“Ben, I—”
He shot me a look, and I fell quiet with the rest of the table.
Dammit.One Medal of Valor, presented to Lee Stone for her remarkable patience and restraint, coming right up.
Annie beamed at us. “Thank you, dear friends, for celebrating my birthday with me. I want you all to know that I love you very much and think of you as my chosen family.”
“Except for Ted and Ben,” Claire said reasonably. She gave them an encouraging look. “But maybe one day, if you stick around.”
Ben nodded. “Too true. Thank you.”
“Allof you are family,” Annie insisted, giving me another wink. She was in quite a saucy mood tonight. As well she should be, on her birthday. I blew her a kiss.
“That’s why I wanted you to be here when I did something brave and hopeful.” Annie slid her hand behind her into her jacket pocket and pulled out an unmistakable, velvety ring box.
Gasps circled the table. My heart pounded with surprise. Alexis looked like she might faint from pure, unadulterated happiness.
Zoey pressed her hands to her mouth, but Annie gently pulled them away and gripped them with her own. “Zoey. You are the love of my life. You make me happier than I ever realized a person could be, and I work on making people happy for a living.”
She opened the ring box, revealing a beautiful emerald solitaire. My first reaction wasDamn, son, look at those carats, and then the more appropriateOh, good, not a blood diamond.
Zoey started crying. Annie held up the ring, taking Zoey’s other hand.
“There’s nothing I want more than to spend my life with you. Thick and thin, young and old, rich and poor. You’re going to make beautiful art for the rest of your life, and I’m going to be by your side, in awe and supporting you.” Annie gripped Zoey’s hand and my heart swelled. “Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” Zoey sobbed immediately, grabbing Annie’s face and kissing her before Annie could even give her the ring.
We cheered so loud the wine bottles lining the walls shook. “Holy shit, you’re gettingmarried,” I shouted, still in shock. Ben put his fingers in his mouth and whistled his celebration whistle, which he’d once told me his dad taught him to do every time a baseball player hit a homer, at the one and only baseball game they’d gone to before he took off. I looked around the table and found I was the only person with dry eyes. Poor Alexis and Mac looked like they were competing to see who could drown themselves first in human tears.
Zoey and Annie broke apart with a laugh, and Annie slipped the ring on Zoey’s finger, where it sparkled.
“I’m going to be a wife,” Zoey squealed, and all of us burst into even louder cheers. Ted darted away and came back with a waiter and champagne, and from that point on, the night dissolved into bubbles and teary laughter.
It wasn’t until much later, when I glanced away from a story Simon was telling Ben to look at Annie and Zoey, that it hit me. They were entangled, arms around each other, heads resting side by side. And the thought popped into my head: maybe there was such a thing as lasting love.
The idea immediately had my stomach clenching, my brain hurrying to deny it. No, no, that wasn’t true. It couldn’t be. Who had it ever been true for?
But Annie and Zoey were glowing, and they so obviously loved each other, and when Annie proposed, and Zoey said yes, I hadbelievedin that moment they’d be together forever.
A cold fist squeezed my heart, and suddenly I felt like I was going to have a panic attack, right then and there, in the middle of the lovely, happy wine cellar.
“Excuse me,” I said quietly, and when no one objected, I scooted away from the table with my jacket in hand and practically ran out, making my way into the garden patio in the back of the restaurant. It was empty, thanks to the fact that it was December. I tugged on my coat and leaned against the brick wall in the corner, trying to steady my breathing.
In, and out. In, and out.Who in their right mind had a panic attack when one of their best friends got engaged? What was I so afraid of? That Annie and Zoey would prove I’d gotten it wrong about love—that real, lasting love was possible, and there was actually no excuse for my dad and Danny and Andy and me to cheat? That maybe I’d made a series of terrible decisions in my life, pushing people away because I’d believed a lie, and now I was doomed to a life without Annie and Zoey’s particular kind of happiness?
No. Nope. That couldn’t be it.
I thrust my hands in my pockets and concentrated on the twinkle lights strung through the garden trees, like dainty necklaces with small, shining jewels.
“Lee?” The voice coming from the door was cautious. “You all right?”
I knew who it was; I didn’t need to look. The brick wall was cold through my jacket as I shrugged. “Just getting some air.”
Ben slid on his peacoat and buttoned it to his neck, then leaned against the wall beside me, crossing his arms over his chest. “This place opened a few months before I left. You and I went here once on a date, remember? I always liked it.”
I’d taken my friends here after Ben left for California because it held happy memories, and that’s how it had become one of our favorite spots. But I wouldn’t tell him that.
I could sense him glancing at me by the way his body shifted in my direction. “You know, I’m acutely aware I keep following you wherever you go.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I don’t seem to be able to help it.”
