Page 33 of Back To You

Both Mia and Drew have shown me that the friends and family I had before I found them were not the kind that I deserved. I know that.

But I can’t shake this feeling that Mia and Drew are too good to be true.

And I hate myself for thinking that.

“Whatever happened to you, Ann, you can tell us,” Drew says.

“I’ve never talked about it.”

“Whenever you’re ready,” Mia adds, “we’re here.”

The two close in on me, hugging me from both sides, making true on their promise to hold me together when I’m seconds away from falling apart.

“They never let us join their group hugs,” I hear Eddie joke from a few yards away. The three of us laugh before releasing one another, all of us wiping our eyes as the boys approach.

“Or their heart-to-hearts,” Luke adds with a fake sadness in the form of puppy-dog eyes and a jut-out lip.

I’m thankful for the laugh that bubbles in my throat, one that must surprise Luke by the way his eyebrows raise at me.

“All good?” Emmett asks, and it takes me a second to realize he’s not asking Drew.

“All good,” I reply.

The six of us shoot the shit and chat on the patio for another hour before we all head our separate ways.

Drew and Emmett fall back into their new routine as parents.

Mia, Eddie, and Daisy head home to their apartment.

Luke heads to Lenny’s.

I head back to Luke’s with Rosie, my heart feeling a little fuller than it did this morning.

Chapter 14

Luke

I’m happy Annie decided to let the girls do something special for her. The girl deserves a night all about her, especially when she doesn’t think starting her fourth year of veterinarian school is something to celebrate.

God knows I’d love to be the one giving it to her.

It’s officially been two weeks since Annie moved in, yet I can’t remember what my apartment felt like before she was living here. Her jasmine and rose scent has fully infiltrated the place, and I find her endless amount of cherry chapsticks and lip glosses everywhere I turn.

I usually leave them where they are, but I couldn’t help myself from pocketing the one I found on the kitchen counter yesterday.

Rosie has spent one night with me since Annie moved in, and I can’t say I blame her for wanting to cuddle up next to Annie every night. I fall asleep thinking the same goddamn thing.

“Where did the girls say they were taking Annie tonight after dinner?” I ask Eddie from the passenger seat of his truck.

“Bowling,” he answers as he stops at a red light.

It was supposed to be the girls’ Movie Night tonight, but Drew and Mia convinced Annie to do something different.

Annie compromised, wanting to keep things on the chill side, opting for dinner and bowling. I figured they would use our Thursday Happy Hour at Drew and Emmett’s to plan it, but the conversation they had on the patio when the guys and I were playing fetch with the dogs looked much more serious.

I haven’t seen Annie cry since high school.

Resisting the urge to ask her about it was not easy, knowing she would use Mia’s how-to-punch lessons and knock my teeth out.

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