“He’s been so worried about you,” Janie adds from thepassenger seat.
Derek sighs. “I know.” The call ends, leaving the car quiet for three whole seconds before the phone lights up again. Derek tenses up, like he’s trying to brace himself for impact, and answers the call. “Co—”
“So you are alive,” Cole growls, loud enough that even I can hear him.
Derek grimaces as he steps out of the car. “Yep.” As soon as I’m on my feet next to him, he takes my hand and leads me up the path to the front door.
“You’re in Los Angeles,” Cole says like an accusation.
“Yeah.”
“You have ten seconds to convince me not to track you down and strangle you, Riley.”
“Don’t strangle me?” Derek tries half-heartedly.
The door flies open right as we reach it, and the man on the other side freezes when he sees us, his phone pressed to his ear and a set of keys in his hand. He wasn’t kidding when he said he was going to track Derek down, though I hope the strangling part was a bluff.
The keys slip from Cole’s hand, crashing on the tile as he takes a stumbling step back, like he can’t believe what he’s seeing. He and Derek stare at each other for a few tense seconds, Cole glaring daggers and Derek turning slightly green. But then Cole’s murderous expression cracks, making way for overwhelm as tears fill his dark eyes. I feel like I’m intruding on a moment they should be having alone, but it’s unlikely that Derek will let go of my hand anytime soon with how tightly he’s holding me at his side.
Derek opens his mouth, but before he can say anything, a loud voice cuts through the silence from somewhere inside the house. “Like hell you’re going without me, Evanson!” A blond man appears from around a corner at a full-blown run but stumbles to a halt when his eyes catch on Derek in the doorway.Liam. He says something that sounds Gaelic and stares at Derek with wide eyes and his mouth gaping open, like he’s seen a ghost.
Another voice fills the silence Liam’s shock leaves behind, this one feminine and sweet, and I recognize Bonnie as she comes around the same corner as Liam, talking to her phone screen. “No, Freya, I know as much as you do. I’ll—” She bumps into Liam, tripping forward.
Derek finally moves, stuffing his phone into my hand and leaping past Cole to catch Bonnie by the arm. They stare at each other, neither saying a word. For a moment, Derek looks at each of his friends in turn, and he looks completely terrified that his friends are going to shut him out. He’s not moving, not even breathing, and worry grips my heart when I wonder if he’s trapped in a spiral, reliving the mistakes he’s made when it comes to his friends.
But then Bonnie breaks, bursting into tears as she throws her arms around Derek’s shoulders in a fierce hug, and relief washes over me when he hugs her back just as fiercely.
Freya’s voice comes through the phone in Bonnie’s hand, a wavering question in Candoran, and a shaky laugh rattles from Derek’s chest. “I’m fine,” he replies in English without loosening his hold on a sobbing Bonnie. “I’m better than fine. I’mhappy.” Freya says something else, and his response is stronger than the last. “Would you calm down?” Her answer sounds anything but calm. “Okay, well, tell your husband that he knows very well that he could have told you what I was doing at any point and chose not to.”
Bonnie finally lets go, sniffling and grinning at the same time, and she barely manages to take a step back before Liam leaps. Literallyleapsonto Derek, latching on like a baby koala. “I thought you were dead,” he practically shouts. “I thought you were killed on a secret mission and Janie was covering it up and all of your posts were AI so everyone would think you were still alive.”
“I’m not a spy,” Derek says, his voice full of exasperation. But he’s also returning Liam’s enthusiastic hug with his own, so even if the annoyance is real, he’s more than glad to see Liam. “Happy birthday, man.”
Liam drops to his feet and shoves Derek in the chest, knocking him back a step. “Don’t do that again,” he says weakly.
“Never again,” Derek agrees.
Just when I think my heart can’t take any more of these reunions, Derek turns to face Cole. Neither man says a word, but in unison they step forward and wrap each other up in a hug, each trying to squeeze the life out of the other.
It’s strange, knowing how deeply Derek cares about these friends of his without reallyknowing. He’s talked about them a lot over the time I’ve known him, but I never fully processed how deep his love for them runs until now as I watch invisible wounds stitch themselves back together. I would have loved for Derek to stay at the ranch forever, grafting himself into my world so wholly that nothing about my life would change except adding him to it.
But he needed to come back. Now that he’s more open and unguarded, he needs to lay himself bare and let his friends love him the way he loves them—fully and without judgment.
When Cole finally slips out of Derek’s hold, he still looks angry, but the primary emotion shining from his face is relief as he folds his arms and takes a moment to study Derek. “Want to meet my son?” he eventually asks.
Derek’s expression softens. “Yeah.”
As Derek follows Cole into the house, Bonnie trails after them, leaving me standing in the doorway with only Liam for company.
“Uh, happy birthday,” I tell him, not sure if Derek needs me to give him courage now that he’s gotten through the hard part.
“Thanks.” Liam narrows his eyes. “Are you the reason Derek has been avoiding us for so long?”
It would be so easy to take the blame. Derek’s dealing with enough guilt as it is, and I could let his friends think that I wouldn’t allow Derek to come home or talk to them. But that would be a lie, and Derek won’tlet them believe anything but the truth. He’s strong enough to face his mistakes and accept that they’re part of being human.
“No,” I say, and my stomach twists at the sight of the hurt in Liam’s eyes when he looks in the direction Derek went. “Before yesterday, I hadn’t seen him since June.”
“Where was he? What was he doing? Why wouldn’t he tell us?” Liam doesn’t seem to want an answer to any of those questions as he runs a hand through his hair, giving me a glimpse of a small tattoo on the inside of his wrist. He meets my gaze and seems to really see me for the first time, taking in my shorts and t-shirt. “How did you get him to come back?”
