Page 104 of Vegas with my Ex’s Best Friends

“Then come stay with us,” he pushes. “I gave you an out. Take a breath. Get some distance from all of this.”

I shake my head.

“I’m not leaving.”

He goes still again.

“Riley—”

“I’m not going to stay with you and Sarah,” I say. “I’m not going back to Portland. I’m not stepping away from this just because it’s complicated.”

“Complicated,” he repeats, like the word doesn’t even come close.

“I know how it sounds.”

“Do you?” he says. “Because from where I’m standing, it sounds like you’re setting yourself up to get hurt again.”

Connor studies me for a second, something tightening in his expression.“And do you even know which one of them is the father?”The question lands hard.I don’t answer right away. Connor’s expression shifts. Not anger this time. Something tighter.

“Riley.”

“Yes,” I say. “But it doesn’t matter.”

“It doesn’t matter?”

“No. We are doing this together. All of us.”

A beat.

“And you’re choosing this.”

I take a step closer.

“Maybe I am,” I say. “But it’s my choice this time.”

He doesn’t answer.

“I didn’t run,” I add. “You saw that. You told them to leave, and I stayed. I’m still here.”

“That’s not the same as knowing what you’re doing.”

“I don’t,” I admit. “I don’t have a clean answer. I don’t have a plan. I don’t know what this looks like in six months.”

I take another breath.

“But I know I’m not walking away from them.”

Connor watches me.

Like he’s trying to decide if this is something solid or something that’s going to fall apart the second he lets go.

He opens his mouth.

Stops.

Closes it again.

Something shifts in his expression—not anger, not grief. Harder to read.