plastic seat, trying to get comfortable, thumbing through yet another Cosmo I didn’t really read.
Worried as I was, I was still exhausted, and I found myself nodding off as I waited.
That was why I thought they were a dream at first.
Blake stepped into the room first, scanning the room as if he was looking for a threat.
Dylan, meanwhile, had eyes only for me as he rushed across the room.
And Archer stepped in behind them both, taking it slower, observing everything with those blue eyes that seemed so bright in contrast to his black hair.
“This is a definite positive step in my dream,” I said to no one in particular.
“Oh really?” Blake drawled, fixing me with that protective, know-it-all look that made me want to paw him across the face. He wouldn’t use that tone in my dream.
I leapt to my feet. They were real. “Oh, hey.”
“We heard,” Archer said, “and we figured you might not want us, but…we’re here.”
I nodded, and then tears flooded my eyes, and suddenly Archer’s arms were around me. He pulled me tight against his solid chest, burying his face in my hair.
“How’s your grandfather?” he murmured.
“Still in surgery,” I said. “I haven’t heard anything lately. I can’t believe you’re here…”
Archer’s arms tightened around me, and I had a feeling he didn’t know how to take that.
“It doesn’t have to mean anything, Lil,” Blake said. “We’re just here as friends.”
“We’ll always be here,” Dylan said.
“Great,” I said, then sobbed, because suddenly I couldn’t hold back my tears.
The three of them exchanged looks as if they worried they’d broken me.
“You don’t seem…” Blake began cautiously.
I didn’t seem great, I knew that. “I’m so scared,” I admitted. “But I’m glad you’re here.”
I didn’t feel alone anymore.
They waited with me all through the night, as the sun rose and the rest of the hospital came to life again.
And we talked.
Not about anything serious.
We talked about Silver Springs, about Juniper’s shop and the welcome dildos, about Jewels Café and how mood tea scared us all because maybe we wanted to keep our feelings to ourselves, about how Silver Springs needed its own book store so we didn’t have to drive all the way to Scarborough, about how we loved the old-fashioned Silver Springs radio station with its late-night romance advice line.
But they made me smile. I had my own ideas for the late night advice line—even though I was probably the last person who should say a damn thing about that—and as I looked around at Blake’s big shoulders shaking, Dylan throwing back his head with laughter, and Archer’s grin before he buried his face in his hands—I realized I made them laugh, just as much as they made me laugh.
That was a good thing for friends.
Maybe it was even a good start for something more.
34
I went into my grandfather’s room to see him once the nurse said he was awake. He looked different, frail and wan, but then he opened his eyes and they twinkled familiarly.
“Sorry,” he said. “I guess you’re right. I’m neither spry nor badass anymore.”
“Maybe not spry.” I leaned over the bed carefully to plant a kiss on his cheek. “But badass in every way that matters.”
He was a truly wonderful grandfather.
Even though I was never going to stop bringing up his fake cast antics.
“There’s someone else here to see you,” I told him.
It was the one-and-only time in my life I’d make a middle-of-the-night emergency call to a fabric store. I’d left a message, and she’d called me back in the early hours of the morning. Then an hour ago, an older woman with bright red hair and an equally bright smile had walked in. She wore a hoodie with a cat appliqued in many colorful fabrics, and I’d known who she was the second I saw her.
Lasagna walked in behind me, and my grandfather smiled.
“Lily,” he said, his voice warm with appreciation. Then to her, tenderly, “How did you know?”
“Your granddaughter called me,” she said resting her hand on my shoulder.
Technically, her name was Diane. But to me, she’d always be Lasagna.
My grandfather smiled at me.
“You don’t have to keep secrets or sneak around, Grandpa,” I reminded him. “I might have more drama than Gray’s, but I want you to be happy. I’m happy for you.”
“I want you to be happy too,” he said. “So what makes you happy?”
I shook my head, because I didn’t want to answer.
But I knew it wasn’t a job in Scarborough or Brad who would ever make me happy.
“Right