“Do you know why he was in prison?” Salem asked directly.
“Yes. I do.” I inched my chin up higher. “I won’t share his past with you. That’s for him to decide if he wants you to know. But yes, I know.”
“And you’re okay with it,” Salem stated. “Aren’t you?”
“Yes.” I stared into the concerned faces of my best friends. “Please be happy for me.”
“We are,” Hadley assured me. “Of course we are. But we just want to protect you.”
“Stop,” I said softly. “Stop trying to protect me. You don’t have to take care of me anymore. That’s not what friendship is.”
“You’re right. That’s not friendship. That’s family,” Salem said. “And you’re family, Poet.”
Tears gathered in my eyes. “Crap. I wanted to be mad at you guys just a little longer.”
“Don’t be mad,” Hadley said, her own eyes looking a little misty. “We know you can take care of yourself. But there’s one in every group, you know? The one that needs a little more coddling than the rest.”
“Coddling hasn’t served me at all.”
Salem pointed to the thermos. “What do you call that? Isn’t that what Brooks is doing?”
“No.” I swallowed. “He’s taking care of the woman he wants to share a life with. It’s not the same.”
“Oh my.” Hadley sighed.
Salem looked at Hadley. “Our girl’s all grown up.”
“It happened so fast. Where have the years gone?” Hadley teased.
I lifted my glasses and brushed the tears from my face.
“So now I can squeal, right?” Salem asked. “About you staying?”
“Squeal away.” I smiled.
“Yay!” Salem wiggled in her seat in excitement and pulled her arms up toward her chest, her fists rattling.
“So, what are you going to do?” Hadley asked. “For your life’s purpose, I mean.”
“Well, I’m helping Muddy with her cookbook,” I said. “That woman knows more about carrots than anyone I’ve ever met.”
“Finally, a cookbook,” Hadley said.
“It’s going to be two volumes, at least,” I said. “She has so many recipes and she doesn’t organize them when she talks. Like, she’ll be making breakfast and start talking about how to make gravy. But then she’ll cut up a piece of fruit and then spew a bunch of ways to dry it, cook it and preserve it. It’s hard keeping up.”
“She is a wealth of knowledge,” Hadley said. “But if anyone can organize her brain, it’s you.”
“Okay, but that’s not really a job,” Salem said. “What are you going to do for work?”
“Tonight,” I explained. “I’ll tell you tonight.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The Ranch
“Okay,” Wyn said, her face appearing on the screen. “I’m here.”
Hadley, Salem and I were sitting in Salem’s childhood bedroom which she now shared with her fiancé.
