But I think…” I hesitate.
He gently brushes his hand across my face. “Hey, it’s okay. You can say it. Whatever it is.”
“I think I need to do the grownup thing and make sure I’m one hundred percent up here…” I tap the side of my head. “Before I let this rule me.” I tap my chest, my heart.
He smiles softly, pulling me into a hug. “Then, for now, beautiful, it’s enough to just hold you.”
“Actually, I have a question for you.”
He tilts his head down at me.
“Will you be my boyfriend for real?”
He chuckles, his eyes lighting up, leaning in for another kiss. “I thought you were never going to ask…”
I laugh as our lips collide.