I saw what he'd dropped on my bed now. His phone. I picked it up and swiped it. There on the cover was a picture from Rafe's and my night at Venice beach. How had he gotten it? We were howling.... He had picked me up high against his body and I'd flung back my head and howled with him.

I now recalled the camera flashes. Had these images been posted to the internet? A part of me was appalled. Had Rafe seen them? I stared. What an amazing moment that had been. The completely tuned in tuned out synergy we connected with was captured in this funny fan based picture. Rafe was looking up at me, howling, but his eyes caught the light and literally sparkled with admiration and happiness. My head and arms were thrown back, my fingers were spread. My hair was flying out behind us. It looked like a halo from the roller coaster lights surrounding us. I felt as if a halo of perfect peace wound around us. That moment we were one. We were in accord. We were---- how to say it? We belonged to each other and to the universe, and nothing else.

I swiped the phone's contact list and was surprised to see that there were only two. This then was Kell's gift for me. The two contacts were himself... and Rafe. I stared--- thinking about the time and distance between us, about what may have changed in the interim. Someone else had died, in our little world. And I had not comforted him from the last death.

I pressed the dial button and held the phone to my ear carefully, my heart beating faster. It was totally possible that he had forgotten me. Perhaps like I'd originally thought, the weekend had been his way of distracting himself from his own terrible loss and grief. Or perhaps he was really used to getting laid, and I had been a challenge, until the very last.... I had let my thoughts run amuck over the ensuing time.

It didn't matter.

"Hey, bro, I didn't expect to see your name so soon. How's it going? What's up?" It was Rafe, and he thought I was Kell, because Kell's name had obviously popped up on his screen. I was impressed that he had answered.

I didn't say anything, hadn't thought about what I might say. Was I just going to say hi, and hope he recognized my voice and hadn't simply written me off?

"Kell? Are you there?"

I tried to imagine where he might be, and for all his myriad ventures—as he'd called them--- I still only pictured him in his own house or on the beach.

"Was this a butt call? Dang...." His voice was so familiar, in all its varieties.

"It's not Kell." I said, rather choked, my tone caught on a strange type of breathy sob. I wasn't exactly crying, but the thoughts were beyond formed.

He was silent, and then the background noises around him faded to dust and he breathed cautiously once again. "Aubrey?"

"It's me."

"Finally! It's you! Finally!"

"Sorry I haven't got a hold of you."

"No--- it's okay. I ran into Kell and he said he'd give you my number. He wouldn't give me yours, or I'd have called you. God, this is unexpected, and---." He seemed to choke on his own emotion as well and I was slightly gratified. "I really miss you. I can't believe it's been this long. I didn't know what happened, and it was impossible to get a hold of you... the hospitals didn't clue in, your office wouldn't give me a home number, and of course, Rosewood is impregnable."

"I'm sorry. I left a note on your back window."

"A note? I didn't get it."

"It was a sticky note."

"Not written in lipstick?"

I laughed. "Sorry. It must have blown away."

"No, I'm the one who is sorry. More sorry than you will ever know. I have to see you. Are you at home?"

"No. I'm at Rosewood."

"I have to see you. I'm going on tour soon--- very soon---." I could hear the desperate distraction in his tone, pictured him running a hand through his hair that was now quite a bit longer. He was pacing.

"I'll probably be home in a week. When do you leave?"

He blew out his breath in abject frustration. "That's not soon enough. I have to see you today."

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and looked up from my perusal of the gigantic flowers on my coverlet. Kell was leaning into the doorway, his dark eyes intently on me, his tattooed arms folded across his chest. He mouthed the words: I. Will. Go. Get. Him.

"Om, Rafe? If you can get away. Kell says--- well, he is a pilot, and he has time apparently today and he can take me down there."

Kell was shaking his head. "He can come to you." He said very low, with that darkly intent perusal.

"Or he can come and get you." I held my breath, figuring he was way busier than me at the moment, and the imposition--- surely he would be booked solid right before leaving on tour.

His voice was lighter than air. "Perfect. I need to get out of here anyway. Let me arrange a few things. God, Aubrey, I thought you'd dumped me. I thought I'd offended you. I know I was too pushy. I'm sorry."

"Stop." I cried, and got up off the bed as Kell held out my sweater. "It's okay."

"Yeah, it's okay. I can hardly let go of this phone, but I have to talk to a couple of guys. Call me when you get here. I'll be ready."

"No problem." I managed, picturing him dropping everything to be here for me. I must have made a lasting impression. I know he had.

"It'll be a do-over." He said softly and I smiled in remembrance of our time together. It had been one fantastic roller coaster ride.

He hung up and I started to sidle past that all-knowing grin now claiming my brother-in-law's lips. But he stopped me. "There are conditions."

"I'm not auditioning for TV or quitting my job."

He drew in his breath sharply and pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. In self defense, I reminded him those were the two things he'd been telling me to do previously.

"Number one: You may sleep together--- not have sex, but sleep in the same room in the same house, and that house will be my house on this property. Maille and I are leaving today. Number two: you may not go to South America with him."

He lifted my chin with his index finger to shut my shocked lips. "I'm not sleeping with him. And not----in your house—and not going to South America anyway!" I was affronted.

"Oh, stop being a Mann girl prude. Not for the first time I wonder how they instilled you all with such deeply held---- never mind. I know how it is done, and I am watching Maille do it to our children as well. I will be combating it for the rest of my life. Fine." He train whistled his breath out. "You will be staying in my house. This room---." He looked around at the Barbie's and the Lego's. "This is off limits while he is in Montana, do you hear?"

I smiled, and brushed by him softly. "Okay, big brother."

"Just so we are clear on that."

"You. Are. The. Big. Brother."

"I am." He followed me out.

******