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“Congratulations.” Tristan patted Elijah’s back. “Your daughter just dumped you.”
Theo sighed when Hunter swiped more fries from his plate. “You know, you’re acting like I don’t feed you.”
“Oh, you feed me well.” His fiancé chomped down on a fry, licked his fingers, and arched an eyebrow. “Why, last night you stuffed me so good I?—”
Theo hastily clamped a hand over Hunter’s mouth. Izzy’s grin transformed into a scowl. Wyatt sighed. Finn hid a smile in his beer.
“Is Uncle Hunter being rude again?” Maisie asked curiously.
“You don’t know the half of it, kid,” Drake grunted.
“You should put a muzzle on him,” James told Theo.
Hunter’s eyes brightened with a wicked light. Theo groaned.
“I think you just awakened his inner beast,” Nathan chuckled.
The conversation soon shifted to Christmas plans.
Alex and Finn had invited all of them to their place. It was big enough to host a huge party and they had enough room to accommodate everyone for the night.
“Is Elaine going to be in Singapore for Christmas?” Izzy asked Miles.
“Yeah,” he replied lightly. “She’s not back until the New Year.”
It had taken a lot to persuade Elaine to go on a well-deserved holiday. In all the time Miles had been in a coma at the Sunrise Care Home, she’d stayed by his side and came to see him every day, just as Izzy and the Terrible Seven visited every week. Miles had spoken to his mother’s closest friends and finally convinced Elaine to go on a cruise with them.
“We’ll miss her at Christmas,” Alex said quietly. “But I’m glad she’s gone on that trip.”
Izzy and the rest of the Terrible Seven were all close to Elaine. She’d been a quasi-mother figure to them ever since she’d adopted the gang of misfits when they were kids.
Miles forced his face to stay relaxed.
The happy hours all of them had spent at his home felt like a lifetime ago. A lifetime he would never recover.
It wasn’t until they’d finished their game of poker, which James won by a landslide to a roar of groans and Tristan’s satisfied grin, that Miles took the opportunity to slip outside while his friends cleared the table and Wyatt and Nathan made coffee for everyone.
He settled on the porch swing and looked out over the twinkling lights in the distance. The Batistas’ home was on a low hill overlooking the valley that cradled Twilight Falls.
Miles’s shoulders slowly unknotted as he gazed blindly at the town where he’d grown up. A wave of guilt welled up inside him.
I’m such a loser.
CHAPTER2
Miles knewhe should be happy for his friends. And he was.
But he was also irritated and miserable and just plain…lost.
It wasn’t just because he’d woken up in a stranger’s body. He felt like an outsider within the circle of people he was once closest to. And he didn’t know how to fix that.
The wind picked up, rustling branches and scattering the dead leaves on the lawn. It brought a chill that raised goosebumps on his skin.
Miles was rubbing his arms and wishing he’d taken his jacket from the coat rack when Izzy came out of the house with a couple of blankets. She sat beside him and gave him one.
“Thanks,” Miles murmured gratefully. He wrapped the blanket around his shoulders.
“What’s wrong?” Izzy said after a while.
