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“I’m back. And I just talked to Mom. She’s not interested in coming to live at the ranch again, but you know you’re welcome to.”

“Oh,” she said.

“What?”

“It’s great that you’re back, Gideon. But you haven’t let me come up to see you. If I hadn’t stormed your house the other day I—Oh,no, I interrupted you and Rory didn’t I? That’s why you werenaked.”

He growled. “I was not naked. And finish what you were saying.”

“It’s just... Are you actually back?”

He looked toward the living room. Toward Rory. “Yes, I’m back. And it’s something to think about. Moving to the ranch. You don’t have to. But you can. There’s something new for you to do, if you want. That’s the point.”

“I appreciate that. But you know, if you’re going to sleep with my best friend, you could maybe try to make that work out for me.” Her voice was dry.

“Who said I was sleeping with her?”

“Well, you didn’t deny it.”

“This is why I didn’t tell you when I came back, by the way. You’re nosy. And sometimes people need a little bit of privacy so they can figure things out.”

“Sure,” she said.

“Tell Rory you want her to stay,” he said.

“You won’t, why should I?”

“Oh, I don’t think that you should try to get her to stay. I just think that you should tell her you want her to. Because I don’t think she believes people care about her as much as they do. I think it would make her feel good.”

“You think you know my best friend better than I do?” she asked.

“Some things about her,” he said. “Yeah.”

She squinted at him. “I guess I can’t dispute that.”

“No. Probably best not to.”

“Gideon,” she said, suddenly sounding very grave. “If you want her to stay, you should ask her to stay. You’ve been so unhappy... And I know there’s more to it... We had so many years where we just didn’t talk to each other. And I just want you to be happy. And if she makes you happy...”

“You can never count on another person to make you happy,” he said. “It’s not fair. Not to anybody. Because when things go wrong, and they can’t do it anymore, everything falls apart. Trust me on that.”

“I trust you,” she said. “But I’m also not completely sure that you don’t exist in a space where you’re trying to self-destruct.”

“If I was self-destructing, I would still be in Georgia.”

“Okay.”

She stepped away from him, and then they rejoined everybody in the living room.

“I should probably head out,” said Rory.

“Me, too,” he said.

They said their goodbyes and walked out the front door together.

“That wasn’t very subtle,” she said.

“Lydia knows, anyway.”