“Leave?” I frowned. “What do you meanleave?”
“We don’t want you to go back to New York,” Salem clarified. “Because why else would you stay?”
I blinked. “Aside from the cowboy currently sitting with your husbands at the Copper Mule?”
They exchanged another look.
My eyes widened. “You thought that was a crock.”
“No,” Hadley said quickly. “We didn’t.”
“You did. Yousodid. You thought this thing with Brooks was . . . well, what did you think it was?” I demanded.
“Not enough to get you to stay,” Salem finally said.
“I’m staying,” I stated. “Because of Brooks. Because of you two, despite how much you annoy me.”
“Think of the cake,” Salem said. “And be less annoyed.”
“Did I give either of you this much crap about your decisions?” I asked in frustration. “About Declan and Cas?”
“No,” Hadley said. “You didn’t. But without the bookstore . . . we thought maybe . . . the pull of your grandfather—and with Wyn still in the city—that you might go back.”
“You thought I was what? Playing house or something?” I asked.
“Or something,” Salem murmured.
Could I really be mad at them for thinking that?
“Your offer is so generous,” I said. “But you know I’d never take it. I’ll figure something else out.”
“So, you’re staying?” Hadley asked, biting her lip.
“I’m staying,” I promised.
The two of them wrapped their arms around me and then we proceeded to eat three quarters of the cake.
I messaged Wyn with a long paragraph of the best update I could muster.
While I was on my second cider, I texted Brooks to come back. I loved my friends, and I appreciated them so much, but he was the one I wanted to cry my eyes out to.
He’d hold me and murmur into my hair and promise me life would have a way of working itself out.
Declan and Cas collected their wives and with a somber farewell, the four of them left.
“You feel any better?” Brooks asked.
I shook my head. “They offered me money so I could open the bookstore.”
“Ah,” he said as he removed his boots and placed them by the front door.
“Aren’t you going to ask if I took it?”
“No. Becauseof courseyou didn’t take it.”
“Do you think I’m dumb for that?”
“No. I think your friends are like your family and taking money from family is never a good idea.”
