swept up to the table out of nowhere, set down her drink, and grabbed Fiona’s hands. “Oh my god, our precious little starfish. I heard what happened. Are you okay? Who do I need to murder?”
“I’m okay. Really. Besides, it’s Evan’s shop that got trashed.”
She waved her hand. “He looks fine. You didn’t get hurt, did you?”
“No, nobody was there when we got back.”
“Well, that’s something at least.”
She eyed the table for a second, as if something about it bothered her. Finally, she grabbed a chair from a neighboring table and dragged it to the end of ours, putting her between Fiona and Grace. I glanced at the empty chairs next to me and Asher and shrugged. Cara did what she wanted.
Fiona tucked her hair behind her ear. “Let’s talk about something else. I think I need to get my mind off everything. The wedding is soon. That’s exciting.”
Grace smiled, her whole face lighting up, and Asher slipped an arm around her shoulders.
“I know,” Grace said. “So close. Everything is pretty much done. Between my sisters-in-law and Cara, I’ve barely had to do anything.”
Weddings were not my favorite thing. As kids, Gram had dragged us to every wedding in our extended family, stuffing us into suits and ties that we’d shed at the earliest opportunity.
But ever since Carly, I hadn’t just disliked weddings because of the monkey suits. I’d hated weddings. I’d never let myself admit it, but they made me jealous. Because the lucky bastard at the altar had what I’d thought I’d found. Which had turned out to be nothing but a big fucking heartbreak.
Listening to the girls talk about Grace and Asher’s upcoming wedding, I realized something. I was looking forward to it. Mostly because I was happy for my brother. He’d waited a long time to marry Grace.
But Carly hadn’t been my only chance. I’d known for a long time that marrying her would have been a huge mistake. In a way, she’d done me a favor by cheating on me with my best friend. She hadn’t left any room for doubt. But I’d always assumed that she’d been it. She’d fucked me up badly enough that I wasn’t going to try again. I wasn’t ever going to be the guy at the altar. And it pissed me off, because deep down, that was what I’d always wanted.
To find my other half. Like Gram and Grandad. Like my parents.
I’d been built for it. I think we all were; Asher was just the first of us to figure it out.
I gazed at Fiona and fingered a strand of her hair while she smiled and talked. I wasn’t dreading my brother’s wedding, and it was because of her. Because she was mine. My other half. I’d found her. And sure, we weren’t ready to walk down the aisle yet. But we would be someday. And just knowing that made everything else—the car, the shop, the feud, all of it—fade into the background.
So this was what happy felt like.
I took a sip of my beer and when I looked up, a pair of blue eyes were staring at me from across the bar.
Was that Jill? Why was she looking at me like that?
She was with two other girls I didn’t know. One leaned close and said something. Jill nodded. Her eyes never leaving me, she marched over to our table and stopped with her hands on her hips.
“So this is how it ends,” Jill said.
I glanced at Fiona in confusion, then back at Jill, not sure what to say to that. What was she talking about? “This is how what ends?”
She shook her head slowly. “I’ve given you too many chances. I’m sorry, Evan, but it’s over.”
“What’s over?”
“Us.”
I stared at her. “There’s no us. We’ve never dated.”
“I warned you. I told you that you were going to lose me someday. And now you have.” With a flip of her hair, she turned and walked away.
“What the fuck was that?” I asked no one in particular.
“You never went out with her?” Asher asked.
“Not even once.”
Asher took a sip of his beer. “Sometimes you reap what you sow.”
I put an arm around Fiona. “Sometimes you dodge a fucking bullet.”
Fiona leaned into me. “I feel kind of bad for her. I think she’s been dating you in her imagination this whole time.”
“I guess it’s good she broke up with me, then,” I said. “I’ve been fake cheating on her for a while.”
Fiona laughed.
Cara glanced toward the front and scowled. “Fiona, if you