Page 86 of Make It Last

“Trust me. I will not screw this up.”

“Good.” She insisted on helping me into her car.

As we drove, she pointed out landmarks, naming mountain peaks and so on. “This is going to become familiar to you.”

I stared out the window in awe. I had fallen in love with Alaska on my divorce trip, my lick-my-wounds, hide-from-humiliation trip. The beauty here stunned me, and it was about to become my home.

A little while later, we were seated at a large round table with Holly, Josie, Tish, Casey, Luna, and Tori, the server who’d been so kind to me and my friends on my first trip.

“I still fill in for shifts,” Tori explained. “But I’m moving up.”

“What do you mean moving up?”

“I’m taking a job helping with event management.”

“That’s so exciting!” I squealed.

She grinned. “I actually love waiting tables. I love meeting people, and the tips are great. It’s high stress when it’s busy, but when you’re done, you’re done. But I’m ready for something new.”

Stella slipped in beside Casey, followed by Madison, Maisie, Amelia, and Lucy. “This is a big group,” I said, looking around the table.

“Isn’t it?” Holly said. “We don’t always all make it, but we try. One of the bonuses of living in a small town,” she added.

“What do you mean?”

“Good friends,” she replied succinctly.

I looked around the table, absorbing the laughter, the easy warmth, and the women who had folded me into their world without hesitation. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel like I was bracing for something.

Maybe that was what home really meant.

Chapter Forty

Ava

Buzzing doubts

We settled in with an impressive spread of appetizers. I watched the easy rhythm of their banter, the way conversations dipped from teasing to serious and back again without effort. It felt good to relax and just enjoy myself.

Until I heard someone say, “Oh, that’s Laney.” My brain snapped to attention.

“Tanner’s ex,” Holly clarified with an eye roll.

I tried to keep my expression neutral. My heart, however, did not cooperate and was banging anxiously against my ribs, while insecurity hummed to life in my thoughts.

“I think she’s trying to make a play for Tanner,” Casey chimed in.

My stomach dropped. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t have all the details,” Holly offered, lowering her voice slightly. “But apparently she cornered him when he was picking up pizza the other night. Before the guys left for the fire. She vented to a friend about it afterward. Can’t keep anything like that quiet, though. News travels. I guess whoever she was dating dumped her,” Holly added. “She can’t afford her place in the city anymore. Things didn’t exactly pan out the way she imagined.”

“Oh,” I murmured.

“Don’t you even start worrying,” Holly said firmly, pointing at me. “Tanner is so over her. He’s been over her for years.”

Maisie nodded. “Breakups happen. But you don’t have to say hurtful things.”

I thought about what Tanner had told me, being called boring and beige. I was still here to defend the color beige, but I knew that wasn’t the point. Her words had stung for him.