Page 15 of Seven of Hearts

“Yeah,” she said as she started unloading the rest of the bags I had brought in from the hardware store. “Geez, they have you changing their air filters?”

“If it has to do with the house or the kids, I get paid handsomely to do it.” I opened the pantry door and pulled out a folding step stool. “Besides, I’d rather change air filters and lightbulbs than deal with engaged couples all day long.”

“Touché. I swear, all logic and sanity go out the window when there’s an engagement ring.” Kylie massaged her temples. “I miss the honeymoon already.”

I laughed. “Lucky you. Not all of us can take off three weeks to traipse around Europe.”

“Twoweeks in Europe,” she clarified. “One of those weeks was in Paris,Arkansas, for Bryan’s family reunion. Not the Paris with the Eiffel Tower and the most amazing carbs. We traded croissants for casseroles.”

I snickered. “You look happy.”

Kylie let out a deep breath. “I am. It feels like we can finally settle down. The months leading up to the wedding were chaotic. And the honeymoon was fun. I have so many photos to show you from the trip, but I’m ready to just be married and enjoy the mundane with Bryan.”

“It seemed like y’all had fun at the wedding, though.”

She smiled wistfully. “It was a dream. And I can’t thank you enough for everything you did. Bryan and I were talking about all the work you and Logan did the week of the wedding. Y’all were a godsend, and we owe you big time.”

I shook my head. “It was in the job description. World’s best maid of honor at your service.”

Kylie laughed. “Seriously, Logan will be back in town at the beginning of September for his birthday. We want to have you guys over for dinner as a thank you.”

My heart did a little flip at hearing his name. “Logan’s coming back to town?”

“Yeah. Kris convinced him to let her throw a big thirtieth birthday bash for him. He’s always been weird about birthdays, but he agreed to it. Probably because it’s his deadline or whatever.”

“What do you mean?”

Kylie worked it over in her mind for a moment. “This stays between us?”

I mimed locking my lips.

“When Will started dating Kristin, he really helped Logan. I mean, don’t get me wrong—he helped us all. But Logan had never recovered from what our parents did until Will started coming around. Will tutored him so he could get his grades up enough to graduate. He helped him get into college. Will, Logan, and Bryan work together now. Lo always felt guilty about everything Will and Kristin did for us, and he got really intense about not letting them down.”

I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Logan since the wedding, but it had been six weeks of radio silence. Hearing Kylie talk about him and say his name fed the addiction I had worked so hard to sober from.

“What do you mean?” I asked, hoping for just a little more.

She shrugged. “Little things, you know? He didn’t drink before he turned twenty-one. He always drivesexactlythe speed limit. He’s so frugal it’s annoying. He never dated anyone long enough to get serious because he didn’t want to get distracted from school or work by a relationship. He’s the youngest VP in the company’s history and he’s on his way to becoming a partner. He stopped gaming when he went to college because ofoneless-than-stellar grade. He literally doesn’t have any hobbies anymore. It’s weird. Like he’s a robot or something.”

I thought back to the guy at the wedding who had been straitlaced but easy-going.

“And Kristin and Will haven’t talked to him about it?” I asked.

Kylie shook her head. “I’ve tried to get them to call him on his shit. I’ve tried to call him on it. I don’t think he ever fully processed everything we went through when we were kids.”

I felt for Kylie. I felt for her and all her siblings—Kristin, Logan, Hunter, and Zoey.

Their parents had gone to prison when we were in middle school. They had been dealing drugs and sold to a kid in Logan’s class, who had overdosed and died. Their world had turned upside down.

I remember Kylie and Logan missing school because social workers were trying to get in touch with their oldest sister, Kristin, who had been away at college.

Before it happened, Kylie and I had regular sleepovers at her house. After her parents’ arrest hit the news, she and her siblings had to move out of their house and into a single-wide. My mom put a stop to those sleepovers.

Kylie could come over to my house, but I wasn’t allowed to go to hers. Almost all of our friends’ parents made the same decision mine had. She suffered from having her social life cut off. I couldn’t imagine what Logan had gone through at that time. Kids were cruel, hormonal sociopaths.

Kylie waved her hand, silently dismissing the depressing turn of conversation. “All Logan told me is that he has to make it to thirty without ‘messing up,’ and that if he does, he’ll have made it. Whatever that means.” She rolled her eyes. “He’s annoyingly perfect these days. I hope he does something crazy when he turns thirty and goes back to normal.” She offered a sad smile. “I miss him. I know he always wanted to get away from Beaufort and leave all this behind, but Chicago is so far.”

“Then count me in for dinner when he’s back in town,” I said as I situated the step stool beneath the one ceiling air vent. “We’ll make him have some fun.”Maybe round two of the kind of fun he and I had indulged in already.

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