“Yes.” Lucy nodded and a sweet little smile slid on her face. “He is a very nice boy. He always saves his yellow and pink starbursts for me.”
Colt’s eyebrows slammed down. “I think I need to have some words with Andersson,” Colt muttered, making Mer elbow him again.
“No, you don’t need to have words with Andersson, you need to have words with JP,” Piper said. “Hopefully Richard already is,” she added under her breath.
“Words?” Colt snorted. “I think he needs a punch to the face.”
“No.” My heart rate spiked. “No violence. Please.”
Colt’s face turned red with embarrassment. “Oh, no, I wouldn't actually hit him.” He shook his head. “I was just kidding. I’m sorry, Ali.”
“It’s okay,” I said hurriedly, really hoping to avoid a trip down memory lane.
Mer reached across the couch to grab my hand. “Here’s the only important question: Doyouwant to be with JP? Because I think he wants to be with you. It sounds like he kind of freaked out at the end of the cruise and now he’s regretting it.”
I gave her a doubtful look. “We’ve tried this before; it’d be stupid to try again.”
“Who says?” Mer shrugged. “There are no rules, limitations, or timelines when it comes to relationships. If you two want to be together, then nothing’s stupid.”
Colt gave her a proud grin and dropped a kiss on her hair.
Mer probably had no clue how much I needed to hear that because deep down, I wanted to try again, but I was scared. “I like him, but…”
Colt clucked his tongue. “Always a but.”
Mer clapped a hand over his mouth. “Do you want to be one of the girls or not?” she scolded him.
“But now I’m scared,” I finished.
“Don’t be,” Piper chimed in. “If it’s meant to be, it will be. I know that’s cliche, but in my situation, I was trying to earn love fromall the wrong people, and it just doesn’t work. You can’t love someone into loving you back. And you can’t ruin it with the right person either. You could argue that Kappy and I ruined it a million times, but we eventually got it right. Either someone loves you, or they don’t. Either you and JP will work out, or you won’t.”
“Jeez, that’s a little harsh, P,” Colt said.
Piper shrugged. “I know, but that’s what I learned.”
“She’s right,” I butted in. In the past, I did everything I could to earn love from my ex-husband, but nothing could ever work because the love just wasn’t there.
“Well, I repeat, JP-shmay-pee,” Colt said. “You can stay here as long as you want, Al Pal. You can move in permanently for all we care. We can be likeFull Houseand raise all the kiddies together, right?” he asked his wife.
Mer’s face lit up as she hugged his large arm to her chest. “Wait, that’d be so fun,” she said in a rush. “We could totally do that.”
I laughed. “Thank you for the offer, seriously, but I’ll be out of your hair as soon as I figure some things out.”
“Take your time.” Colt waved me off. “And for what it’s worth, I think JP needs to grovel more.”
“You do?” Mer asked, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise.
“Yupp.” He turned to me. “It’s up tohimto take action. JP needs to put in the work and show that he’s here to stay. He needs to own up to the fact that he blindsided you. He’s the one who made you scared to trust him, so it’s up to him to earn that trust back. If he doesn’t do that, he’s not worth your time.”
Mer gave her husband a proud grin.
“You guys are, like, annoyingly healthy.” Piper rolled her eyes, then she leaned toward Lucy. “Wanna prank Kappy with the cat monitor?”
“Yes!” Lucy jumped up and down.
“Should I be concerned?” Colt asked while watching Piper and Lucy cackle evilly into her phone.
“Maybe just for Kappy,” Mer said with a giggle.
