“We love you, Emma.”

I heard the tenderness from Amanda again. When I turned to look, she held my gaze and continued to smile softly at me. She glanced to Brian, then back to me, and her smile lifted up a notch. I knew what she was trying to convey to me then. No matter what happened, we were family. I nodded, and that broke the dam. I couldn’t stop crying after that.

“Oh, Emma.” Theresa came around the counter and hugged me, glass still in hand. Amanda laughed as she joined us, with her glass, too. “Wait.” Theresa raised her glass. “We should all take a sip like this.”

“What?” Amanda frowned at her.

“I mean it. I know it sounds stupid. We’re mixed up in a knot here, but let’s try it. It can be a new thing, like a bonding, sisterly-drinking thing. If anything, we’ll all look really dumb together.”

“Oh my god.” Amanda rolled her eyes.

“Hush it.” Theresa shot her a look, but she was trying not to grin. “This is what memories are made of. When we act stupid, we know we’re going to act stupid, and we do it anyway. Now drink, woman.” She lifted up on her tiptoes, straining toward her glass.

Amanda and I did the same. My lips barely touched my glass, but I tried. Amanda screamed and began laughing. She started hopping up and down, jostling me. “Hey,” I said. My lip was almost there. I could just feel it when my glass tipped. I had one second to register what was coming, and I closed my eyes just as the liquid rained down on me.

“Oh my god.” I laughed, extracting myself. I was wet, and a little cold, but everyone laughed. Peeking out through one eye, I could tell Amanda and Theresa were in similar states, both drenched. Noah and Brian stood by with the emptied glasses in hand.

The three girls shared a look, and as one, we launched for the guys.

Theresa leapt for Noah’s beer, but he lifted it up and out of her reach. Instead of jumping for it, she darted around him, opened the fridge and pulled out a champagne bottle. Noah’s eyes got big once he saw what she’d grabbed, and he began backing away. It didn’t matter. She sprayed it all over him, shaking the bottle up and down.

“Theresa.”

“You asked for it!” she yelled. “I’m giving back, Noah.”

Amanda and Brian were tussling, too, and I stepped back to watch both couples. Seeing what Theresa had done, Amanda bypassed her boyfriend’s beer altogether and grabbed the rum.

“Hold up,” I called.

“Good thinking.” She set it back down and grabbed the juice container. Instead of shaking it like Theresa had, she climbed up the counter and tipped it over. Brian just stood there, letting her do it. He shook his head and fought back a grin.

When he saw me watching, he lifted his hands in a shrug. “What do you do? I asked for it.” Then he twisted around, snaked an arm around her waist, and plucked her off the counter.

Amanda shrieked, but it wasn’t from terror. She was excited. No, I corrected myself—she was happy. As he swung her around in a circle, I saw that she was genuinely happy.

Good.

That warm emotion settled in my gut. It was firm, and it resounded through me. Everything I’d done was worth it. Leaving them, hiding with Carter—all of it was worth it. Making sure Amanda had changed her mind? That was more than worth it. She wasn’t Mallory. She had a future. She needed to live it as much as possible. And me? I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. I had my own future.

I snuck away, but as I did, I glanced over my shoulder. Brian was ducking Amanda’s tickling hands and watching me. We shared a look. I wasn’t sure what message was in it, but he nodded and started tickling Amanda all over again.

He was distracting her so I could go.

I got to the front door, where I was able to read my text message.

There are men downstairs for you.

I frowned. It wasn’t a number I recognized. Carter?

A second passed.

Another.

Then my phone buzzed again. This is Cole. Carter is coming here.

I stared at it for a moment. That was odd. Why didn’t he—

“Is that Carter?”

Brian stood behind me, his head tilted to the side, hands in his pockets. When I kept staring at him, he bobbed his head forward, indicating my phone. “I just know there’s not much that would pull you away from Amanda and Theresa.”

I narrowed my eyes. What did he mean by that?

He backed up a step and held his hands up. “Again. Wow.” He scratched behind his ear. “I can interrogate a serial killer, but you, you scare the crap out of me.”

I did?

“I just…” He closed his eyes and his head fell back. He groaned, then stared at the ceiling for a moment. “Man. What is it now? Three for three? Four for four? I’m striking out all over with you. Four walks, and I gave a run away. I’m going into foul territory.”

I could hear Amanda and Theresa laughing in the kitchen. Whatever feelings I had for this guy, I had to put them aside. I gestured to them and said, “That sound.”

He looked at me, traces of a frown on his face.

Amanda laughed again.

“Right there,” I said. “She’s happy.”

“Because of you—”

I shook my head. “No, because of you. Yes, I hate that you’re a cop. You know why. We all do. But she loves you, and I love her, and that’s what matters.”

“Yeah,” he murmured. “I’m not like normal people, Emma. I can read the small print. She’s happy. You’re happy that she’s happy, but I’m a cop. I’m with her. You’re with a criminal. I know that you’re going to pull away. You have to. I get it. I do. Carter Reed is your number one, and no matter how we try to make things sound pretty, the bottom line is that—”

I didn’t need him to say it. I said it for both of us. “—you’re a cop.”

“Yeah.”

“She doesn’t sound like that when it’s just me around,” I told him.

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. It’s you. I love her like a sister. I do. But you’re going to be her family. Not me.” I held my phone up. “I have my family waiting for me. I have to go.”

“Brian! She’s still in the bathroom?” Theresa yelled from the kitchen.

I was leaving without saying good-bye. Again. In so many ways, this was wrong, but having to say good-bye to them again? They wouldn’t understand. I didn’t know how to explain it, but this was right. It had to be.