Page 74 of After Midnight

That answer must be good enough for him, because his lips curl up into a smile.

Holding his half-eaten burrito in one hand, he cranks up the Raptor’s engine with the other. Then he looks at me and says, “Good, because I’m not going anywhere.”

My mouth wants to form a smile, but it’s full of a bite of burrito. I swallow, then ask as Seb starts to drive out of the parking lot, “So, where are we going?”

With a quick glance over at me, he says, “I’m taking you home.”

And those words feel comforting and scary at the same time.

Home.

I settle back into the seat, roll down my window, and enjoy my burrito while LA blurs past, punctuated by hundreds of palm trees. Seb turns on music as we drive, some kind of hippie beach band, and I find myself wondering how it is that I already feel so comfortable in a place that I’ve never been before—and how I’ll feel in a couple days when I have to leave.

chapter 32

Sebastian

“HERE IT IS,” I SAY, pushing the door open and stepping back so Remi can walk past me. “Mi casa es su casa.”

She eases by me, still smelling of lemon despite her plane flight here and the burritos we ate in the Raptor, and I almost reach out to glide my fingers through her long glossy hair, as if to make sure she’s not an illusion.

Because Remi is here. In Cali. In my house.

Pretty sure this is actually a dream.

Remi slips her sneakers off and leaves them by the door, then pads down the short hallway into the sunlit living room, where she pauses.

“Wow,” she whispers as I walk up behind her, carrying her bag and suitcase.

“What do you think?” I ask.

She glances up at me, her blue eyes bright in the sunlight coming through the big glass doors that lead out onto the lower patio, with an in-ground swimming pool and a beautiful ocean view in the distance. Her lips turn up in one corner.

“This is ridiculous,” she says, moving to the glass doors and pulling them open. “Who actually lives like this?” As the doors slide aside, the ocean breeze throws her hair back, and her eyes flutter closed for a moment as she takes a deep breath. “I can smell the ocean from here.”

I set her carry-on and suitcase down, then join her in the open doorway, one of my arms slipping around her shoulders. “We can go to the beach if you want.”

“Yes,” she says emphatically, looking up at me with a big smile. “I’d love that.”

“Sweet. We can bring the boards. You ever try surfing?”

She shakes her head. “No. But I’ve always wanted to.”

“You’ll be great at it. It’s like skateboarding . . . kind of.”

“I’m surprised you’re any good at it, then.” Giving me a playful smirk, she pokes me in the stomach, then slips out from beneath my arm, stepping barefoot onto the patio.

“Ouch,” I say as I follow behind her, laughing lightly.

Remi dips one toe into the pool, making the water ripple. Then she goes to the fence surrounding my patio, putting her hands on it and looking out at the ocean in the distance, the water shimmering blue under the sunlight.

It takes my breath away, seeing my desert girl staring out at the ocean I love so much. I’ve pictured her here so many times, have wondered what she’d look like under the California sun, and now that she’s finally here, it almost doesn’t feel real. Like it’s too good to be true.

I shake my head, trying to remind myself that I’m not in a dream, then step up at the fence beside her. “What else do you wanna do while you’re here?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. Walk around LA, maybe. Get good food.”

“We can do that.” I turn, leaning back against the fence. “Would you maybe wanna . . . meet my friends?”