Page 113 of Only Between Us

I groan at the ceiling. “This isn’t a manifestation session at all. You’re trying to friend shrink me!”

“Friend shrink?”

I jab a finger in her direction. “Friend shrink! Where we all sit around and talk about my baggage until I have anah-haepiphany in the span of five minutes, then ride off into the sunset like all my problems vanished on the spot.” I take a swig of my drink, working hard to swallow when it almost refuses to go down. “Well, let me disappoint you right here. My problems aren’t made up. They’re not hypothetical scenarios where I assume shit will hit the fan. I’velivedthis before. Tom was amazing until he wasn’t. All over me when he was here, and forgot I existed when he was there. I’m in exactly the same place I’d been then, running a business that can’t have me flying across the country whenever the hell I want. And I’ll never be okay living three thousand miles away from my future husband. Not now, not ever.”

I lift my glass, the liquid inside sloshing around as I silently toast Summer, who doesn’t look at all deterred by my diatribe. In fact, she looks plenty pleased with herself.

“Why do you look so smug? I just dashed all your dreams.”

“No, you didn’t. Your drunk ass just called Brooks your future husband.” She grins over at Mel, who’s been making faces at Pete over the side of the island. “I’m so excited there are three of us now! Oh,fourof us, including Shy. And Rosie! Look at us, upsetting the group’s testosterone supremacy in a single sitting. Well done, everyone.”

“I totally just called Brooks my future husband.” I fold forward, laying my cheek on the cool countertop. It feels divine against my drunk-flushed skin. “Somebody friend shrink my baggage away. Please.”

“We’re trying.” Mel jabs my elbow with her toe. “Stop resisting.”

Summer cracks her knuckles and rolls her shoulders back. She moves her head from side to side like she’s hyping herself up. “Okay, here I go: I get not wanting to live across the country from each other. But what’s stopping you from going with him?”

“Oh, you know. Just a job she hates,” Shy pipes in.

I lift my head off the counter. “I love that shop!”

“Cee, I don’t know who you’re trying to fool with that. You can’t act worth shit.”

“Excuse me. I acted in plays all through high school.”

“Acted,” laughs Shy. “You were Munchkin Number Three inWickedand Servant Number Five inMacbeth.”

She has a point, but I do my best to sound outraged anyway. “Fucking rude, Shy! You said I made an excellent Munchkin Number Three.”

Mel snorts. “Try to sound mad again without giggling through the words.”

Summer claps her hands. “Let’s stay focused, people. Are you completely opposed to LA, then?”

“I have nothing against the city, if that’s what you’re asking. The few times I was able to visit my ex…” The sun, the beaches, the sprawling city and assorted cultures. Ilovedit, and every return home became harder than the last. Knowing there was a whole world out there, but that my place was in a town roughly the size of a postage stamp. In the cramped square footage of the shop.

And then the shame would come, for dreaming of a way out of the better life I was given by people who owed me nothing. Still, it’s hard not to feel as though I’ve gone from one small world to another. Stuck either way.

I press my palms onto the counter. “LA is a bigger, sunnier Baycrest. At least, the parts along the ocean were. I love this area, but it’s… there’s not much to it.”

“I get that—I always preferred the city. It’s why I left.” Mel contemplates me with her cheek on Summer’s shoulder. “It all comes down to the family business, then. It’s the only thing keeping you here?”

“There’s also my mom.”

“Who’s basically in a platonic throuple with my parents. Rachel would be fine, Cee,” Shy says.

“And you and Rosie?”

“Nope, you’re not adding us to the list of things keeping you in Baycrest. You know my parents are already over-involved grandparents.” Shy stares thoughtfully out the window. “If you’re dead set on staying here for the shop, then isn’t the solution obvious? Why aren’t you asking Brooks to sign with the Tigers and play nearby?”

I don’t need to answer the question, because the awkward silence from two of Brooks’s best friends does it for me. Summer and Melody both wince, knowing just as well as I do what playing for the Rebels means to Brooks.

And I’d never ask him to give that up.

Chapter38Brooks

“Bye, lovers! I wish you a night of hot, dirty sex I wish I was having.”

Summer waves enthusiastically from her position hanging over Parker’s shoulder as they head for his Jeep, passing by Zac, who’s tucking a snoring Mel into his own car. Shy already snuck up to bed in one of the spare rooms.

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