job in Boston. Or somewhere else where you can be together, but be close enough to home that you could come often.”
Yeah. It sounded good when Devon said it. Allie just wasn’t sure she could turn it into reality.
“He likes polar bears,” she said, pushing up from the curb and brushing the seat of her pants off. “There are only seven polar bear populations in the world and only two in North America. So, it’s Alaska or Canada. Both far away from the harbor.”
Devon couldn’t reply to that because Josh pulled up just then.
Josh stepped out and looked at them with a bemused expression over the top of the car.
Allie looked at Devon and she looked at Allie. Devon’s clothes and hair were rumpled, there were blades of grass clinging to her pants and she had that funny, dazed look in her eyes that came from too much tequila in too short a period.
Allie probably looked even worse.
“Can you take me home?” Allie asked Josh, knowing he’d say yes.
“Yes,” he said simply. “I can even buy you coffee on the way.”
“I don’t want coffee,” she told him, gathering her shoes—that she’d kicked off at some point—and shot glasses and mostly empty tequila bottle. “That might sober me up.”
“So you did get drunk on purpose.” He reached out to help her into the backseat of the car, probably afraid she’d break the bottle on the door.
“I drank on purpose,” she told him. “The amount snuck up on me.”
“Gavin’s on his way.”
“He’s going to Dad’s.” She frowned at Josh. “Why’d you call him anyway?”
“He came four thousand miles from Alaska for you. Twice. Pretty sure he’d want to be with you right now.”
The truth—and sweetness—of that hit her in the chest. “But I can’t believe you called Gavin to come be with me. Doesn’t that strike you as a little odd?” she asked him.
“I want a front-row seat,” Josh said. “The last time you mixed tequila and Gavin’s return to the harbor, things got really interesting.”
Allie squinted up at him. “Did you just make a joke about the Wedding That Wasn’t?”
He chuckled. “Yes.”
“So we really are both over it.”
“Seems that way.” He reached out and put an arm around Devon.
“Okay.” Allie sat back in her seat and rested her head back as Josh shut the door and helped Devon into the front. Allie closed her eyes and kept them that way until she felt the car stop.
“I should go in with her,” Devon said.
“No need,” Allie assured her, somehow sitting upright without feeling like puking. “I’m fine.”
Josh, being Josh, insisted they walk her into the house anyway. Which turned out to be a good idea. The steps were a little taller than she’d remembered.
Gavin met them at the top step of the porch, clearly torn between being gracious about Josh helping her and wanting to grab her away from the man she’d almost married.
In the end, Josh handed her over to Gavin without a word.
Gavin swept her up into his arms and she cuddled close, thinking that was exactly where she wanted to be. He headed straight for the bedroom, Josh and Devon following.
“Wow, I’m really jet-lagged,” she said with a huge yawn.
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s the problem,” Josh said.
“You okay, sweetie?” Devon asked.
“Fine.” Allie yawned again as Gavin set her on the edge of the bed.
Without thinking, she stripped her top T-shirt off, leaving her in only a tank top.
“Time to go,” Gavin announced, turning Josh out the door.
Devon crossed to Allie and hugged her quick. “Call if you need anything.”
“You bet,” Allie agreed, lying back, watching her ceiling spin. “I’ll need more tequila tomorrow. I’ll call as soon as I wake up.”
“No more tequila,” Gavin and Josh both said firmly from the hallway, but Devon pulled the door shut behind her.
Allie shut her eyes. She had a BFF again. That was going to come in handy if Gavin ended up breaking her heart.
Allie awoke several hours later, completely disoriented.
One look at the wallpaper in her childhood bedroom—the tiny yellow flowers on the white background that she’d picked out when she was twelve—reminded her where she was.
Her body insisted it was early afternoon.
In Alaska, it was. In Promise Harbor, it was—she squinted at the clock—five-oh-four. She groaned. This was going to take some adjusting.
And the tequila definitely hadn’t helped.
She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and sighed. It wasn’t the time that had awakened her. It was the noise downstairs. Which meant there were people here.
She really didn’t