“Things change with your plans over New Year, give me a call, huh?” Damon pulled me into one last, sloppy kiss, completely unfazed by his own nudity.
I wasn’t sure what he meant by changing plans.
It wasn’t like I could skip my best friend’s wedding, after all.
“And hey, Blakely—drive safe, and give me a text when you get home,” he added, leaning out into the hall after me with a little shiver. “Let me know you got there in one piece.”
“Will do.”
I had a lot to think about on the way back to Connecticut, so it was lucky it took a little longer than usual. The darkness and the snow coming in meant I had to take it slow, and what was normally a two-hour drive extended to two and a half. Still, it was an easy journey in the Kincaid-supplied Jeep, with seat-and-steering-wheel warmers, plus a streaming playlist Damon had recommended to me earlier that day—a lot of James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, which kind of surprised me.
But the nostalgia suited me tonight. It had been a long time since I’d seen my best friend Jonathan Ashe, and I was looking forward to seeing him, despite my fears that I’d be the center of very unwanted attention—and matchmaking. I was suited to living and working alone. Northlake was quiet most of the year round, and Stan and the other workers were like me; they kept to themselves. But over the last year I’d felt the need for a little more human company than normal.
Shane had been that human company for a while. He’d lived in Connecticut, a grad student at Yale, and things had been going great…right up until they weren’t. Or, more probably, I’d thought things had been going great. Because obviously, they weren’t. Shane breaking up with me had hit me like some stealth-force SEAL team.
That was what I kept coming back to—the huge shock of it all. I hadn’t seen it coming. Shane himself? The guy was okay. Kind of full of himself, but what Yale law student wouldn’t be? I didn’t miss Shane so much as I missed having something to look forward to—getting away from Northlake, back into civilization…
Which was how I’d wound up on Punishr, and how I’d hooked up with Damon.
And this past month, I’d found myself really looking forward to seeing him, making special time for road trips.
The only reason Shane was on my mind right now was because of Jonny, damn it. Jon had gone full Jon when he heard I was seeing someone, and had immediately offered me a plus-one to my invitation. Shane—when I’d relayed the invitation to him—had gone the color of the snow that spread over Northlake estate every winter, and said he was planning to spend the holidays back in Florida with his family.
A day later, he’d dumped my ass by text.
I’d added Freaks out at any mention of weddings to my Red Flag list, and tried to move on with my life.
Damon hadn’t freaked out at the mention of the wedding. In fact, he’d joked about attending himself…
I shook my head with a chuckle as I remembered his wild cover-up plan. No, I’d just have to admit to Jon and everyone else that I was single—again—and put up with the fact that all of them had managed to find someone this year.
Everyone except me.
All of a sudden, the content nostalgia that had accompanied me so far on my drive back drained away. I turned off the music and focused on the road instead.
I got back to Northlake by eleven, but as I pulled up to Grahame Cabin, where I lived on the estate, my heart dropped.
Another Jeep was parked right outside, and I knew at once who owned it. For a second or two, I contemplated driving all the way back to Brooklyn and begging Damon to let me stay the night after all, but it was too late. The door to my own cabin opened, and Jonathan Ashe rushed out onto the porch, jumping up and down and waving at me.
I put on the hand brake and turned off the engine as slowly as I could, but I couldn’t put off getting out of the car forever. And I was glad to see Jonny.
I’d just thought I’d have another night to get used to the idea of seeing him. Explaining the situation to him.
“Ty-Ty!” he squealed, as I jogged up to the porch.
“Hey, Jonny.” I gave him a big hug, grinning with what I hoped was sincerity over his shoulder at Cooper Kincaid, who was coming through the doorway. “Wow, you guys really made yourselves at home, huh?”
“You told me to drop by when we arrived,” Jon scolded, as if I was the one in the wrong. Still, he had a point. I had told them to come over, and Jon was used to letting himself into my homes, whichever side of the country I lived on. Besides, I never locked the cabin when I went out; there was nothing in there worth stealing.
“I guess I did.” I whacked him on the back to signal an end to the hug, while Cooper sent me an apologetic look.
“I did suggest we come back tomorrow.”
I grabbed his hand to shake. “Good to see you. You haven’t been driven crazy by this guy’s wedding demands yet?”
Jon elbowed me in protest, but he was smiling so hard his eyes were watering. He threw an arm around my neck. “You’ve bulked up, Ty-Ty,” he said. “All that hard labor has really paid off.”
“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” I countered. Jon waved in mock politeness toward the open door. “Come on, loser, let’s get inside,” I said, pulling him with me. “This bulked-up ass is about to freeze off.”
