Page 167 of High Reward

“Not true. I’m very relaxed right now.” He pulls me closer, resting his chin on top of my head. “See? Practically horizontal.”

Matteo finds us not long after, already two drinks in and sentimental about it. “Can you believe it? Married in a week.” He throws an arm around Victor’s shoulders. “You’re next, you know. I give it a year, tops.”

“Careful,” Victor says. “I might make you a liar and beat your timeline.”

Matteo’s eyebrows shoot up, and I feel my whole face go hot, though Victor doesn’t elaborate, just grins and steers the conversation somewhere safer before Matteo can ask a single follow-up question.

Skylar peels away from the crowd around her long enough to pull me into a hug that smells like champagne and expensiveperfume. “Look at you. Bookstore owner, published author. And now you’re standing up in my wedding.” She pulls back, grinning. “I feel like I should be asking you for career advice at this point.”

“I feel like I should be asking you how you’re not more freaked out. You’re getting married in a week.”

“Oh, I’m freaked out.” She laughs, glancing over at Matteo, who’s deep in an animated conversation with Owen about something that has Tobias laughing hard enough to need the wall for support. “I just decided a while ago that freaked out and happy aren’t mutually exclusive. Turns out that’s most of what love actually is.”

Lili appears at my elbow before I can respond, sliding an arm around my waist and resting her chin on my shoulder. “Are you two talking about feelings without me? Rude.”

“Just how terrifying marriage is,” Skylar says.

“Don’t look at me. I’ve made my peace with never doing that particular flavor of terrifying again.” Lili presses a kiss to my cheek. “But I hear it works out great for some people.”

Victor appears with fresh drinks for all three of us, and for a few minutes the four of us just stand there, easy and unbothered, while the party moves around us. It’s such a small thing, standing in a crowded room with people who love me. It still knocks the wind out of me some days. I used to hide behind a stack of romance novels instead of dealing with people at all.

“You alright?” Victor asks quietly, catching whatever expression just crossed my face.

“Better than alright.” I mean it completely. “Just having a moment.”

“Good moments are allowed, butterfly.”

“I’m learning that.”

Bellamy finds me not long after, Owen and Tobias trailing behind her, both of them wearing the expression of men who’vebeen dragged through one too many boutique conversations already tonight.

“Tell me everything about the shop,” she says, looping her arm through mine. “I want to know if the reading nook worked out the way you pictured it.”

“Better, actually. People keep falling asleep in the armchair by the window. I’ve started keeping a blanket back there.”

“That’s the dream, honestly.” She sighs, wistful. “A whole store built around encouraging people to do nothing productive.”

“High praise from the woman who runs an entire underground club,” Owen says, kissing the top of her head.

“Different kind of nothing productive.” Bellamy grins. “Equally important work.”

Tobias laughs, low and easy, and for a moment I just watch the three of them exist together, comfortable with each other after years and a kidnapping and a lot of hard conversations I wasn’t there for. Love takes a lot of different shapes in this corner of the world. Not one of them looks like what I grew up believing was the only right one.

Sabrina finds me by the bar a while later, tucked into Tyson’s side. It looks so natural now that I forget sometimes they haven’t always been like this.

“Big week for you, huh?” she says, nudging my shoulder. “Bookstore. Wedding trip to New York.” She grins. “Oh, and a stalker finally behind bars. You’re really cleaning house.”

“When you put it that way, it sounds exhausting.”

“It is. You’re allowed to be tired.” She squeezes my hand, and for a second her smile falters. “Can I tell you something without you making a whole thing of it?”

“I make no promises, but go ahead.”

She glances at Tyson, who’s deep in conversation with Luke a few feet away, then back at me. “I’ve been thinking about New Orleans a lot. Like, a lot a lot.”

“Yeah?”

“I love it here. I love this club, this group, you.” Her voice drops lower. “But I love him more, and I think I already know what I’m going to choose. I just haven’t figured out how to say it out loud yet, to him or to anyone.”