They couldn’t know how everything hurt.

I opened the door, and my two best friends stood there, not a lick of pity on their faces, just caring because they loved me.

“So, do I get to cut off his dick?” Addison asked without preamble.

“That just sounds like so much work, and very messy,” Devney put in. “I say we take a trash can outside and burn memories of him.”

I just grinned at them, tears forgotten at the sight of the women who lifted me up rather than tore me down like the rest of the world seemed to try to do.

“I’d say we burn things, but there’s not an inch of him in this house. No memories. No photos. Gone like that.” I snap my fingers. “But you know what’s not gone? That bottle of wine. Let’s work on that.”

“I love you,” Addison said, she wrapped her arms around me hugging me tight. And then Devney was there, holding me too, but I didn’t cry. I’d already done that.

And I had done so for a man they didn’t realize I was mourning.

I wondered what kind of friend that made me?

I wondered what kind of woman couldn’t let go.

But in the end, it didn’t matter. Because I had all I needed. Friends, wine, and a box full of memories I wouldn’t open again.

Chapter Six

August

“So you got Addison to take not only Keelie, but Hayleigh with her on a girls’ night?” Greer asked as she sat down on the couch next to Luca.

“Yes, though I’m sure Devney will head on over to hang out with the girls once she’s finished with her project.” Luca looked over at Heath, who nodded.

“Yes, she doesn’t usually work late at the office, but they were dealing with a firm in Tokyo, and needed to switch their hours a bit. I don’t mind though, because it meant she was able to spend the last couple of days at the house, and rest.” Heath rolled his eyes. “I swear, getting our wives to rest and relax these days is ridiculous.”

I sat back and listened to my siblings discuss their married lives, and who was watching the kids for the night. I didn’t always feel left out of the conversation, as I was the only one not currently married, and unlike Heath and Luca, I wasn’t a dad. However, for some reason, there was an odd sense of loss sliding through me. As if I was the one behind.

It wasn’t as if I had thought I’d be married with kids by now; I hadn’t put much thought into it. But I had been married once before. The first one to do so, even young and blind, and the luck that I had forsaken in the end. And now here I was, the single guy, though I wasn’t quite sure that the others knew that distinguishing remark yet.

But I was the single one, the one who went home to an empty house.

It shouldn’t have bothered me. I had a hundred other things to do during the day, and worrying about being alone didn’t need to be one of them.

We were having a Cassidy sibling dinner, something we didn’t have often. Mostly because our family had grown. Greer rarely had time to hang out with us brothers these days, though she had been the main reason we had all moved out to Colorado in the first place.

After our parents’ marriages and subsequent divorces, it had been hard for us to figure out how to form a relationship with Greer. We brothers had always had each other through the turmoil of connections and lifetimes. But Greer had been alone. It didn’t matter that we had tried to reach out to her. Our parents had cut off those lines of communication. I didn’t know if they realized how painful and damaging those acts had been at the time. To them, they had been merely cutting themselves off from the other parent in the situation. But because they had gone all Parent Trap, they had lost out on getting to know their own children.

My father did not know Greer. Hell, I didn’t know my dad these days either, but my father did not raise Greer. Just like Mom hadn’t raised us boys. It never made any sense to me why they had done that, or why they hadn’t allowed true visitation, but there was no healing those wounds completely. There was still a scab over the wound, one that every once in a while, our parents came back to pick.

However, when we had become adults and realized that we could make our own choices, we had done the unthinkable to our parents. We had moved to be with Greer and start the next chapter together as a family. I still wasn’t quite sure what Greer had thought when she had looked up one day and seen her three hulking and overprotective brothers. It hadn’t helped that she had been dealing with a monumental terror in her life at the time. Thankfully, she had had not one but two men in her life to lean on. Now she was married to both, living a life I hadn’t expected for her, but also knew that it was perfect for her. Both Ford and Noah loved their wife beyond all reason. And I knew that they would protect her soul, as well as her, herself, and her heart along the way.

It was almost as if we brothers were superfluous when it came to her life, but then again, here she was, taking the time to hang out with us like we had wanted when we had first moved here all those years ago.

“Why are you frowning?” Greer asked, as she leaned across the table to tap my knee. She sat on the couch next to Heath, while Luca and I each had our own chairs on either side of them.

I shook my head at my little sister, glaring at her. “I’m not doing anything.”

“Exactly. You’re not part of the conversation. What’s going on with you?”

“Thank you for asking, because he never answers me,” Luca said with a roll of his eyes.

He leaned forward and popped a cube of cheddar cheese into his mouth, moaning at the sensation.