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CHAPTEREIGHT
Tulsi
“Reece?”Mia popped a bite of apple pie between her lips with an arched brow.
Tulsi nodded and dug her fork into the golden crust where the vanilla ice cream was just starting to melt, ignoring the churning feeling in her stomach. “She’s riding tonight and had to go.”
“She’s insane. It’s amazing she hasn’t broken every bone in her body by now.”
“She’s broken a lot,” Tulsi said, stabbing another bite of pie. “But she keeps going back for more. Some people don’t learn from their mistakes; they just keep making the same ones over and over again.”
Mia hummed knowingly around her fork. “Talking to her always pisses you off.”
“It does not,” Tulsi said, aiming for a light tone and failing. “I’m not pissed off.”
“And I don’t want to eat half that pie,” Mia said. “You and Reece are just too different. You’re like the angel and devil characters from those old cartoons. You got all the sweet and she got all the trouble.”
Tulsi wrinkled her nose, not liking the comparison for some reason. Usually, she didn’t mind being called sweet. Shewassweet. And shy and the kind of person who would bend over backward to avoid making waves or hurting feelings. Even when the church camp director had been making her blood boil on the phone, Tulsi hadn’t raised her voice or said anything impolite. She hadn’t been raised to talk back to her elders, even if her elders were being ridiculous. She’d been raised to nod and smile and to firmly believe that a woman caught more flies with honey than vinegar.
But Reece had been raised the same way, only it hadn’t stuck. Reece had been standing up, speaking out, and letting her sour side show since they were children. She was always ready for a fight and wasn’t shy about calling a pile of poo a pile of poo.
Meanwhile, it had nearly killed Tulsi to stand up to Chad today and fight for something she knew was right. The only person she’d ever stood up to on a regular basis was Pike. For some reason, with him she hadn’t been shy about disagreeing, speaking her mind, or showing him the core of iron at the heart of her. She hadn’t been afraid to show him anything because…he’d loved her.
Really loved her—light and dark, sweet and sour, and everything in between.
The thought made Tulsi’s pie taste like it was curdling in her mouth.
It was true. Pike was the only person who had ever known her, inside and out, even the parts she was sometimes afraid to admit were there, and that’s why she couldn’t bear to be around him. Looking into the eyes of the man she’d once trusted with her every secret and seeing someone who was only interested in a one-night stand was too much to take. She had to avoid him as much as possible until he left town, and now was as good a time as any to let Mia know the float trip was a no go.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something,” Tulsi said, setting the pie down on the coffee table in front of her, her appetite vanishing in a fresh wave of anxiety. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to make the float trip, after all.”
“What?” Mia’s eyes widened. “But we’ve been planning it all summer.”
“I know,” Tulsi said, hating herself for upsetting her best friend during her wedding week, but knowing she wouldn’t survive twenty-four hours on the river with Pike. “But with my funding getting cut and all the stuff with Dad, I don’t feel like I’d be very good company.”
“But you’re going to be at the wedding, right?” Mia sat her half-eaten pie down on the table beside Tulsi’s, proving how upset she was. Mia wasn’t the type to abandon dessert until her plate was empty and every crumb had been swiped up with a finger.
“Of course! I’m maid of honor. I wouldn’t miss being a part of your big day for the world.”
“Miss it,” Mia said, wiping her hands on her napkin. “I don’t care. Just please, please come on the float trip. It won’t be the same without youandBubba. It won’t feel like old times at all.”
“You can’t be serious, Mia,” Tulsi said, though she could tell that Mia was dead serious. “You’ll still have Ugly Ross, Pike, and Sawyer with you. It will still be a good time.”
“I don’t care about the good time,” Mia said, her eyes beginning to shine. “This isn’t about that. It’s about proving that nothing good is going to change. That even though I’m getting married and Bubba’s moved away and we’re all getting older, we’re still the same people we’ve always been. That we’re still family and we’re always going to be, no matter what.”
Tulsi reached out, taking Mia’s hand and giving it a strong squeeze. “You will always be my family. I love you with every single piece of my heart. You know that.”
Mia squeezed her hand. “Then come with me, Tulsi, please. Let’s make one more wonderful memory before I say I do.”
Tulsi’s forehead wrinkled. “You aren’t having second thoughts about the wedding, are you? I thought you and Sawyer were doing great.”
“We are,” Mia said, sniffing as she brushed a tear from her cheek. “I love him so much, but that doesn’t mean I’m not nervous, too.”
“Why?” Tulsi asked gently. “Don’t you think you’re making the right choice?” She certainly did—Sawyer worshiped Mia and was one of the kindest, sexiest, most amazing men Tulsi had ever met—but Mia’s opinion was all that mattered.
Mia shook her head so vigorously her curls stretched longer. “No, I know Sawyer’s the one for me. I guess…” She curled her feet beneath her and crossed her arms. “I don’t know, I guess I’m worried there’s no going back after the wedding. I may be codependent or whatever, but your friendship means the world to me. Sawyer’s my heart and soul, but you and Bubba are my arms and legs. I can’t imagine the three of us not being as close as we are now. I just don’t ever want to lose you.”
Tulsi opened her arms, pulling Mia in for a hug as her best friend’s face crumpled. “Oh, sweetie, you won’t ever lose us,” she cooed, rubbing Mia’s shaking shoulders. “Yes, things are changing, but Bubba is a rock, you know that. His love is forever, and so is mine. I’ve loved you since we were little kids and once you have my heart, it’s yours for keeps.”
