Her head jerks to me, eyes shiny as I smile at her, then she looks to him. “This is…”

“Dimitri Sinner was such a pleasure to know. I knew I’d get him back to you one day. It just took a while,” he says, emphasizing.

I stroke the back of her hair. “Time to bring him home, darlin’.”

She breathes deep, taking the urn, and then exhales, “Yeah. Home.”

* * *

Colton waits in the car again as we make our last stop before leaving Ohio. We stayed in Hunts last night after seeing Sage and Miles—and he and I and Colt endured wedding planning that none of us wanted to be a part of—and we fly to Utah this afternoon.

Remi and I have been out here ten minutes, our asses on the cold ground. I’ll sit here forever if she needs me to, though.

“Sometimes I realize I haven’t thought about her in a long time, and I feel guilty.” Remi crashes her head into my arm, eyes trained on her mom’s headstone. “I just can’t remember enough good to outweigh the bad, you know?”

I rest my cheek on her head, entwining my fingers with hers. “I do know. My relationship with my mom was very different than the one you had with yours. Mine showed love and affection but never once when I needed it. Crying and having my mom walk by, pretending I wasn’t there so she didn’t upset her husband, kind of beat the clapping when I learned to ride a bike into submission.”

“We deserved better,” she says.

“We get the better now.” My gaze falls to our fingers as I link and unlink them. “It doesn’t take away the before, but we get to live knowing we won’t be treated like that again.”

I move when she tilts her face up, showing me those mesmerizing orbs. “I’m still so mad at her for not being my mom.”

I lick my lips before nodding. “I know, baby.”

The sadness in her exhale mirrors the one I feel when the thought of my mom pops in. I haven’t heard from her. I won’t.

“What if now she can be?” When Remi looks over, I push her hair back, hand lingering. “She wasn’t your mom because of her addiction. But you once told me you tried so hard to love her for the woman you thought she might be underneath. The addiction isn’t in play anymore. Maybe she can be your mom now that her demons aren’t weighing her down.”

“I think I like that,” she says after a second of consideration. “It means yours will be able to be your mom one day too.”