"I'm not really in the mood?—"
"Too bad," Chris interrupted. "You're stuck with us. Besides, you owe us for dealing with your sulking all night. We sound like a bunch of girls."
Despite everything, Grant felt the corner of his mouth twitch. "I haven't been sulking."
All three guys burst out laughing.
"Man, you've been sulking since you got here," Ryan said. "You've perfected the art of miserable silence."
"It's honestly impressive," Mark added. "Like watching a sad, angry statue."
Grant shook his head, but he was almost smiling now. "You guys are the worst."
"We're the best and you know it," Chris said. "Now drink your beer and stop being weird. We've got at least three more hours of bonfire time to get through."
Grant settled back in his chair and tried to let the conversation flow around him. The guys moved on to other topics—Ryan's ongoing battle with his ancient furnace, Ryan and Jenna's wedding plans for the spring, Chris's latest photography project.
Normal things. Easy things. Things that had nothing to do with Grant's complete disaster of a love life.
But his mind kept drifting back to Riley.
To the way she'd looked in the barn last night. Desperate to explain. Trying to tell him something important. And he'd shut her down. Over and over again.
But I need to tell you something. About my job. About what I did?—
She'd been trying to tell him something. Something important.
And he'd told her he didn't want to hear it.
God, he was an idiot.
"You're doing it again," Ryan said, tossing a bottle cap at Grant's head.
"Doing what?"
"Spiraling. I can literally see you spiraling from here."
Grant caught the bottle cap and threw it back. "I'm not spiraling."
"You're absolutely spiraling," Mark confirmed. "Your jaw's doing that thing where it gets all tight and you look like you're trying to solve a complex math problem."
"I'm just thinking."
"About Riley," Chris guessed.
"Yeah."
"Well, stop." Ryan leaned forward. "You can't fix anything tonight. You can't undo what happened last night. All you can do is sit here, drink your beer, and trust that tomorrow you'll have the chance to make it right."
"And if I don't?"
"Then you'll deal with it. But worrying about it now isn't going to change anything." Ryan's voice was firm. "You screwed up. You admit it. That's good. That's progress. Now give yourself permission to just...exist for a few hours without beating yourself up about it."
Grant took a long sip of his beer. "That's surprisingly wise coming from you."
"I have my moments." Ryan grinned. "Plus Jenna's been making me read relationship books. I'm practically a therapist now."
"God help us all," Mark muttered. “I bet the girls aren’t having this deep of a conversation right now.”
