Page 76 of Where You Left Me

“Uhh,” Rosie interrupts. “Well, that’s not entirely true. Pretty sure there were a few years where he hated you.”

“Rosie,” Cammie shrieks.

“No, it’s okay. That feels better actually, knowing he hated me instead of being fine with me leaving. I guess it shows he loved me.”

“Correction:lovesyou.” Cammie looks at me intently.

“You guys have obviously worked things out. I know y’all are fucking like bunnies. So then what is it?”

What is it?What’s keeping me from packing up my shit in Connecticut and returning to Maple Ridge? Things back there are going okay for me. I have a few friends, a fuck-buddy, a good job. But starting over—again—is terrifying.

Rosie gasps and both Cammie and I whip our heads at her.

“It’s a guy,” she barks.

“What?” I ask, my voice going up. “It’s not a guy.”

“Liar,” she teases.

Cammie’s brows furrow and her lips go pouty. “You have a boyfriend back there?”

“No,” I blurt. “I don’t. I mean, there’s a guy, but?—”

“Told you!” Rosie gleams. “I fucking told you.”

“It’s not like that. It’s nothing. It’s more like a friend-with-benefits situation, that’s it,” I try to explain but the more I do, the worse it sounds.

“So you do have friends,” Cammie says.

“Ugh,” I groan.

Rosie cackles. “We’re just giving you shit, Mia. It’s been eight years since you and Jones broke up. We’re women, we have needs.”

“It’s true,” Cammie agrees. “But partially I’m a little sad thinking about you with another guy.”

“I’m not,” Rosie cuts in. “I’m glad our girl ventured out and got her some. Sleeping with one guy forever sounds like torture. Especially when that one guy is Jones.”

Sleeping with Jones for the rest of my life actually sounds like heaven.

“What about Jones?” he asks, standing behind us.

I glance up and shield the sun with a hand to my forehead to see him. He’s hovering behind me dressed in a t-shirt withsweat soaked through the front, clinging to his muscles. There’s an instant swoop low in my belly.

“Nothing. Just telling my girl here, that sleeping with you sounds like torture,” Rosie chimes in.

“You’d be so lucky,” he barks back.

“Hey,” Nico says, tugging off his cowboy boots. “I dunno, but I’d rather you didn’t think about screwing Jones.”

Rosie clambers up to her feet and throws her arms around Nico’s neck. “Don’t worry, that’s not even an afterthought.”

“Good. Because I’d hate to have to punish you, Kit-Kat.”

“Punish me, Cowboy,” she challenges him.

“Yeah?” he quirks a brow, stepping out of his jeans. “Jus’ remember, you asked for it.” He cinches his hands around her waist and shoves her to the edge of the dock before holding her tight while and leaps off.

She squeals before hitting the water and we all laugh.

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