Page 107

Scarlett rolled her eyes. “You’re so hard to get information out of. When did you guys—you know?”

Sam looked away, thinking back to the day it had happened. “A few days after the bachelorette weekend.”

Scarlett hummed, nodding slowly as she took another drink. “Took longer than I thought it would.”

Sam squinted at her. “You expected it to happen?”

“Obviously,” Scarlett muttered with an incredulous look. “You know, you guys are both the smartest people I know. And somehow you’re also stupid as shit when it comes to each other.”

Sam snorted a laugh, taking another sip of her drink. “Thanks.”

“Seriously,” Scarlett continued, leaning back against the countertop. “I don’t know how you guys thought it would go any other way. You’re like magnets. If you’re near each other, you’re definitely not gonna stay apart for long.”

Sam bit the inside of her cheek, looking down at the beer as she swirled the bottle. “So how’d you know something happened?”

“You guys look happy,” Scarlett said with a shrug. “Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen her happy without you, too. But—” she paused, pursing her lips. “It’s different when it’s with you. Makes all the other times seem like nothing.”

That feeling wasn’t exclusive to Jess. Sam had felt it within herself, too. Ever since she’d been back—since she’d seen Jess again—she’d felt an inner happiness that paled in comparison to anything else.

“Yeah,” she breathed. “I know the feeling.”

Scarlett tipped her drink back, taking a long swig. “So what happens next?”

Sam shrugged, leaning forward to rest her elbows on the countertop. “I don’t know. We haven’t talked about it.”

“Well, it’s perfect timing, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re about to sell the company,” Scarlett answered, as if it was obvious. “Won’t you finally be able to stop moving constantly? You can finally settle down and stay for a while.”

Sam glanced down, turning the thought over in her mind. “Yeah. I guess.”

Scarlett squinted slightly, giving her a pointed look. “Then what’s the problem?”

Sam scratched the back of her neck. “I don’t know,” she said with a sigh. “What if the timing still isn’t right?”

She expected an instant rebuttal from Scarlett about how she was being ridiculous, or why she was overthinking things. But instead, she just watched her intently.

“I mean,” Sam continued, straightening back up, “I still don’t feel like I’m where I want to be yet in life. I still have so much I need to figure out, and what if that messes something up?” She sighed, shaking her head. “What if I do something wrong and she changes her mind or—”

“So what?” Scarlett cut in. “You’d rather keep doing this thing you guys have been doing for the last eight years? You’d rather never give it a real shot?”

Sam closed her eyes, letting out a breath. “That’s better than doing it too soon and messing it all up for good.”

“But what does that matter if you never actually end up going for it?”

Sam picked at the edge of the label on the bottle. She knew what Scarlett was thinking. That she was being stupid. And really, she could understand why. But it wasn’t that simple. The reasons why they hadn’t worked out in the past weren’t simple.

“Having the possibility of something working in the future is better than trying and failing and knowing for certain it didn’t work out.”

Scarlett’s eyes softened a touch as she looked at her. “But,” she continued, her voice more gentle than before, “what if itdidwork out?”

Sam stared down at the bottle in her hands, letting the question hang silently around them.She thought back to that first night they’d spent together in Scarlett’s house.

“For some reason, it felt easier at the very beginning,” she whispered. “When she didn’t really want me.”

Scarlett frowned, a dark look flashing through her eyes. “She always wanted you. She just didn’t know how to handle it.”