Page 13 of Micah

“What exactly?” Cassidy asks.

“You know. Two best friends start sleeping together, even try to date, things are good for a while. Then they start bickering about stupid things that never mattered before until they’re all out fighting.” I can’t help but think about the whole adopting Henry thing that’s been slowly inserting a wedge between us. “And then everything implodes. Their longtime friendship is shot to hell.”

I look at both of them, pleading for them to understand my fear.

“You’re afraid that’ll be you two?” Cassidy guesses, her tone unconvinced.

“I can’t lose Micah. He’s been there for me since college. He’s been through every flat tire, every stressful job interview, and every celebration. He’s the one who convinced me to move to Daisy Hills and take a chance on my dreams after I got laid off and didn’t know what I was going to do. If I lose him?—”

“No man—best friend or not—does all of that for a woman he doesn’t want to marry,” Haley insists.

“M-marry?” I stutter.

“You’re scaring her,” Cassidy says to Haley.

“Look, no one’s getting a ring after one amazing orgasm,” Haley says. “Just…give this a real chance.”

“How?”

“Tell the man to take you on a date,” Cassidy says. “No,demandit.”

“You make it sound so simple.”

“It is simple,” Haley says.

“I’m scared,” I admit.

“I didn’t say it wasn’t terrifying,” Haley says. “But you’ve done scarier shit, right? You picked up your entire life to move to a town where you knew exactly one person. You managed to make immediate friends and launch your dream business. You can do scary shit.”

“I can do scary shit,” I repeat, almost convinced I mean the words.

8

MICAH

“You got it from here?”Caden asks, drying his hands in the bathroom sink. We’ve been working all day to get this studio as close to finished as possible. Aside from hanging photos, I only have to touch up the soft blue paint in a few spots. We’ve hauled the heaviest of the furniture upstairs already, and the rest I can get myself.

With any luck, I’ll be able to show Avery her new photography space this weekend.

“I got it from here,” I answer, straightening one of the dozen of framed photos—Avery’s photos. “Actually, there is one thing.”

“What’s that?” Caden asks, returning to the main room.

“I’m still short a couple of signatures.”

“No.”

“You don’t even know what I was going to ask.”

“I’m not asking Ruby for a signature,” he says, his tone firm. “You can go knock on her door yourself.”

“You two have some beef or something?”

“Or something.”

The fact that Ruby is his business partner’s little sister might have something to do with his unyielding determination to keephis distance. Though I’m tempted to prod him for details, I decide to leave well enough alone for today. I’d never have finished this studio space without his help, after all. “I’m just three signatures away from the covenants change,” I explain. “I should be able to knock those out tonight.”

“Without my help,” Caden is quick to add.

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