Page 26 of Vegas with my Ex’s Best Friends

No one moves.

We talk about nothing. Morning light, small sounds, three men pretending this is just another ordinary day while the space between us crackles with everything we're refusing to name.

When they finally drift toward their rooms, I stay in the kitchen a minute longer. Three half-finished mugs sit on the counter. Chairs remain angled from where we'd been standing. The coffee maker light still glows. No one turned it off.

Then I go back to my room.

I sit on the edge of the bed.

The sheets are still warm.

None of it actually ended.

My phone buzzes on the nightstand.

Connor.

I stare at his name for two full rings before I pick up.

“Hey.” His voice is warm, loose around the edges—he's been in the sun all day. “You alive over there?”

“Barely,” I say. “Vegas hours.”

He laughs, genuinely, annoyingly good, and spends the next five minutes telling me about the resort, some snorkeling disaster that turned funny, how Sarah got a sunburn shaped like a starfish. I lean back against the headboard and listen while I stare at the wall.

The bed still holds the shape of last night.

I don't move.

“Okay, so.” His tone shifts—small gear change. “I wanted to check in about the Harrington stuff.”

“Everything's fine,” I say. “Dinner went well.”

“I know, Ethan gave me the rundown. Riley, honestly—they love you. Harrington's assistant emailed afterward. You came up by name.”

I don't say anything.

“These dinners run every two weeks through the end of the deal,” Connor continues. “I know I dropped a lot on you. Using you as the family piece—that wasn't totally fair. But you've made a real difference. These guys respond to family, and you've been… exactly what I needed you to be.”

Down the hall, someone opens a cabinet. A coffee cup clinks. Liam saying something too quiet to make out.

Normal morning sounds. Three men pretending nothing changed.

“I need you to see it through,” Connor says. “To the end of the deal. Can you do that?”

I close my eyes. It's not the dinners.

“Sure,” I say.

“Yeah?”

“I'll see it through.”

Connor exhales, warm and relieved, with no idea what he just asked me to carry. “You're the best. Seriously. Sarah says hi, by the way. She wants to do a proper dinner when we're back.”

“Tell her I'd love that.”

We say goodbye. I set the phone face-down on the bed and stare at the wall.