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“Believe me, I know I was wrong.”

“I would have forgiven you for dying in a snowdrift and ruining my wedding,” Miriam told her, “if I’d known it was to avoid your aunt Cricket.” Under her breath, she muttered, “This girl must like you a lot.”

Tara didn’t want to think about the fact that she’d exposed Miriam to Aunt Cricket’s bigotry, and would, someday, do the same again with a real girlfriend. Assuming she wanted her family to keep speaking to her, which was the only reason she was trying to get married to begin with.

She wondered idly if she could pay an actress to pretend to be her wife a few weeks a year.

Her family would eventually find out. In Charleston, everyone eventually found out everything.

After the blintz breakfast, Cole insisted that he needed to go into Advent for Best Man Duties. And he needed Tara, but not Holly, to come with him. Tara was deeply suspicious about this.

“We can’t just leave Holly here. It’s rude,” she explained patiently to Cole. “She’s my guest. And my girlfriend.”

Cole balled his hands on his hips, chewing on his lip. “Well, there’s the library. I mean, there are two libraries, the one in the inn and the one in Advent. Collin’s diner is a good place for her to hang out.”

“Alternately,” Mrs. Matthews interjected, “you could hang out and bake with me.”

Cole made huge puppy-dog eyes at Tara, and she sighed.

“I’ll hang out and bake!” Holly insisted. “And if Mrs. Matthews kicks me out, I’ll go hang out in the library or at Collin’s. All great options.”

“See!” Cole said, gesturing at Holly. “She’s fine. And when you come back, she can welcome you with extra kisses. Absence makes the heart grow fonder!”

“Yes,” Holly teased, “I will happily welcome you back with extra kisses.”

Reluctantly, Tara followed Cole downstairs and out of the inn, although at least half of her brain was trying to talk her into digging in her heels and going back to kiss the hell out of Holly.

Once she and Cole were in the truck on the way to Advent, she turned to him. “What is happening right now? I’m sure you don’t have a best man emergency.”

He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “Well. Here’s the thing.”

Then he stopped talking.

She waited.

“You’re the only family I have left.”

She kept waiting. Where was he going with this?

“That sounds like a consolation prize, but you’ve met the rest of my family. You were probably the only family I ever had, and you’re certainly the only one I’d ever choose to keep.”

“Miriam is your family,” she told him. “This whole group here. They’re thrilled to have you.”

“No, I know, but like. Not to ever dismiss the importance of queer found family but… there’s something irreplaceable about someone who grew up with you and knows all your shit. Miri has that with Hannah and Levi, and that’s their whole, like, unbreakable bond thing.” He waved with one hand, and she bit her tongue to not tell him to keep both hands on the wheel in case the road was icy.

She wondered if he really needed her, or if anyone who had grown up witness to his family dysfunction would do. “Okay, so you need a family member, why?” she asked instead of voicing this.

It felt maudlin, and she didn’t want to ask him for reassurances. Plus, she’d noticed he hadn’t ended a single sentence with an exclamation point for several minutes, which meant he was serious about whatever this was.

He scrunched up his shoulders, in that way he did when he was nervous. “I need you to meet Sawyer.”

She’d kind of been expecting this, but still, she was surprised that he was placing so much weight on it. “I’ve met Sawyer, remember? At the bar, the night Miriam and I broke up? The same night you met Sawyer. Also I had dinner with him yesterday. He was very lovely and hilarious.”

Nodding, he said, “Yes, but I need you to meet my boyfriend Sawyer.”

Bless Cole’s nostalgic sentimentality (and, as he’d pointed out, absolute lack of other viable family)—if he believed he needed her for this, she would be there for him. She’d be his stand-in family, even if it was destined to be temporary. He was building a new life here, and eventually he wouldn’t need to hang on to his childhood attachment to her.

Why did that make her tear up? It was ridiculous, to feel both jealousy and grief that her best friend was falling in love. She was committed to showing Cole only joy, so she looked out the window for a second, blinking until she could smile brightly at him with no hint of more complicated emotions.