Page 102 of Enchanted

I sniffed. “The Routliff genes are strong.”

“You must miss her terribly.”

“I do.” My voice broke. “I miss her laugh. Miss how she’d always forget the time difference and call me at 3 a.m. I miss asking for her advice or hearing it even when I hadn’t asked. If she were still alive, Dave and I wouldn’t have lasted as long as we did.”

“You wouldn’t have gone through chemo alone either.”

“No, I wouldn’t have.”

Rami hummed, taking the photo from me gently. “I don’t think you should put this on the board. This deserves something more special. How about we get a nice frame instead?”

“Yes,” I hiccupped. “I think that would be wonderful.”

I looked at the next picture in the pile and gave a watery laugh. “Talk about a blast from the past.”

I held it up, the nostalgia of it tinged with yet more grief. The other men in the picture were still alive, but I doubted I’d see any of them again. “This was Halloween when we were at uni. Look at our costumes, they were terrible. I was Batman, just in case you can’t tell.” I handed it to Rami, who was staring at it with an odd expression. “Rami? What is it?”

His throat bobbed as he touched the picture. “Ethan…I know these men.”

“What?” I gave a disbelieving laugh. “No, you don’t. They live miles away.”

“This is Matty,” Rami said quietly, touching Matty’s sunshine smile, “Riley, and Lucky. Am I right?”

What the fuck?

My fingers were numb. “How could you possibly know that?”

Rami didn’t answer me immediately, getting out his phone. He tapped away at it for a few moments before he held it up. “Recognise this guy?”

“Wait…is that Dimitri?” I took the phone to zoom in on his face, smushed up next to Rami’s as they both grinned at the camera. I didn’t know why I bothered; it was clearly Dimitri. “How the fuck do you know one of Lucky’s boyfriends?”

“I know them both, actually. Dimitri used to live with us. He moved down to Southampton after he met Lucky, and that’s when I met the others.”

“The others?”

“I’m trying to think of the ones you would’ve met,” Rami said slowly. “Sebastian?”

“Matty’s boyfriend?”

“Husband now,” Rami said with a wince, like he knew how this information would land. “They got married last year.”

“Oh.” Tears unexpectedly burned at the backs of my eyes. Matty was married. I hadn’t been there. Why would I have been? I wasn’t in their life anymore. “I’m happy for him.”

“Come here, baby,” Rami said, pushing the photos aside. I didn’t move, but he just tugged at me until I ended up in his lap. “I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry you missed out on it.”

“I can’t be upset about it. Why would they have invited me when we don’t even talk?”

“If it helps, I know they’d welcome you back into their lives without a second thought.”

“How can you know that?” My voice was thick with unshed tears. “I abandoned them, Rami. Fucked off to the other side of the world and pretended they didn’t exist.”

“None of them would care about that,” he said, rocking me slightly. “You know Matty would never hold a grudge—he’s too nice for that. Lucky too. I don’t know Riley as well, but I suspect he’s the same if you were all friends once. Especially if they knew the reasons why.”

“I can’t believe you know them.” A sob suddenly broke free. “You know more about them than I do.”

“I’m sorry,” Rami repeated, kissing my head. “Should I not have told you?”

I sniffled, wiping my nose on a tissue Rami supplied from somewhere. “No, I’d rather know. Would’ve been weird if you hadn’t.” Something occurred to me suddenly, making me suck in a breath. “Do you…do you see them often?”