“Ugh, you sound so in love with me. Fine. I’ll hurry, just for you though.”
She hung up again, my lips curving so damn hard my cheeks ached. This was going better than I imagined. I knew she’d love this, but the glee? Yeah, life with her over the last year had been better than I’d fantasized about.
The last year had been a lot quieter than I ever expected, in the best fucking way. Em’s shop wasn’t a gamble anymore—it was a real business with regular hours, employees who depended on her, contracts she negotiated. Three teams contracted her work now for merch, and she quit all her part-time gigs.
Daniel lived five blocks away now, took classes online, and was her operations manager. Em’s parents filled the grandparent gap, and in a surprise to both of us, her dadlovedMiles. Loved being a grandpa influence on him. They stopped by every other week for dinner and always snuck Sassy treats.
My parents…well, they were in therapy. Turned out, they’d handled their grief horribly. Full asshole mode and realized it. They weren’t completely forgiven, but we’d had three dinners with them, with Miles and Em of course, and they’d been kind. We were a work in progress, but I wasn’t as worried anymore. Miles would never know life without love, and that was all I could control. Sloane helped me see that, and I was once again grateful for our team’s mental health doctor.
Nat still showed up in small ways—songs on the radio, Miles’s laugh, the way Em loved him without trying to replace her—andinstead of causing me to spiral, it reminded me I was doing right by her. I stopped seeing Sloane weekly and only went occasionally on big anniversaries. Miles and I had our own traditions to honor his mom, and his newest one was writing a book for her that we read at the beach. Of course, Sassy was on every page. That dog helped save him, and I would forever be grateful for her.
My phone buzzed again, this time from Audrey and Theo. They also conspired to make today happen. How could I not? Em loved her family.
Audrey: envelope placed, captain.
Theo: okay, I wanted to do that. No fair.
Audrey: calm down. You helped a little.
I shoved my phone back into my pocket and forced myself to stop pacing. The equipment hallway wasn’t built for this kind of emotional energy. It was built for cleats and tape and men trying not to feel too much.
The next call came twenty minutes later. I answered on the first ring.
“You saved this?” Em said, not even bothering with hello. Her voice was shaky in a way that made me grip the edge of the bench. “This picture. I-I… thought it was gone.”
I leaned back, staring up at the exposed pipes overhead. “You left it in a textbook senior year,” I said. “I found it when I borrowed it and never gave it back.”
She laughed softly, then sniffed. “It’s us. In the quad. You look like an idiot.”
“Iwasan idiot,” I said. “But I was an idiot watching you. Crushing on you.”
There was a pause. I could picture it perfectly—her standing behind the counter at the shop, Audrey pretending not to watch, her hands holding the envelope I’d left taped underneath where she always leaned when she got tired.
“The note says you built this while watching me build everything else,” she said quietly. “That’s not fair.”
“Life’s not fair,” I said. “Keep going.”
Another pause. Longer this time. “Noah,” she said. “This next clue…”
My chest tightened. “What about it?”
“It’s sending me to my parents’ house.”
I closed my eyes, my breath slow and deliberate. “You don’t have to go inside,” I said.
She was quiet for a beat. “Of course, I do. You think I’m backing out now? There’s no way.”
“Well, then get in the car—Theo is waiting for you, by the way—and get your cute ass to your parents, please.”
She hiccupped, and the sound went straight to my chest. “Theo is here too? God. This is… Noah. This this the best day of my life.”
“Call me after, okay?”
That was my cue to go pick Miles up from school and Sassy up from the apartment. Everything was right on schedule. The trip took exactly thirty minutes to go pick up Sassy, and as I parked in the school parking lot twenty minutes later, Em rang.
I answered it already standing, one hand braced on the roof of the car.
“Hey,” I said.
