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“This whole thing with my dad has really messed with me. A lot. My whole life I’ve envisioned this massive wedding—you know, the fabulous dress, hundreds of guests, amazing food, fantastic music, and then a dream honeymoon.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” I assure her. “And I remember the binder you started with all your ideas somewhere back in the tenth grade.”

She laughs softly. “And I’ve been adding to it ever since.” Then she sighs. “But now…I don’t want it. Any of it.”

Vanessa and I exchange worried glances.

“I want to marry Mike. I’ve always wanted that.

What I don’t want is the spectacle. There’s going to be a lot of drama between my parents, and everyone knows about my dad cheating so there’s going to be so much gossip and speculation that the focus won’t be on us—me and Mike—it’s going to be about them. ”

I nod, but I’m not sure what to say. If I were getting married, I’m not even sure my parents would attend!

Okay, that’s not totally true. They’d be there, but like…as guests. I don’t see them playing the part of the loving parents of the bride.

“What are you going to do?” Van asks. “Have you and Mike talked about it?”

I fight the urge to roll my eyes because I am certain they have. This morning, I heard Loren telling him about how she tried putting everything bagel seasoning on her avocado toast.

“We have,” Loren replies. “And I think I know what I want to do. I’m just not sure it’s the right thing or if I’m lashing out to get the attention back on me.” She snorts derisively. “And we all know I am prone to doing that.”

Again, Van and I exchange glances, trying hard not to look overly shocked by her admission.

“What are you thinking?” I ask, because now the curiosity is killing me.

“Our dream honeymoon is Turks and Caicos. We’ve known that for years. So we considered an intimate, destination wedding. Fewer people, less chance for drama, and it would give us a little more control over the situation.”

“Oh, wow! That actually sounds fantastic!” Vanessa gushes.

“My first thought was just to elope. But it felt wrong to punish Mike’s parents just because mine are dealing with this bullshit.

So, we figured if we made it just our parents, siblings, grandparents, and our best friends…

” Smiling, she motions to us and then toward the beach to include Roxie.

“That would be doable. Mike and I would pay for most of it ourselves, so that takes some of the pressure off, but everyone would be responsible for their own travel and accommodations cost. Is that wrong?”

“Are you kidding?” I ask. “That’s more than fair! And why not let your parents pay for it? This is clearly going to be less expensive than your original plans.”

“Because I don’t want them to have a say and tell me what I have to do or who I have to invite. This is my wedding, and I deserve to have the day be about Mike and me.” She looks at us both. “You don’t think I sound too selfish?”

“You’re the bride, Lolo,” Van reminds her. “If there’s one day in your life that you’re entitled to be selfish, it’s your wedding day. Do you know when you’re going to break the news to your parents?”

“Not until Mike and I book everything. Then we want to just present it all as a done deal. And if they want to be there, they can; if they don’t, then…that’s on them.”

“Wow, Lo,” I say. “I am seriously impressed. Well done.”

She blushes. “Thanks.”

“Okay, I need to share something too,” Vanessa blurts out. “And like you, I want to do it while Roxie’s not here.”

Uh-oh…I really don’t want this to become a trend.

“What’s going on?” Loren asks.

“Zayne and I want to move in together. He has a great house, but he’s ready for a change. And I haven’t been thrilled with my townhouse in a while, and we thought maybe we would buy a place together.”

You could have heard a pin drop.

“Say something. Please,” she urges.

“Weren’t we all just saying how it doesn’t matter how long you know someone?

When you know, you know,” I remind her. “You’re not strangers.

Over the years, you’ve spent enough time with each other that you know what the other’s like.

And if you see this relationship as being…

you know…the one, then I don’t see a problem with it. ”

“Same,” Loren says. “I know Zayne’s talked about moving so much that Mike’s actually searched Zillow for him to nudge him along.”

“Seriously?”

She nods. “Mike loves looking at real estate listings. It’s an odd little hobby. He enjoys watching HGTV too. I think if he wasn’t a firefighter, he’d definitely be selling or flipping houses.”

We go over the pros and cons until I almost can’t stand it anymore and before we know it, it’s after five and we still haven’t figured out our dinner plans.

“It’s starting to be that time, isn’t it,” Van says, glancing at the clock. “And I can’t believe Roxie’s not back yet. She’s been gone for like…” Another glance. “Almost two hours. That’s a lot, even for her.”

“Should we be worried? Do you think we should go out and look for her?” I ask, even as I’m already on the move to grab my cover-up and head down to the beach.

But I’m saved from doing that when, not five minutes later, we spot our friend walking up to the deck while being dragged by the dogs. She’s laughing and smiling and looking so much happier than we’ve seen her in ages.

“Come on, you guys!” she says as she steps into the house. “Let’s get some water!” Waving to us, she makes quick work of getting all three dogs settled, and when she’s done, she turns to us. “So? What’s the plan for dinner? Grilling? Sandwiches?”

I start to explain that we decided to go out, but Loren quickly interrupts with, “Why were you gone so long? And why do you look so happy? Normally you look tired when you get back. Right now you’re a little…glowy?”

“Glowy?”

“Yeah. It’s hot like fire outside and you’re not sweaty; you’re glowy. What’s going on?”

Now that I look at her, I can kind of see what Loren’s saying, and when I glance over at Vanessa, I can tell she sees it too.

“I was just…the dogs love the beach!” Roxie shouts, and yes, defensively. “What else would it be, huh? I was out walking and talking to people along the way, and it made me happy! Stop grilling me!”

When she storms off, I immediately volunteer to go after her.

“You guys pick a restaurant, and we’ll meet you down here in an hour, okay?”

I don’t wait for a response before trekking up the stairs to Roxie’s room. I officially moved all of my stuff up into Ash’s room before he even left, so I don’t have the excuse of needing to get clean clothes or anything, but when I find the door ajar, I knock lightly and let myself in.

“Hey. Are you okay?”

Her back’s to me at first. But when she turns around and quickly runs over to shut the door, I know my eyes go wide. Roxie leans up against it and whispers, “I met a guy! He has two dogs, and we’ve been out walking together the last few days, but you can’t tell anyone!”

“So, tell me what your plans are for the next few days. Anything big? Are the four of you going to go out for some big celebratory dinner or are you going to stay in and enjoy the house until the absolute last second?”

I laugh because the girls and I had talked about this exact thing way too much.

“Staying in until the last possible second,” I say with a laugh.

“We’ve been enjoying cooking together—although we went out to eat tonight.

As for leaving, there’s no specific checkout time since we’re not at a hotel or rental, but we want to be on the road by noon on Saturday. ”

“Saturday? Wait…I thought you were leaving on Sunday.”

“That was the original plan, but I fly home on Monday, and we thought it might be too hectic to pack up the house, drive back to Raleigh, and then have me leave the next day. Plus, we thought it might be fun to go out Saturday night for dinner at one of our favorite places from when we were younger.”

“Where’s that?”

“Promise not to laugh?”

I hear him snicker before he clears his throat and somberly says, “I promise.”

“The Cheesecake Factory.”

He’s quiet for a moment, so I’m sure he’s tempted to laugh. “Seriously? They have them everywhere.”

“I know, but we used to go there all the time—all the way back since high school. We thought it would be fun to go and just eat like we used to. It felt like the perfect way to end the trip.”

“Then I’m glad you guys decided to do it. Good for you.”

“Ash?”

“Hmm?”

“I miss you.”

We both sigh. “I miss you too. I wish I was going to make it back before you fly back to Seattle, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Plus, I wouldn’t want to interfere with your Cheesecake Factory night.”

“I wouldn’t let you interfere with it, but I would have loved to spend my last night in North Carolina with you. You know, after we ate all the food.”

“I would have loved that too.”

We’re both quiet, and I desperately want to tell him about Roxie’s bombshell, but I promised I wouldn’t.

All those trips to the yarn store? The guy with the dogs is the owner! Here we were thinking she was starting a new hobby, and she was really just making excuses to hang out with him without us knowing.

Although, she started a really pretty scarf, so maybe there’s an actual hobby in there somewhere.

Still, I can’t tell him about it, because that would be wrong.

So I approach the other, smaller bombshells.

“Have you talked to Zayne? Or Mike lately?”

“We were texting the other day. How come?”

“Did either of them mention anything…relationship related?”

His laugh is low and gruff and so damn appealing. “Relationship related? Are you asking me if they talked about their relationships with Loren and Vanessa?”

“Ugh…yes, Ash. That’s exactly what I’m asking!”

“Oh, um…then no. We were talking about going in on season tickets for the Hurricanes. Why?”

“Zayne and Vanessa are planning on moving in together—like buying a house together—and Mike and Loren are going to do a destination wedding in Turks and Caicos to avoid the drama with Loren’s parents,” I blurt out, leaving myself breathless.

“Oh, we talked about all of that on the drive back from the beach. I figured the girls would mention it to you eventually.”

“Ash!” I cry. “How could you not tell me? That’s huge news!”

“Which one?”

“Both! Sheesh!”

“Liv, I’m sorry. I didn’t mention it because it wasn’t my place.”

“Oh.”

“Besides, I rarely gossip.”

“Maybe you just never had someone to gossip with. But for the record, I wouldn’t mind if you ever wanted to try gossiping. You know, just between the two of us.”

He laughs again. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Good.”

“So it sounds like everyone’s letting down their guard and talking about things that they were maybe waiting to share. Any other big news?”

Hmm…I guess I could mention Roxie’s news—even though I promised not to—but I figure I might as well drop my own.

“Well, maybe just one little, teeny, tiny bit of news.”

“O-kay…”

I let out a long breath in a huff.

“I realized today that I’m scared that I’m going to mess up our relationship because I don’t even know what love truly looks like since I grew up in such an emotionally stunted family!

What if I can’t love you the way you deserve?

What if I screw this all up because I don’t know how?

” The words fly out of my mouth, leaving me breathless again.

He doesn’t respond.

If anything, it’s like dead air on the other end of the phone, and it’s like my worst fears are being realized.

I think I just ruined this relationship before it even had a chance to begin.