“Fine, fine. Deviant. What are you up to?”

“I’m on my way up there, too. I had to grab some clean clothes and I thought I’d invite you over to see a movie. Paddy was headed over to Ezra’s after he and I got off the phone—they hadn’t hung out in a while. Come over after you two eat. Watch a movie and then you can go back to his house and do sex.”

“We’ll see.” She liked to hang out with Nat and Paddy, watching movies in his screening room. “I’ll leave it up to Ezra. If he’d rather skip the movie part and head directly into the riding him like a pony stage... I love you, but um, I’ll see a movie with you another day if that’s the choice I need to make. I do it for America.”

“Fair enough.” Nat shrugged and they both laughed.

“You want to catch a ride up there with me? I’ll drop you at Paddy’s on my way to Ezra’s.”

“Yeah, that works.”

When they’d got about halfway to the ranch, Natalie looked up from her phone. “I got an email from the owners of the house. We’re good to go on the trip.”

“Yay.” Tuesday’s birthday was approaching and they’d rented a house up in the mountains. There was a big hot tub, and decks wrapping around the entire first and second floor with fantastic views. They’d rented it a few times before and loved to go up on birthdays and the like because it was pretty and quiet and there was no shortage of activities like hiking and kayaking.

“Are you sure it’s okay? Asking Paddy to come, I mean.”

Their group of friends usually rented the place. All six of them. But this year everyone’s schedule had been so crazy with work or family stuff that it had dwindled down from their usual six to two. They’d rescheduled their group thing for later in the summer but Tuesday had figured it would be nice to keep the reservation and take a trip anyway.

“Why not? It’s just going to be me and you in that great big house? You’ll hate it when there aren’t enough people to go out to play with me. You’re too nice to say no if I’d do it alone and it’s not fun if I have to guilt you into hiking. Especially when you’re on vacation.”

Natalie tried not to look relieved and Tuesday loved her for it.

“I like hiking well enough. Just not every day.”

Tuesday snorted. It was true. When she was up there she liked to spend as much time as she could outside. The house was right on a lake so she’d kayak and if it didn’t rain really hard she’d canoe, too.

“Mary and Damien are staying home. They’re going up to see her friends and family the following week so Damien wants her to hang out so he can make her rest. She’s pretending like she doesn’t know he’s managing her. They’re pretty adorable.”

“They are. I’m sure she’ll appreciate the quiet, though I bet Sharon likes to pop in.”

Natalie laughed. “The whole family dotes on Mary and it drives her crazy. But it’s so sweet she doesn’t complain.”

And liked it, too, Tuesday wagered. The Hurleys had a lot of love for each other and Mary definitely loved them all right back.

“I was thinking.”

Tuesday gave Natalie a quick look. “Uh-oh.”

“Shut up. You should invite Ezra to the mountains.”

“He’s got the ranch to look after. He can’t be gone all the time.”

“According to Paddy, Ezra rarely takes time off. He might be gone a day or so here and there, but the last vacation he took of more than a single night away was before all the bad stuff went down.”

Tuesday wasn’t actually surprised at all. She bet Ezra had a hard time letting go enough to take an actual vacation.

“I’ll leave it up to him.” It was a matter of whether or not she wanted to make the movie and ask him to go away with her or not. He’d say no, or yes, either way.

And what she’d decided, as they finally came around that last bend in the road leading up to Ezra’s, was she’d wait and see how he was. She knew it was time, time to take some risks if she wanted more with Ezra.

* * *

THE GATES WERE closed as they approached Sweet Hollow Ranch.

“Weird.”

“Oh yeah, Bob has been trying to contact me so they’ve been keeping the gates here locked.” Bob was Natalie’s father. A total piece of crap and though Natalie had told him repeatedly that she wanted nothing more to do with him, he kept showing up and causing trouble.

“I hate him.” And boy did Tuesday hate him. He was selfish and awful. He didn’t care about anyone but himself and he’d never be satisfied until he’d bled Natalie dry of money and attention.

Natalie gave her the code and the gates slowly slid open.

“She allowed him to sell the house in Whittier but that was trust money so he can’t get to it. So he moved in with her. I can’t imagine what that must be like for her.”

“No.” Tuesday bore to the left around a bend and pulled into Paddy’s driveway. She turned to her friend. “Do not get yourself entangled in that mess again. They’ll use you up and toss you away and you know it. Neither of them has any sense of moderation. They’ll wreck you and not even think about it.”

“She’s old.” Part of Natalie’s beauty was how big her heart truly was. Even after all her family had done to her, Nat would still feel for them.

So it fell to Tuesday to remind her best friend and protect her from them the best she could. “She’s manipulative, cold, vindictive and abusive. She raised a shitty kid and he tried to raise one, too. But you survived. You’re better than that. You built a life. Every time you let them back in they tear you apart. You can’t fix either of them. It’s not your job and even if it was, you couldn’t. They’re poisonous. I wish I could say anything else, but baby, your grandmother and your father are horrible human beings. Move on because you have so much good ahead and they represent nothing but pain for you.”