36. Taylor

"Ninety-nine percent of people are keeping a secret at any given time." ~ Tim Rhodes

"Let's go, Ana."Remi held out his hand.

I stared at it but remained seated in his SUV, praying my phone would ring with an emergency. I'd never wanted to be called into work so badly in my life. It had been two weeks since Remi and I had made things official. In that time, I'd canceled on telling Kane and Ruby twice.

"Why don't we just tell them separately?" I suggested.

"Because we tried that, and you bailed. You texted me to abort the mission, remember?"

I did remember. He wasn't wrong. I panicked.

"Are you that embarrassed of me?" he asked, knowing full well that he wasn't the reason for my hesitancy.

"I just think it's too soon," I explained for the twentieth time.

"Kenna already knows."

"Kenna knows we hooked up under false names; she has no idea that we're actually a couple." She still thought I was dating Dr. Carson Mathis, and I hadn't corrected her assumption.

"I'm done sneaking around," Remi stated firmly. "Thanksgiving is next week. I'm not going to pretend that we're not together in front of our family."

Part of me knew he was right. Another part of me just wanted to keep what was going on between us…well, between us. But it looked like my two-week, or if we're starting from the very beginning, six-week reprieve was officially over.

Control was not something I gave up easily. Remi and I knowing about our situation was controllable. Kane, Ruby, Otto, Kenna, Milo, Mason, my aunt and uncle, and the rest of the town knowing was not controllable.

I took a deep breath and placed my hand in Remi's. My eyes met his as I climbed out of the truck. The second my fingers touched his palm, I knew, whatever my reservations about losing control were, he was worth it. What we shared was worth it.

He bent down and kissed me on my forehead as we walked into The Pig Pen, which was the nicest restaurant in town. We could have just told them casually at their house, but they'd actually asked us out to dinner to thank us for fulfilling our Man of Honor and Best Woman duties.

Remi approached the hostess stand. "Hi, we're here to meet?—"

"They're already here." The cute blonde smiled up at Remi as her cheeks flushed. "Right this way."

As we followed the blonde, whose eyes had turned into heart emojis when she saw my boyfriend, I decided maybe the whole town knowing Remi was off the market wouldn't be such a bad thing after all.

"Hey!" Kane stood from the table and gave Remi a handshake/one-arm hug.

Ruby stood and grinned as she asked, "Did you two come together?"

My first instinct was to come up with a reason for us to arrive together, but I figured there was no point.

I nodded as I sat. "Yep."

We made small talk about Harper, who was at home watching a movie with Otto, until the server arrived and introduced himself as L.J. He read the specials and took our order.

When he left, Ruby asked Remi, "How's mom doing today?"

"She was a little tired, but she took a nap after her online classes."

Celeste had decided to go back to school. She was studying for a degree in psychology. She said that she wanted to specialize in helping people deal with grief and childhood trauma.

I already loved Remi, but seeing how he'd stepped up to take care of his mom, to give her a chance to not just survive her illness but to thrive only made me love him more.

"Oh, that's great, I was—" Ruby began to say before I cut her off.

"We're together," I blurted out.

Both Ruby's and Kane's eyes shot to mine. Their expressions were blank. I couldn't tell what they were thinking.

"How long has this been going on?" Kane asked in his most intimidating, interrogation tone, which I'm sure he used on suspects.

"We met in the airport in Chicago, so, since the night before you picked us up at DFW," Remi explained.

A wide smile spread on Ruby's face as she held out her hand, palm side up, toward Kane. He sighed, pulled out his wallet, and then handed her several twenty-dollar bills.

"Did you have a bet on this?" Remi asked.

"A hundred bucks," Kane replied.

Ruby looked like the cat who ate the canary as she counted her winnings. "This is only eighty."

Kane pulled his wife in for a kiss. "I'm good for it."

"So, wait a minute, how long have you two known about us?" I asked.

Ruby waved her cash. "I knew something was going on when we picked you up from the airport. I could tell there was a vibe. Then, when Remi told us about a woman he'd met while we were eating lunch at The Spoon, I suspected it was you. When we had the BBQ before the wedding, I told Kane, and he didn't think there was a chance. So, I bet him a hundred bucks."

Kane shook his head as he defended himself. "I knew you knew him; I just didn't think you were the mystery woman at the airport bar who had a sleepover."

Ignoring his emphasis on sleepover, I asked, "How did you know I knew him?"

"You didn't flinch. When he took your luggage. You didn't flinch," Kane explained. "And when I asked if you wanted me to ask Ruby if she'd sit in the back seat, you said it was fine. You trusted him, which meant you knew him."

"If you guys knew something was going on this whole time, why didn't you say anything?" I demanded.

Kane shrugged his left shoulder. "We figured you guys would tell us when there was something to tell."

Ruby's smile widened. "Also, it was sort of fun watching the two of you try to hide what was going on."

"You were not subtle." Kane lifted his glass of wine and took a sip.

I thought about pointing out that he and Ruby weren't exactly subtle either since I figured out that they were in love with each other when I was halfway across the world from photos posted on the town's Facebook page that were taken when they'd gone to Movies in the Park, but I figured that might seem petty.

Ruby clapped her hands silently with enthusiasm. "So, is this official? Are you two a couple?"

"Yes," Remi responded instantly.

Ruby squealed as she picked up her glass of wine and took a sip.

"But she won't let me pop the question for another eleven months and sixteen days," Remi explained, even though no one had asked.

Ruby choked on her wine when he made his declaration.

Kane grinned. "You're counting the days?"

"Yes."

Ruby patted her mouth, which had wine dribbling out of it. "Wow, so it's serious, serious."

"I'd go down to the courthouse tomorrow." Remi shared the same thing he'd been saying to me for the past two weeks.

Kane lifted his glass in cheers. "To two of my favorite people in the world finding each other. I could not be happier for you both."

As we cheered, I wondered why I'd been so in my head about Remi and me. Clearly, it wasn't the bombshell I'd thought it was. Had I wasted two months of my life worrying, stressing, and overanalyzing? What if I'd pushed Remi away? What if I'd ruined the single chance of true happiness that I had in this world because I'd been too scared of what people would think? What did that say about me? Did I even deserve Remi's love if I hadn't been brave enough to accept it from the start?

My mind was still reeling as the food came. While the server set down our plates, Remi leaned over and pressed a kiss to my forehead, and whispered, "Stop overthinking. I wouldn't change anything about our story, because it's perfect."

Tears filled my eyes, but I sniffed them back. Remi's uncanny ability to read my mind used to terrify me, but now it gave me a sense of peace and calm. He saw me—the real me—and he loved me. That was why he was my person. And maybe I didn't deserve him, but that didn't change what we had together. And now that we'd told Kane and Ruby, I was ready to shout it from the rooftops. Okay, maybe not, but I was definitely going to tell anyone who asked. Remi Rhodes was mine, and I was his.

He was right; our story was perfect. We found our cloud nine love.