Page 82 of Finding New Dreams

I did my utmost to hold in my laughter. Was he flirting? But now that I thought about it, I vaguely recalled Gina in a gold bikini at the hot tub.

I leaned closer to Rose while Wyatt and Gina bickered. “How long has that been going on?”

She bit her lip, a smile sparkling in her eyes. “Years, it feels like.”

Then Wyatt had a damn slow game. If I was around Rose all the time like that, I wouldn’t have lasted weeks, much less years. Hell, I hadn’t, and I didn’t even live in town.

I frowned and took a sip of my water.

Rose asked Louis about his dog emergency, and the three of us talked about his clinic, Furry Family, until our drinks arrived.

“A toast,” Gina called out, lifting her margarita. “To Hunter and Chloe—may your wedding be glorious and your love forever.”

Everyone cheered and clinked glasses.

Chloe lifted hers again. “And to our missing party members, Leo and Ella.”

“May they be super jealous at the awesome time we’re going to have, even without them,” Sarah added.

We laughed and clinked glasses again.

Leo had stayed behind to help run Baciami while his uncle was down with a cold. And Ella, Sarah’s younger sister, lived in New York and said she couldn’t make it due to crushing deadlines at her writing job.

While conversation resumed around us, I slipped my hand under the tablecloth and rested it on my knee. As I talked to Carter about his booming renovation business, I stretched out my pinky to graze Rose’s thigh.

She twitched but didn’t move away and didn’t break focus in her conversation with Owen and Louis about a mystery novel they were both reading.

I, however, only caught about half of what Carter said as I eased my hand over her thigh. My fingers curled around the inner side and squeezed.

Her hand disappeared under the tablecloth and clasped around mine. Not removing it. Just holding tight.

A smile begged to lift the corners of my mouth. But since Carter was going on about the price of lumber, I didn’t want him to think I was laughing at him. Especially when he could change from Pleasant Carter to the snarly Guard-Dog Carter from the pool in the space of a smile.

Summoning all my powers of concentration, I nodded at him. “And I hear you’re helping out my sister and Hunter at their new cabins? I’m excited to see the finished products.”

Carter grunted. “Yeah, we’ve had some issues. Damn bad winter screwed up our timeline. But you know Chloe.”

I smiled. “She’s got a Plan B through Z.”

“Yep. She and Hunter are quite the pair. If anyone could pull off those cabins and give Tangled River a boost in tourism, it’s those two.”

My chest clenched. Look at these people, your old friends and your sister, leading meaningful, fulfilling lives. What are you doing?

Just then, Rose stroked the back of my hand and traced the veins over and under my wrist. My mind blanked. It felt like she was painting on me, without paint. The dips and swirls she drew had a weird calming effect on me.

But then Carter had to open his mouth again after taking a deep gulp of his beer. “What’s life like in L.A.? Beaches and traffic, right?”

I laughed, wishing Rose would drag me away to a dark corner where we could be alone. “Pretty much sums it up.”

Carter’s dark eyes remained fixed on me. “Got your own place out there?”

“Yep, got a decent studio close to a couple art galleries.”

“I visited there once,” Louis piped up, apparently done with his other conversation. His brown hair was carefully swept back, and his dark-rimmed glasses gave him an oddly geeky look for being almost the same size and musculature as his brother. “One of my college friends, Kristine, opened an animal rescue down there.”

“Oh, really?” I fidgeted with my napkin, as our other friends stopped talking and started taking an interest in our conversation. Awesome. “You should’ve let me know. I would’ve shown you around a bit.”

Smiling, Louis shrugged. “I was only there a few days, and I noticed that you were…um, going through some difficulties.”

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