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Veronica, who doesn’t work for our label but might as well with the amount of time she spends with all of us, raises her eyebrows. “Oh, girl. That’s some tea.” She bites her bottom lip and winks.
“Jesus Christ.” Isla glares at her. “Rein it in.” She playfully slaps her sister, who collapses backward on the couch.
“It’s fine, Isla.” I smile, because it is. It’s totally fine. I agreed that Spence is the best person for the job. Spence Reid was my best friend throughout high school. He was the very first person I met when my mom and I moved to Chicago, away from my demons in California. He introduced me to Kade, who was the man I thought I was going to marry right out of high school before that blew up in my face.
“Do you want me to give Mia the dirty details or do you want to?” Veronica snickers and I look between her and Isla and scoff. Veronica and Isla share the same alluring features—dark eyes, dark hair, and dark sense of humor. I laugh and cross my arms over my chest, leaning forward in the high-backed chair I’m sitting in.
“I don’t know how this suddenly turned into a Declan tell-all, but lemme just give you the long and short of it.” I pause, looking at the three of them sitting on the couch, and take a deep breath. “Spence Reid was my best friend when we were in high school. I met my ex, Kade, through him—”
Veronica, being the little shit-stirrer that she is, quickly interrupts me. “And Kade is Spence’s brother. He’s older by two years. Kade—you know, the man who put a stop to Declan and Lucas’s wedding?”
Mia gasps so dramatically and that I swear I’m in a damn soap opera.
“And…” Veronica continues, looking at me for reassurance. I shake my head, laughing. It feels good to laugh. I haven’t laughed in a hot minute. “Declan almost married Kade. They were talking about ring shopping right out of high school.”
“Why do I feel like there’s a but coming?” Mia asks, looking around at the three of us, and I shrug, focusing my attention down at the floor. Veronica can finish.
“Because there’s a major but, considering Declan had a thing for Spence first. But he never reciprocated those feelings, so Kade was basically, like, the next best thing.” Veronica rattles it off so quickly that I barely have time to register her words.
“Veronica!” Isla hisses, and I snap my neck up to glare at her too.
“Kade was good to me until he wasn’t,” I say to Mia with a shrug. “I wouldn’t call him the next best thing. I loved Kade too.” As my words come out, all those feelings flood back into my veins. “I just never stopped loving Spence. There was always a piece of me that wondered what could have been.”
That tiny piece of me still gnaws at my conscience from time to time, but I refuse to let that get in the way of Spence working for our label. He’s an insanely talented photographer. I’d be stupid to let him go because of old feelings. Spence and I left off on a good note—a much better note than when Kade and I parted ways. I don’t see why the two of us being in each other’s lives would be awkward.
“So let me get this straight.” Mia narrows her eyes at me. “You were basically in love with two brothers, one of which you almost married—him being the same one who told you not to marry Lucas—and the other brother being one you also had feelings for. And that’s who’s coming to work for us?” Mia raises her eyebrows and takes a deep breath. “I think I need a notepad to keep track of all this.”
“Hey!” I laugh, tossing one of the throw pillows from my chair at her. “It’s not that bad.”
I hear him before I see him, every single fiber of my being shifting into overdrive at the sound of his voice after all these years. I turn toward the doorway and try to control the sudden pounding of my heart.
Spence Reid leans against the doorframe with that same old handsome smile on his face, his hands tucked into the pockets of his jeans. “What’s not that bad, Declan?”
***
2
***
DECLAN
All three of my girlfriends make excuses to exit the room, leaving Spence and me alone for the first time in over five years.
“Surprised to see me, Dec?” Spence shifts on his feet before walking over to where I still sit frozen in my chair. He reaches out for my hands, and I smile, placing them in his. He pulls me up to my feet and wraps his arms around me. He smells like he always did—like sandalwood and amber, his signature cologne. This moment is so fucking nostalgic that my chest aches.
“You still use Montreal No. 5?” I ask, referencing the cologne I bought him on his sixteenth birthday, which he became obsessed with, and he smirks. “Also, yes, I am. I wasn’t expecting you for a few days still.”
“Yeah, I got back early and was dying to come see you. Of course I use Montreal No. 5. It reminds me of home. It reminds me of you,” he says with a sigh. “How have you been? We have an insane amount of catching up to do. Thanks for thinking of me for the job. It’s about time I came back home and settled down a bit. This was the perfect opportunity.”
Spence looks around the room at our vaulted ceilings and black walls with red accents. I use the seconds to fully take him in—how he’s both drastically changed, yet still stayed the same somehow. His dirty-blond hair sits in perfect place, shaved short on the sides and combed back and longer on top. His green eyes meet mine, emeralds searching for an answer that I don’t know how to give.
“I’ve been okay,” I tell him. “Just doing my thing, you know? Almost got married. Again.” I smile and shake my head. “That didn’t work out well and—”
“Ah, yeah.” Spence tenses his jaw, rubbing his palm along the back of his neck. “I heard my brother may have had something to do with you bailing on your fiancé.” He scrunches his eyebrows together before giving me a small shrug and a soft smile. My pulse pounds loudly in my ears as I stare at him for a beat too long.
“Ouch.” I force a laugh out. “I suppose bailed is the right word. How’d you know about Kade showing up?” Spence and Kade had a falling out when we were teenagers, and I highly doubt I’m ever a subject that’s mentioned when they do talk. I haven’t seen Kade since I ran away from Lucas at the altar six weeks ago, and considering I threw my phone into the lake—I just needed it to stop ringing and dinging, and all the things—I have no idea if he tried to contact me for the first few weeks. I know he definitely hasn’t tried since I got my new phone, and honestly, it’s probably for the best. It’s almost as if that entire day was just a fucked-up dream that never happened at all.
“Seriously?” Spence laughs, pulling me down onto the couch beside him. “The entire world knows that a mystery man came and stopped your wedding. Most of your fans may not have any idea who Kade is, but the moment I saw the photo, it all kinda clicked into place for me.” He smiles and my stomach drops.
