Page 65 of The Final Deal

Wetness cascades down my cheeks. “Hon, don’t say that.”

“That’s what marriage is, isn’t it?” he says as he gazes at me with determination. “Loving your partner so much that you’d sacrifice yourself for them?”

I wipe the tears from my face and lick my lips. That’s exactly what I’m doing, so I should come clean—they’ll understand why I’ve done what I’ve done.

Staring into Zak’s dark and stormy eyes, it hits me why I can’t: they wouldn’t let me go through with my deal if they knew. Just like I’m sacrificing myself, they would do the same for me so I wouldn’t have to—and I can’t let them do that.

How can we have our forever if they give up our chance?

Zak kisses me again. “Go on, babe. You shouldn’t sleep with me in case I shift during the night. I don’t want you to be around that.”

Shannon may have been around it all this time, but I’m not sure how he’s handled it—and I don’t think I’m ready to, either.

I kiss him goodnight, close his door, and head for Adrian’s room. Guess I didn’t have to choose which of them I would be sleeping with, after all.

Even if the decision was made for me, it keeps me up half the night, well after Adrian has fallen asleep beside me. His ass is pushed up against my thigh, like he can’t sleep without touching me in some way.

My eyes flit from my phone to the window when a shadow passes over it.

I rise from the bed and shuffle over, pulling the curtains aside enough to let me peek out into the night.

I can’t make out its colors, but the silhouette of an owl flies toward the moon.

Chapter 25

Phantom Pain

–Gravemind

Fallingleaves still surprise me despite everything being dead in South Texas for over half the year. A cool breeze scatters them across the parking lot, the church grounds, and the cemetery crowded with people, flowers, candles, pan dulce, y mas.

Skipping Dia de los Muertos last year felt wrong. But as I approach the cemetery gates with bouquets of marigolds in my arms, the twins flanking either side of me, and Shannon and Andrea in front of us, everything feels right in the world.

Well, almost.

Shannon brought Andrea over this morning and has been hanging out with Zak and Adrian as us girls baked up a storm in the kitchen. I busted out Lupe’s pan dulce recipes and had to fight the guys off the sweet breads so we had plenty to bring and share at the cemetery and place on ofrendas between our house, Shannon’s place, and the botanica.

Drea carries a container of assorted pan dulce with a big beam on her face, refusing to let her dad carry it for her. Thethought of her being so proud of herself makes me smile as we approach a particular set of graves.

“Huh,” Adrian sounds as we come to a stop. A garland of fresh marigolds already decorates Lupe and Sunny Ramos’s graves.

Shannon’s heart dropping into his stomach is palpable as he swears, “Shit.”

“Mama makes those!”

He spins all around, searching every which way, and so do we until we find her. Kris glances nervously over at us from the other end of the cemetery. Her extra wavy hair is down and blows in the breeze, and she’s wearing a Timeless hoodie and jeans.

Father Tomas has a hand on her shoulder like he’s preventing her from leaving.

“Mama!”

Drea’s excited shrieks pierce the air as she hustles toward her mother. Shannon hightails behind her.

“Oh, no,” I say softly.

“Should we go over there?”

Zak doesn’t wonder—he takes the flowers from me and sets them by the headstones, wraps an arm around my shoulders, and guides me toward his older sister, who hugs Drea tightly when she leaps into her arms. Father Tomas gives us a polite smile and moves on to a family huddling nearby.

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