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He could have said he’d rented a traveling circus, and she would have smiled. The ache of missing him ran deep.

“Hey, Walker.”

“You know you’re a Walker now too.”

“Not officially. I haven’t changed my name yet.”

There was a beat of silence. “Are you going to? I mean, it’s okay if you don’t want to. That’s up to you. Just wondering.”

She hummed and made a show of considering it. “I haven’t made up my mind. Remi Walker doesn’t really have a pop to it.”

“Whatever. It sounds perfect.”

Perfect. He obviously didn’t understand the meaning of the word because he kept throwing it around when she was the subject of the conversation. If anything could throw up a red flag, it was “perfect” and “Remi” in the same chat.

Remi folded her legs beneath her and tugged a blanket over her lap. “How’d it go today?”

“Interesting, to say the least. The hearing went off without a hitch, but apparently Mark and Brittany had a will drawn up by a local attorney, naming me as the administrator of their estate.”

“Did you expect them to have a will?”

“Not at all, but I figured if they did, I’d be the administrator. All that to say it makes it easier to get things done at the probate court.”

“Awesome.”

“No, what’s awesome is that the will names me as their appointed guardian for the kids and names me as the executor of their trust.”

“Trust?”

“Yeah. You’re not gonna believe this, but Mark and Brittany received an inheritance from her grandfather earlier this year. They have zero debt except what they still owed on the house, and they ordered the remainder of their wealth to be compiled into a trust for the kids.”

Remi sat up and gripped the arm of the couch. “Are you serious?”

“I can’t make this up. I’ll have access to the trust to use as needed to care for them, and they’ll have access to the remainder when they turn eighteen.”

“Wow.” Remi stared at the fireplace, not seeing the flames that danced in the dim light.

“We don’t know the total value, but there was an itemization with the will. It was dated this March, and the combined value of their accounts and assets was estimated at two hundred thousand.”

“Two hundred thousand!” Remi slapped a hand over her mouth. There was a chance she’d just woken the kids.

“The car that was involved in the wreck has already been subtracted from that. Their auto insurance is refusing to pay out.”

“Why?” The question was barely a whisper. She hadn’t gathered her breath yet.

“I delivered the medical records to them today. Mark was over the blood alcohol limit.”

Remi gripped her chest. The defeat and pain in Colt’s voice was enough to rip her in two. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, me too. I’d almost convinced myself he’d beat it, but I guess you never really beat addiction.”

Remi sank to the couch and gathered her shirt in her fist. How could she argue? He was right. She would be a grenade until her dying day–waiting for any unsuspecting moment to blow up and hurt anyone close to her.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

It wasn’t her fault that Colt’s brother relapsed and paid the ultimate price, but it was her fault that she’d tied him to a sinking ship.