Riley nodded his head. “Oh, yeah. He was a good kid. Always had a strong sense of right and wrong, even back then. I couldn’t be any prouder of the male he is if he was my own son.”
Remi smiled gratefully, knowing that without Riley he may not be alive today, much less surrounded by family he loved. “Thank you, Riley.”
“My boy has always been something special,” Daniel said. “Remember how protective he was over Avaleigh when he first met her? Stood me off like I better get away from her, or I was going to have to answer to him. Little bitty thing, too.”
Remi sat perfectly still, listening to every one reminisce about him being a little child, and willing Cristie to look his way again.
But she didn’t. It was like she studiously ignored him, and was incapable of hearing any further conversation about him. And it drove him insane. For some reason, it seemed unreasonably important that Cristie hear that he’d always been a good male, even as a little boy.
Bailey listened to the stories of Remi when he was little and noticed that they were either tied to his parents or to Cristie. She tried to smile at Remi, warmed at all the praise they were giving him, but Remi was totally unaware.
Remi was watching Cristie so intently he seemed to have forgotten that Bailey was beside him.
“So, you and Cristie must have really been close. Did you stay in touch?” she asked.
Remi wasn’t even aware that she’d spoken to him. Cristie was his singular focus.
Giving up, Bailey sighed deeply, but couldn’t help that she was beginning to grow upset a little at a time.
Her unrest was what caught his attention.
He turned to look at her with confusion reflected in his expression. “You feeling okay, Bailey?” he asked.
“Yeah. I’m fine. I think I’m just about ready to go home.”
“Are you sure? It’s not even close to over yet.”
“Honestly, I feel like I’m intruding on a family event.”
“That’s ridiculous. I wanted you here with me today.”
Bailey nodded. “I’m sure you did.”
“I’m sorry, I know you had to be speaking to me. I don’t know what’s wrong with me today. I feel spacey. What did I miss?”
“I just asked if you’re still in contact with Cristie. Seems like you were really close as children.”
“We were, I guess. I remember some of it, but, like most people, we grew apart when her parents moved to Missouri.”
“That’s a shame,” Bailey said.
“Well, I mean, we text from time to time, but don’t really talk on the phone or anything. Usually just a few quick sentences for birthdays and holidays and the like.”
“At least you're still in contact.”
“Not sure why she’s ignoring me now, though,” he said, as his gaze traveled across the yard again.
“Hey, let’s talk about Brandt now,” Maverik said.
“Me? I didn’t do anything,” Brandt said.
“Bullshit… you used to push all the older kids around when y’all were kids,” Maverik said.
“I didn’t bully anybody. All I did was make y’all do the right thing you should have been doing to begin with, just like I’m still doing,” Brandt said.
Everybody started teasing Brandt, shifting the attention from Remi to Brandt and giving Remi a break.
Remi laughed as everyone told stories of Brandt as a little boy, already showing signs of being Alpha then. He realized that there was no sound of Bailey’s laughter and turned to look at her.
