The Forever Girl (Wildstone, #6)(45)

Oh, but he had . . .

Heather looked away. “Not like I did. I just . . .” She shook her head. “After that time at Michael’s grave, knowing we all had so much we were dealing with, I knew I couldn’t burden you guys with the mess I’d made of my life. I’m so sorry I vanished like that.”

“Please don’t put this all on you, we all did it. We all let our own shit put doubts into our heads, and then let those doubts tell us we were better off alone. Which is never the case. I get that now. I think you do too.”

Heather turned to her. “I don’t ever want to be without you guys again. Ever.” She pulled the baby monitor off her hip to eye the screen. Sammie was still out cold, sleeping peacefully, a small smile on her perfect face.

“She’s amazing,” Maze said softly. “I’m proud of you, Heather.”

Heather looked up, surprised. “You are?”

“Yeah. You were dealt a bad hand and you turned it into a win. It’s a sweet life you’ve got there.” She nodded toward Sammie.

“It doesn’t feel sweet without you guys in it. I’m really so sorry. I feel like I can’t say it enough, but I didn’t realize until I saw you all again how much I needed you in my life.”

“Me too.” Maze took her hand. “I wish I’d known you were in trouble, but that I didn’t was on me. But I promise that me vanishing like I did wasn’t about you, ever. I missed you so much.”

They were hugging it out when Caitlin came down the hall. “What are we doing? Group hug without me?” Dropping her purse to the floor, she insinuated herself into the middle and joined in. “What did I miss?”

“How stupid we are for vanishing,” Heather said, “for not keeping up with each other’s lives. Never again.”

“Agreed,” Caitlin said. “Never again. You guys are the mac to my cheese.”

They sealed the vow with a glass of wine that turned into a couple of bottles. The rest of the evening was a pleasant blur for Maze as the three of them sat up late doing Cat’s favorite thing, making lists, in this case for what else still needed to be done for the wedding.

“Oh, and I’ve got to pick up Dillon’s wedding band at the jeweler’s and make the final payment,” Caitlin said, and grimaced. “Without letting Dillon know, since I was supposed to do it two weeks ago. And also I need to let his mom know I picked out the flowers with my mom during an appointment when she FaceTimed in. There are no decisions left to be made, even though she’s insisting on coming with me to make that final payment in a few days.” She thunked her head on the table. “Oh my God, why didn’t I elope?”

“I can handle the jeweler for you,” Maze said.

“You’ve done so much already.”

“Don’t you know?” Maze took her hand. “I’d do anything for you. Well, anything except deal with your scary-sounding future mother-in-law. You need to find your backbone, babe.”

When Caitlin teared up, Maze pointed at her.

“No. No more tears. I’ve used up my quota.”

“Fine,” Caitlin said. “But hugs are endless.”

“Oh my God. No—” But it was futile. Caitlin already had her in an arm hold.

THE NEXT MORNING came way too quickly. Maze stood in the shower trying to steam her hangover away. It wasn’t working.

“Tell me again why I have to be in here with you while you’re in the shower?” Jace asked through the shower curtain from his perch on the counter.

“Because you had one job, to be my boyfriend, and so far no one’s buying it. You need to yell out my name. Or moan really loud. No, wait! Do both!”

The curtain was yanked back a few inches. “You can’t be serious,” he said.

“Hey! Do you mind? Naked in here!” She put a wet hand to his face and pushed his head out of the shower.

“I didn’t look. Also, nice tat.”

“You said you didn’t look!”

“I lied. See, that’s how you do it, Maze. You make the lie believable.”

She glared at him and then closed the curtain again in a huff.

“And anyway, I think Walker really cares about you,” Jace said quietly.

She yanked the curtain open. “For the last time, he’s done with me, okay? He came here with divorce papers, so please, tell me one more time that he cares about me . . .”

He shook his head. “How about I tell you something else instead. You two need to figure this out sooner than later, because I’ve got a problem.”

She turned off the water and wrapped a towel around herself. “I can’t handle any more problems.”

“I’ve got a thing for Heather.”

“Because she’s awesome.”

“So . . . you’re okay with it?” he asked slowly, cautiously.

“Very. She deserves a good guy and you’re the best of them.”

He stilled, then gave a small smile. “Thanks. I’d like to get to know her better, but that’s difficult when your husband is constantly eyeballing me like he wants to kill me. And FYI, he probably could in a thousand and one different ways with his bare hands.”

“He doesn’t care if I’m with you.”