dear,” Lottie said, clearly realizing all was not well here as she took in Amber’s tears. “Oh no, what’s happened?”
“We broke up,” Amber said, wailing the words, which led Lottie to shoot me a scathing look.
“It was mutual,” I said, hoping to avoid being swatted about the ears with a wooden spoon, something Lottie had done once in high school when I’d told Amber I thought we should take a break and she’d gone home to tell Lottie what an ass I was.
Lottie sat on the porch swing next to Amberlynn, which made the whole contraption wobble and groan. I worried for a moment that it might fall, thinking back to the time when I’d hung the thing out here, my senior year in high school. Had I remembered to use anchor bolts? Surely it would have fallen before now if not.
Amber leaned into her mother’s side, and as Lottie wrapped her youngest daughter in her arms, I knew without question that this was the right thing. Amberlynn was amazing, and so was the whole Tanner family. But it wasn’t right for me.
“I love you. Both of you,” I told them. “And I probably always will. But I think this is the right thing. We were so young when we got engaged . . .”
“It’s okay, Wiley,” Amber sniffed, her voice barely audible from where her mouth was smashed against Lottie’s shoulder. “Mom, let go!”
Lottie released her and wiped at her own face. “Oh, you two.” She took a deep breath and then stood back up, sending another shudder through the swing. “Maybe it’s for the best though. Maybe this is the mature thing to do.” She sniffed. “I was really hoping for a wedding, though.”
“Mom,” Amberlynn said, sounding much less upset now. “Paige and Addie are both engaged. You’ll get your wedding.”
Lottie nodded and then turned to me. “Wiley.”
I stood, realizing she was essentially summoning me to face her. I wasn’t sure if the swat was about to arrive, but she wasn’t holding a spoon, so I decided to be brave. “Ms. Tanner.”
Then she surprised me by throwing her arms around me and pulling me against her fiercely. She was so short that her spray-fixed silver bob barely came to my chest, but I hugged her back. She’d been my mom too for most of my life, since my own mother had died when I was young.
“You always have a home here, Wiley, whether you and Amberlynn are getting married or not. We all love you.” She squeezed me tight and then let me go.
“Thank you,” I said, swallowing a surprising lump in my own throat. “That means a lot to me.” It did. And I realized then that maybe part of the reason I’d stayed with Amberlynn so long was because it was hard to give up the family I’d found here, with the Tanners. “I love you guys too,” I said.
“Don’t be a stranger,” Lottie told me, and I realized it was time for me to go.
Amberlynn stood and hugged me again, and I felt my heart release. “Bye,” I told her, already missing everything that had made up my life for the last twelve years. But it was the right thing. And I’d probably already stayed too long.
I drove to the distillery, needing the familiar tasks of work to keep my body busy while my mind and heart processed the sudden shift in my life.
“Can’t get enough, eh?” Wade joked when he stepped in to find me checking dates on the whiskey aging in the barrel room.
My twin brother ran the bar that was connected to the distillery, so it was no surprise to find him here on a Sunday night. He also lived above the place, in the apartment he shared with his girlfriend, Veronica.
“Yeah, just needed to think.”
“Uh oh.” He faced me, waiting.
“We broke up.”
Wade let out a long, low whistle. “You okay?”
My brother wasn’t the emotional type—neither of us was—but he and I had been together our whole lives and I didn’t have to say much for him to know exactly what was going on.
“Yeah, actually. Maybe it’s past time.”
He nodded. “I’m here if you need me.”
“Yeah, thanks. Just need to process, you know? Figure out what’s next.”
“Drink?” he asked, picking up two bottles of the Half Cat Whiskey we were famous for to carry back over to the bar. “Just closing up and restocking.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, following him back through the entrance hallway that divided the distillery and the bar. Mr. FluffyNuts,