Page 170 of Say Yes to the Nemesis

“Good. Because I plan on doing it for a very long time.”

He pulls back to fully look at me. His expression is so tender it makes my chest tight. “Come home with me tonight.”

“Is that an order?”

“It’s a request. A very heartfelt request.”

I pretend to consider it. “Deal.”

He grins and kisses me again, soft and sweet. “I love you, Wren Rustin.”

“I love you too, Ryan Haart.”

“Good,” he says. “Because I’m never letting you go again.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

And for the first time in my life, I believe in promises. I believe in love. I believe in us.

As we get dressed and prepare to face whatever chaos is waiting for us outside this room, I realize that the show was never the real story. The cameras and the drama and the roses were just background noise.

The real story was always just this. Just us. Just two people who found each other and chose each other and decided to build something real together.

Relationships, dating, marriage… Everything else is just details.

As long as he’s with me, everything else can wait forever.

forty-seven

WREN

My hands are shakingas I park outside Jay’s house.

It’s been three weeks since the finale aired, three weeks since Ryan and I went public, and three weeks since Jay has spoken to me for more than five minutes at a time. Three weeks of polite text messages and awkward phone calls where he asks about work and I ask about Calla and we both pretend everything is normal.

But everything isn’t normal. Ever since the show ended, ever since Ryan and I moved in together, ever since I took the promotion to executive producer on a new reality dating show, Jay has been different with me. Distant. Protective in that suffocating way that makes me feel like I’m sixteen again and asking permission to go to prom.

He texted yesterday asking me to come to dinner. Just me. Not Ryan. Which felt deliberate and pointed and exactly like the kind of power move Jay makes when he wants to have A Conversation.

So I texted Ryan on my way over here and told him to come anyway.

I’ve been dreading this for weeks, but I can’t avoid it anymore. Ryan and I are building a life together. Jay is mybrother. These are the two most important men in my life, and if they can’t figure out how to coexist, then I’m going to lose my mind.

Plus, if I’m being completely honest, I’m tired of feeling like I have to choose between them. Tired of Jay acting like I’m making some terrible mistake by falling in love with his best friend. Tired of Ryan biting his tongue every time Jay makes one of his passive-aggressive comments about our relationship.

I sit in my car for another minute, trying to work up the courage to go inside. Through the front window, I can see Jay moving around the kitchen. For a second, I’m transported back to being eight years old and coming home from school to find him making grilled cheese sandwiches because Mom was working late again.

He’s always taken care of me. Always been the one to fix things when they went wrong. But maybe that’s part of the problem.

I can’t keep putting this off. Jay and I need to have this conversation. If I’m being honest, I need Ryan here for backup. Not because I can’t handle my brother, but because this is about all of us now. About the life Ryan and I are building together.

I take a deep breath and walk up to the front door. I still have my key, but I knock anyway. It feels like the polite thing to do when you’re about to have a fight with someone.

Jay opens the door wearing an apron that says “Kiss the Cook” that Calla got him as a joke. He looks relaxed, which is never a good sign when it comes to my brother and difficult conversations. When Jay looks relaxed before a serious talk, it usually means he’s already decided how the conversation is going to go.

“Hey, Wren.” He hugs me, and for a second, everything feels normal. Like we’re just brother and sister having dinner on a Thursday night.