11. Remi

"You can fall in love with someone in less than four minutes." ~ Tim Rhodes

"Thankyou for flying Eagle Air. Have a great day."

I grinned at the flight attendant as I passed by her on my way off the plane. I hadn't told anyone about my change in flight, but Ruby mentioned earlier in the week that they were picking up Taylor, the Best Woman, today, so I figured I'd take a shot and see if they were here. If not, I'd either Uber or get a rental car.

I'd never met Taylor before. She and Kane met in boot camp and became fast friends. And that's all they were for over a decade. From what I knew, they only hooked up one time, which resulted in their daughter, but both agreed that they would be better off as friends. From what I'd been told, she was impressive. I didn't know the details, only that she'd had a dysfunctional childhood, enlisted at eighteen, served for four years, then applied for a scholarship through the Navy to cover medical school, which she received and was accepted to. Once she'd finished her residency, she'd served another four years to fulfill her obligation to the service, and now she was going to be working at the hospital in Parrish Creek in the E.R.

Kane only ever had good things to say about her, and I was looking forward to finally meeting her. Not only was she Kane's best friend and baby mama, but she was also the mother of the little girl my sister was going to be the stepmom to. She was practically family.

I shot off a quick text, letting Ruby know I'd flown in a day early and just landed. Before I put my phone back in my pocket, she replied that they were still at the airport and where to meet them. I ‘liked' the message and headed her way.

As I made my way through the crowded airport, thoughts and flashbacks from the night before consumed me. It had been so incredible that it was still difficult for me to believe it happened. But it had. And it was perfect. Even though I wouldn't change a single moment, I couldn't help but regret one thing. I had always tried to live my life in a way that I didn't have regrets, but I had a feeling that not finding out Ana's real name might just be the first and biggest regret of my life.

I wanted to believe that fate was real and destiny would cause our paths to cross again, but I'd learned at a very early age that wanting something to happen or not to happen had no bearing on what actually did happen.

Still, I couldn't help but hope.

Even now, I found myself scanning all of the faces in the crowd like a real-life version of Where's Waldo, except mine would be Where's Ana. My search wasn't totally fruitless. I spotted Kane's head above the crowd. He stood about two inches taller than me and had been that height since we were freshmen in high school.

When he noticed me, he leaned down and whispered something in Ruby's ear before pointing in my direction. I waited to see if I felt any anger or protectiveness. But there was none of that. Kane was a stand-up guy. I knew that he would never mistreat my baby sister, and that was honestly all I could ask for.

As soon as Ruby saw me, she rushed toward me. I threw my arms around her. She'd had a really tough year after her debut performance on Broadway ended in a viral video and an emergency room visit. It had killed me not being able to protect her from the fallout, from the online trolling, and from her losing her career and home. But it all seemed to have worked out because, without that happening, she would never have come back to Wishing Well. And, I could honestly say, I'd never seen or heard her as happy as she'd been since returning to our hometown and being with Kane.

"I'm so glad you're here!" Ruby enthused.

"So am I." I hugged her tightly once more before my arms dropped and I faced Kane. I could see in his eyes that he was concerned I might give him shit about hooking up with my sister, but honestly, I was just so happy for them both. I thought about making him sweat for a few minutes or longer, but instead decided to let him off the hook. I reached out and pulled him into a one-arm man hug. "Hey, man. Good to see you."

"You, too." He patted my back.

"Where's Misty?" Ruby asked.

Right, Misty. That's probably the thing I should have been thinking about instead of obsessing over Ana.

I cleared my throat. "Oh, she's not coming. We broke up."

Ruby glanced up at Kane, probably looking for some indication as to whether he knew anything and was holding out on her. He didn't, and he wasn't.

She looked back at me with a furrowed brow. "You did? When?"

"Yesterday."

"Are you okay?" She reached out and touched my arm, concern filling her eyes.

I understood why she would be worried, but honestly, I was more upset about not knowing Ana's real name than I was about my relationship ending. Which probably said a lot more about the relationship than I cared to admit.

The last thing I wanted was for my sister to worry, especially before her wedding. I figured I'd fill her in on my meet-cute with my mystery woman. "Yeah, I am. Actually, I met?—"

"Daddy, can we go get banana splits when we get home?" Harper, Kane's daughter, asked as she skipped up behind him.

I looked over at her and then noticed a woman walking a few steps behind Harper. Not just any woman. It was Ana. I blinked, thinking I must be seeing things. This had to be a mirage in the middle of the desert-type situation. She was a figment of my imagination.

Then she spoke. "I told her to ask you because I didn't know…" The moment our eyes met, her words trailed off, and I knew that this was real. She was real.

It was her. It was Ana.

Beside me, my baby sister clapped her hands together excitedly. "Taylor, this is my brother, Remi!"

Taylor? This was Taylor? Kane's baby mama, Taylor?

Ruby continued the introduction. "Remi, this is Tay?—"

"We—" I started to say we had already met, but she spoke at the same time I did, at a volume that drowned out my voice.

"Hi, Remi. It's nice to meet you. Finally." Ana, er Taylor's, demeanor was clipped and formal. Her shoulders stiffened as she held out her hand and stared directly into my eyes. My brain was still trying to catch up with what was going on when she doubled down on this being the first time we'd ever met. "I've heard so much about you."

Taylor clearly didn't want to reveal the fact that we knew each other. I understood her not wanting to broadcast that I was inside of her just a few hours ago, but it seemed she wouldn't even acknowledge that we'd spoken before.

I wasn't sure if I should be offended or not by her reaction—but I wasn't. If anything, her behavior only intrigued me even more. Actually, it amused me. Taylor clearly believed that we could keep our illicit night together a secret. She thought we could spend time around one another and no one would pick up on our chemistry—in Wishing Well, where the entire town was fueled by gossip and goodwill. If she thought that was possible, that we could go on like nothing had happened, then I'd love to see her try.

Game on.

My lips curled in a slow half-grin. "It's nice to finally meet you, too, Taylor."

I placed my hand in hers and felt it trembling against my palm. I wasn't sure if it was because she was nervous, although she'd said she didn't get nervous. Or if it was because she felt the same thing that I did about us. Well, maybe not the same thing. I'd claimed that if I saw her again, I'd get down on one knee, and as I looked at her now, I knew that I hadn't been bluffing. If I thought she wouldn't hate me forever, I'd drop to one knee now. I loved this woman. I knew that might sound crazy, but I also knew what I felt was real.

The problem was, I couldn't even tell if she was happy to see me or mortified. If I had to guess, I would say a combination of both. I waited patiently, in what could only be described as a staring contest, to see what her next move would be. I refused to blink or back down first. If this was chicken; she was going to have to bail or deal with the collision.

"Hi, Uncle Remi!" Harper shouted, causing me to forfeit whatever game we were playing.

"Hey, squirt!" I dropped my hand and picked up Harper, spinning her around as she giggled. The moment I set her feet back on the floor, my gaze lifted back up to Taylor's, but she was ignoring me completely.

She held out her hand to Harper. "Do you want to help me find my bags on the carousel, Peanut?"

"Yes!" Harper shouted before taking her mom's hand.

As I walked behind mother and daughter, I was doing my best not to grin from ear to ear. Not only did I know who ‘Ana' was, we were going to be spending the next week together. She might want to avoid me, but that was going to be a lot easier said than done. And I did not plan on making it easy on her.