“What baby?”
He stared at me, going pale. “Oh my god. Oh my god.Shit.”
“Shane.”
“I—Delilah said something about a ring and a vibe and sheimplied—I swear to god, I thought youknew.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Do Ilookpregnant to you?”
“The biscuits may or may not have gone to your ass.”
I lunged at him. He yelped, dodging behind the car with a laugh.
“Kidding! Kidding! I’m just saying—you’ve got your shit figured out. And that’s weird, Noelle. You were always the flight risk.”
I stopped short, hand still half-raised. “Yeah. I was.”
“And seeing a super fucking creepy monster in the woods cured you of that.”
I laughed, posture melting. “I don’t think it was the monster.”
“Then it was the dickdown?”
I snorted. “No, Shane. It was that…I just realized that the thing that was chasing me was a friend.”
“The ghost cat?”
I shook my head. “I guess. The ghost cat…trauma.Death. And now it’s a friend.”
Shane peered at me. “Morbid.”
“Mmhm.”
He looked at me for a second, brows drawn like he wanted to say something real but wasn’t sure if I could handle it. I waited.
“You scared the shit out of me,” he finally said. “You know—ever since college, I’ve been the one watching your back. You were always flighty and scared with everyone but me, and then you just drop off the face of the earth and land in this backwoods town…and for a hot second, I seriously thought you’d joined a cult. Or…or worse.”
Theor worsehit hard. I swallowed, throat tightening. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he said. “Because then, of course, I show up here and you’rehappy. You’ve got this stupid hot mechanic head over heels for you, a whole family. And it was like you just didn’t need me anymore.”
I stepped closer, letting the words settle between us. “That’s not true.”
He didn’t look at me. Just kept staring down at his car like it might suddenly swallow him whole.
“This whole time, I thought I was your emotional support animal,” he said. “Maybe you were mine, and I just…” He choked out a breath. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do without you.”
I reached out and touched his arm, squeezing gently. “Shane,” I said. “Look at me.”
He looked up. He was fucking crying—the bastard—and it made me cry too.
“I’m not dead or anything,” I said. “You can of course come back to visit. And we’re still doing this biweekly show, and you’renot getting rid of me that easy, okay?”
He laughed through a sniffle, swiping at his eyes like he could erase the whole moment. “Why is that making me cry more?”
“Because we’re best friends and you’ll be so very lonely without me…?”
“God, you’re such an asshole.”
