“I like Oliver,” Amelia chirps.

“Me too. But it’s a mess, and he said the whole thing was a mistake, and it is a massive mistake. Just look at what happened. I lost the prize money. I lost the chance to write the feature piece. I lost Oliver.”

My mother tuts. “Did you lose Oliver though?”

I make a show of looking around. “He’s not here, and he said it was all a mistake.”

“It’s hard to believe it’s a mistake when you seem like such a great couple,” she says diplomatically.

“But we’re not. This isn’t some cheesy romance where everything works out perfectly. It’s real life.” I swipe my hand across my face, swallowing these dumb tears. I draw a deep, fueling breath, one that I hope masks all this pain in my heart, this wild ache for Oliver. An ache that won’t be soothed. “It’s fine. I don’t want a relationship. I’m not interested in one. It doesn’t remotely make sense in my life.” I hold my chin up high even as my lower lip quivers.

“Relationships never entirely make sense, dear,” my mom says softly. “Did you think it made sense to me when I met your father?”

I furrow my brow. “I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about it.”

She tucks a finger under my chin, tilting my head so she can look me in the eyes. “I just loved him. It wasn’t always convenient.”

I straighten my shoulders. “Well, I don’t have time for a relationship. I’m trying to grow my business, and it’s going to be even harder now. I’ll have to start over.”

“You can do both.”

I stare at her and point out a truth of my whole life. “But you didn’t do both.”

Her brow knits. “What do you mean?”

“When you quit working to help with Dad’s business. You always made comments about how you left your job at the bookstore. You didn’t really want to leave it, did you?”

“Sweetheart. I did want to. I chose to,” she says, rubbing my shoulder.

“Why did you always say that, then? To me? To us?” I gesture to my brother and then to me.

Logan simply smiles, his grin telling me he knows why she did it.

“Because I was proud of my decision,” my mother says. “I brought it up because it was what I’d wanted to do. I was glad I made that choice. I stood by it then; I stand by it now. And whatever you decide, I hope you have no regrets. There are too many other things to regret in life, and I don’t want your career to be one of them.” She squeezes my arm then lets go to tap my chest. “But I don’t think the way you feel now, this hurt in your heart, has anything to do with your career.”

Mags squeezes my other arm. “It doesn’t at all.”

And Amelia shoots me a sad smile. “Just be happy and tell Ollie you love him. Sheesh.”

Logan scoops up his daughter. “You are full of brilliant advice.” He meets my gaze. “And as Oliver’s good friend, let me tell you something, Summer. You might need to spell it out for him—how you feel—because he doesn’t always believe when good things happen.”

My heart crawls up my throat. “You think he wants this?”

Before I can say anything more, my phone buzzes. It’s Oliver. I answer it the second it rings, but he speaks first.

“It’s Ollie, and I’ve come to fix something stupid I said earlier.”

“Yes.”

Logan walks down the hall and holds the door open for me.

Rather than wait, I rush out, down the steps, and into Oliver’s arms, where he waits on the stairwell.

39OLIVER

She’s flying down the stairs, her blonde hair a sheet behind her, a huge grin on her gorgeous face. I stop on the landing, my smile taking over my entire being as I drink in the sight of the woman I love madly.

“It wasn’t a mistake. Nothing was a mistake,” she blurts out.

“I know. I meant it all. I wanted it all to happen.” Words tumble out in a rush, and I reach to catch her and tug her into my arms.

She’s wrapped around me in an instant, arms, legs, and then lips on mine.

“I meant it all, Oliver,” she says between kisses. “I wanted it all to happen. When I said I didn’t mean for any of it to happen, I meant everything going wrong. But not everything that went right. And we’re right.”

I run my arms up her back, holding her tight, thrilling at the feeling of her, at the truth of her words. “We are so right together,” I agree, happiness taking over my chest, sunshine flooding my veins. “I love you. I am in love with you. And I never wanted to ask Emily to prom. I always wanted to ask you.”

The smile that takes over her face is radiant. Beautiful. Magical. And all for me.

“I was hoping you’d say that. I wanted that. I think I started falling in love with you that night all those years ago,” she says, all soft and sweet and so sure.

“I definitely did. But I’m a simple man. It took faking it for me to realize how real it all is. How real everything is with you. I don’t want this to stop. I want it to keep going, on and on, always.” I press a kiss to her lips, savoring the chance to imprint her with the full truth of my heart. “Because I’m in love with you, Summer. Madly.”

She slides off me, planting her feet on the ground, cupping my cheeks. “I am so in love with my best friend. Will you be mine?”

I laugh, shaking my head in amusement. “I’m not letting you go. So yes, I’ll be yours, and you’ll be mine. And let’s not fake a thing ever again.”

She slides her hand down my cheek, stroking my jawline. “I was never faking a thing with you.”

I close my eyes, brush my lips to hers, then claim her mouth in a possessive, greedy kiss that’ll turn filthy if we let it.

So I stop, running a hand through her hair. “After all these years, it’s always been you.”

She rises on tiptoe, kissing me tenderly. “And it’s you for me.”

Then she takes my hand, leads me up the stairs, and kicks everyone out, including her grandmother.

It’s fine by me.

I have plans for her. For her body. Her heart. Her mind.

But I’ll start with her body. Even though I had her mere hours ago, I want her again, and she wants the same thing. We go to her room, strip down to nothing, and I bring her close to me then slide inside her, making love to my best friend.

40SUMMER

A few weeks later

“Hmm. What would taste good with an order of humble pie?” I ask as I peruse the display at Stella’s Cookie Shack.