Page 77 of Like An Animal

I get up, still wearing the blanket, and walk over to the door, but I almost swallow my tongue when I look inside to see Jeremy buttoning up a shirt over his beautiful tattoos.

It’s not just a closet. It’s a massive walk-in closet with men’s clothes on one side and women’s clothes on the other.

Why are there women’s clothes here? This is Jeremy’s room, right?

I know it’s been five years, but if he found someone else, why did he come for me? Why did he bring me back here?

“Whose are these?” I ask, motioning with a finger toward the women’s clothes. Jeremy walks over to me, a pair of shoes in hand. He places his arm around the front of my waist before kissing my temple, but my instinct is to push him off of me.

Who is special enough for him to let her put her clothes in his closet?

“They’re yours, little ghost. They arrived when we were still on the plane. Get dressed. You have two minutes.”

My entire body stiffens as I grab the first thing I see on the rack and search for the size.

My entire body relaxes before the realization hits me. That’s why Jeremy ripped off my clothes on the plane. He took them so he would know everything he bought for me would fit.

Oh, Jer.

I drop the blanket and thumb through the options he gave me. All of these clothes are more expensive than anything I’m used to wearing. Not just from the brands, but also the quality of the fabric. I thought my clothes were nice, but this is different.

I get dressed in a nice strapless black dress and grab a pair of matching heels because I have the feeling that whoever we are going to meet is very important. If they weren’t, Jeremy would be rearranging my organs by now.

When I walk out, Jeremy is sitting on the edge of the bed, looking down at a watch on his wrist.

He looks up as I try to work through the knots in my hair, but his eyes room over my body. From the look on his face, I can tell he really likes the dress.

“The brush is in the bathroom,” he offers monotonously.

I make quick work in the bathroom of brushing out my hair until it seems mildly presentable. Then, I try smiling in themirror, figuring out if it will look weird when I have to give fake enthusiasm to whoever is here for Jeremy.

Still, it looks weird.

Jeremy always said he could tell the difference between my forced smiles and genuine smiles. It took me a long time to be able to spot it, but I can.

It’s one of those things that once you see it, you can neverunsee it.

I walk back into the bedroom as Jeremy stands up. Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out a wedding band before taking my hand and slipping the ring on my finger. He’s as nonchalant about it as he would be answering a phone call, but looking down at the basic, silver band around my finger makes the paper he made me sign that much more real.

I married Jeremy.

He’s my husband now.

“It would be pretty hard to tell someone you’re my wife without a ring on your finger,” he explains without me questioning him, but I’m not complaining.

It may be a plain wedding band, but it’s beautiful and it fits.

How did he get my ring size right?

“What about yours?” I ask in a sassy tone and he smirks before lifting his hand, showing the matching band sitting on his finger.

“All taken care of.”

It would appear so.

Jeremy walks out of the room and down the stairs with my hand in his. Even though I can feel something bad coming in the air, I don’t feel scared because he’s here with me. Maybe that should make everything more terrifying, but it doesn’t.

“Right in here,” Jeremy says before pushing open a door down the hall from the kitchen. Pressing his hand against my lower back, he guides me inside to see a fireplace, three tallbookshelves, a full bar, three sofas, and a big wooden desk with a man standing behind it, looking out the bay window at the yard.