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I cleared my throat. “She didn’t give me any details, just that you were in the hospital. For all I knew, you could have been dying.”

She looked away, tucking her hair back. “So you came running. Ugh… I can’t believe it’s you. Just… it’s, uh… it’s been a while.”

Suddenly, I was balancing on a knife’s edge, wanting to tip in the direction of Bayview and knowing I needed to go the other way. I steeled myself with a long breath. “I’m sorry… I don’t want to. Honestly. But I need to go back eventually. Go back there and… and not look back.”

She sighed, hard. “That scared of me? Just because I climb through the window?”

“It’s not that.”

She finished off one piece of the pound cake. She was eating faster now. It was a good sign. “Stay here tonight.”

I shifted, a nervous energy buzzing in my chest. “I… I will. Yeah. I want to keep an eye on you. Make sure you’re okay.”

She snorted. “EM one night, Harper the next. Wonder who it’s going to be on the third.”

“Me.” I spoke before I thought it through. Paisley looked over at me, but I kept my gaze straight ahead. “I’m not going anywhere until you’re better. And I meanactuallybetter.”

She stared for a long time before she laughed, soft and sweet, sinking back against the corner of the couch. “That’s kind of dumb.”

“What?”

“You’re just incentivizing me to stay sick.”

“Hm. I’m not accepting that. I’m going to keep feeding you.”

She nudged me with her leg, a playful tap like she always used to do. It had been years,yearswe’d done this kind of thing—Paisley and I lived right across from one another for so long, and we’d only been apart for six months, but somehow it felt like she and I had just been a flash from so long ago. I couldn’t put a name to the sensation. “Don’t you have a job to get backto eventually?” she said. “Don’t tell me you got fired from your fancy cake place already.”

“Nah, I, uh… Susanna said I can work remote once I’m off PTO.”

She folded her arms, giving me a skeptical look. “Making cakes remotely, huh? That’s the future of bakery tech? That what they do in New York?”

“Oh.” I laughed, an awkward sound. I… hadn’t told Paisley a thing. I knew why I hadn’t, just… the whole thing felt wrong, weird, upside-down. “I, uh, I’m C-suite. I don’t actually do any baking.”

“Oh, what?” She raised her eyebrows. “You don’t bake anymore?”

“Did you… think I wear a suit to work in a bakery?”

She blinked. “You know something?”

“You hadn’t thought about—”

“I hadn’t thought about that.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Don’t you miss it?” She cocked her head. “Baking.”

I looked away. “Nah… not a ton. I like baking, but I like this, too. I still do cake decorating sometimes, doing the fancy stuff just so my name can be on it, but mostly I’m in an office.”

“Mm…” She looked down. “You’ve got a whole different energy. Turning into Aria.”

“New York gets through to you pretty quickly…”

“I don’t like it,” she whispered, the words slipping out like she hadn’t even meant to say it. I paused, raising my eyebrows.

“What, I’m too corporate for you now?”

She looked away. “There were already all these things I didn’t know about you… the longer you’re away, the more things pile up about you that I don’t know. I hate it.”