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Once again, Bethan didn’t ask after him, because she knew better. She’d spent the time since Grand Central trying to talk herself into the reality she knew would be waiting for her here. When the greeting party was finished and she felt unduly pleased with her teammates, she headed for her cabin.

Reminding herself fiercely all the way that what truly mattered was the work. The job. Getting to do it in company like this, where she was not only valued but cared for, was a dream come true.

She did not intend to let one man color that because she’d been foolish enough to save him.

Again.

Even if she was desperately, foolishly in love with him.

Bethan had survived that before. She would again.

She let herself into her cabin, shivering as she got the fire going. Then she stood there for a moment as the flamesstarted to warm the place. Waiting for her return to this private space to soothe her. To ease whatever pain she brought with her. To help her leave it at the door.

But it didn’t work.

Because the last time she’d spent the night here, Jonas had been with her. And it was as if all she could see was him now. How easily he’d fit into a space that had only ever been hers.

“This is exactly why you never let anyone in here before,” she muttered at herself.

There was something about how loud her voice was in the quiet of the cabin. How loud she felt, personally, after all this time spent out there in the Lower 48, mixed up in all that noise and commotion.

This was her sanctuary, and she would reclaim it. But she was done with secrets.

She’d risked death too many times to count, but what she had not done was see it come at her the way it had that day in New York. The deaths she’d risked in the past had always allowed her to fight back, one way or another. But SuperThrax had been relentless. Irrevocable. Fighting the onslaught of the toxins in her body had been entirely hopeless.

But she’d survived. Bethan had been given a wake-up call, and this was her second chance. She was going to do it right this time.

She picked up her phone and shot off some texts she should have sent years ago.

And by the time they all arrived, she was ready. She’d liberated what she needed from the lodge. She’d cooked a simple dinner, pulled out a few bottles of wine, and when the first knock came on her door, she stood back. Then let her friends in.

“I knew it,” Everly said, crossing the threshold and grinning widely as she looked around at all the softness and candlelight. “Underneath, you’rejust like us.”

The old Bethan would have argued that point. But then, the old Bethan would never have let Everly through the door in the first place.

“Let’s not get carried away,” she said.

“One of us! One of us!” Everly chanted lightly, drifting farther inside as if summoned by the soft, deep couch.

“This is downright cozy,” Mariah drawled when she arrived, sweeping in like a cloud of perfect hair and cashmere. “I’m not going to lie, I was expecting a CrossFit gym.”

“I wasn’t aware that you knew what a CrossFit gym was, Mariah,” Bethan replied. “But since you do—”

“Don’t even bother, sugar.” Mariah grinned. “I will never run all over Isaac’s beach, slinging tires around, or whatever it is you all do. Never.”

Caradine came next, smirking as she carted in two heavy tote bags. She slung them on the counter, crossed her arms, and aimed that smirk directly at Bethan. “I brought dessert.”

“You’ve become so domestic, haven’t you,” Bethan couldn’t seem to keep herself from murmuring, even though she knew that was risking Caradine’s famous temper. No wise person did that more than once.

But Caradine was different these days, too, and she only laughed. Then indicated the cabin. “Says the woman who lives in shades of pink.”

Which Bethan had to take, because it was true.

Kate came last, her usual cop’s smile turning into something much wider and more real as she came inside and looked around.

By this point, everyone had found a place to sit in the living space of the cabin. On the cozy couch, the inviting chair, and even the soft, cushy rug on the floor.

Bethan handed Kate a glass of wine without asking if she wanted it. She knew Kate did.