I hadn’t been to Rose’s Mini-Mart since college, and yet as I pushed in on the worn wood door, it was like nothing had ever changed. If I hadn’t known better, it would have felt like I was still a teenager, running over to the store with Devin after a long day of getting into trouble at his side.

Instead, I was thirty years old, a lot of time had passed, and so much had changed.

Devin wasn’t at my side at the moment, but I knew he was back at home, waiting for me.

“Evening,” Betty said as I entered the store. Her eyes remained glued to the crossword puzzle in front of her, and only when I crossed toward the counter did she look up. The store was warm, and I felt the cold slowly leaving my fingers and ears.

Even with Betty, it was hard to know that almost a decade had passed. She still had the same white hair, tied up in a bun at the top of her head.

When she saw me, her eyebrows shot up.

“Well, well, well,” she said, with a small grin. “I heard you decided to come back, but I hadn’t seen you yet. Welcome back, Russ.”

“Betty,” I said with a warm smile. “I can’t believe you remember me.”

She puffed out a laugh. “I remember everyone who comes in my store.”

“It’s weird, it feels like nothing has changed,” I said. “This is still the same Mini-Mart I loved.”

“Too bad Andy isn’t here—he’s grown so much you might not recognize him. You remember my grandson?”

“Of course.”

“He’s over at the university now. If you stopped by more, maybe you’d see him.” She gave me a wink.

“I’ve… been having a bit of a hard time since I moved back, but it finally seems like things are looking up. I’ll be in more, Betty.”

“What brings you in today?”

I looked around the store, taking in the familiar décor. Betty always put seasonal decorations up, too, and I was happy to see that she still had the Thanksgiving ones up.

“First of all, I just want to say thank you for not immediately switching to Christmas decorations. It’s only been a few days since Thanksgiving, but you wouldn’t know it. Everything is Christmas all of a sudden in the Promenade.”

“December 5^th,” she said. “That is when I put up the Christmas stuff. You’ve still got a few days.”

I smiled, walking over to the doughnut display. “Don’t suppose you have two maple doughnuts left?” I asked.

“I do indeed,” she said, hobbling over to the case. “Tell you what—I’ll give you half price if you get a half dozen. Welcome you back to town.”

“Even better,” I said. “Thank you.”

She boxed them up and brought them back to the front, ringing me up on the old, manual cash register. “That’s a lot of doughnuts for just one guy,” she said, peering up at me. “How do you keep that physique eating like that?”

“Thanks, but I’m really mostly getting these for my boyfriend. He’s crazy about maple.”

It sent an unbelievable thrill referring to him as my boyfriend—but just the night before, Devin had agreed that we could start using that word.

Betty laughed warmly, a smile growing on her face. “I know Devin’s crazy for maple,” she said.

My cheeks grew hot. She knew it was Devin even though I hadn’t mentioned his name. “I should have known. You really do know everyone in Rose Falls.”

“Devin’s one of the best guys I know,” she said. Suddenly her face fell, and she looked up at me like a hunter eyeing its prey. “Listen, Russ—I’m good at giving second chances. But I’m telling you right now—” she pointed at me, “—you hurt Devin again, and I’ll hurt you.”

Betty was an old lady who had trouble even walking around, but somehow, I believed her when she said it. Betty really did know almost everyone in Rose Falls, and I knew that if she wanted to use that power against me, she could.

“I am going to do everything in my power to make sure I never hurt Devin again,” I said, growing serious. “If I do, you have permission to come after me.”

She clicked her tongue, sliding the doughnut box over toward me. “If you did, I wouldn’t need your permission.”

I smiled. “Thank you, Betty. You’re looking out for someone I love.”

She gave me a lingering look that eventually morphed into a warm smile again. “I know. Now go enjoy doughnuts with him. He’s only been waiting for eight years.”

I gave her a nod and started back out the door, the cold breeze hitting me as I stepped outside.

The walk home was bracing but refreshing. It had been a long day at work, but ever since Thanksgiving, everything had felt easier. It was hard to believe it had only been four days, and that my new reality was one where I got to be with Devin.

It still felt like a dream.

Devin got off work an hour or two before I did, and he’d promised to cook me a nice meal that night at my house. I’d stopped to get the doughnuts on a whim for dessert, and I held them close as I walked the rest of the way home.

When I got back, swinging open the front door, I jumped back in surprise as I saw the inside of the house.

“Surprise!” people shouted, and as I looked in, I saw Devin, Emmett, Meredith, and even Shane inside. The house was done up in gaudy Thanksgiving décor—a big paper turkey, orange and brown streamers, decorative pumpkins. Music was playing in the background and the house smelled like warm spices and delicious food.

“Happy Thanksgiving,” Devin said, bounding up to me and wrapping his arms around me in a big hug.

“Oh, my God,” I said, laughing once as I took in the surroundings. “Devin, I… don’t know how to tell you this, but I think you’re a few days late on your holiday calendar.”

He leaned back, looking into my eyes with his arms still wrapped around me. “You didn’t get a proper Thanksgiving, though. Nobody should have to spend it alone.”

“So we’re doing it tonight, dude!” Meredith said, beaming at me from the other side of the room.

“It’s a friends-giving,” Devin said, leaning in to kiss me gently.

As Meredith, Emmett, and Shane went over to the kitchen to continue cooking, I slipped off my jacket and set down the box of doughnuts.

“This is amazing,” I said low in his ear. “You are amazing. You didn’t have to do this—just for me—”

“I didn’t have to, but aren’t you glad I did?” he said.

I brought him in close to me again, squeezing him in a tight hug. “You’re fucking perfect. And we are going to have the best friends-giving ever.”

“I love you,” Devin said softly, running his hand down the front of my chest.

I was still getting used to this—him saying it, knowing what he meant, and how ridiculously good it felt.

The fact that I got to say it back was just the icing on the cake. “I love you more than you could ever know.”

“You’re okay with Shane being here, right? I knew he could cook better than any of us, and he said you two decided to be just friends.”

“I am totally cool with that,” I said. “Shane is still an awesome person even if there was somebody else who had my heart.”

“Oh, yeah? Who’s that?”

“I don’t know,” I said, shrugging. “Just some guy.”

“Some guy, huh?” Devin kissed my cheek.

“Some guy I met when we were kids. He was my best friend, and then I fell in love with him—no big deal.”

“No big deal at all,” he said, running his hand through my hair.

“Enough, lovebirds,” Meredith called out from the kitchen. “Somebody come help me carve this turkey.”

I smiled at Devin and I swore, for the first time, everything in my life felt right.

* * *

Hours later, after eating and drinking so much that I thought I couldn’t take another single bite, we gathered in my living room, talking as if we’d all been friends for life.

“So, Russ,” Meredith said, standing up and spreading her hands out like she was about to lay down some important knowledge for me. “The first thing you need to know about Devin is that he will never give you the last bite of anything if you’re sharing food with him.”

“That is not true!” Devin said, holding up his beer bottle in protest. “Maybe with you, it’s like that, but definitely not with Russ.”

“I don’t know…” I said, cocking my head at Devin, turning toward him on the couch. “The other day you did finish the last of that milkshake we got.”

“That was different!” he said, laughing. “You said you were getting full.”

“That’s a fair point.”

“Another thing, though, is that Devin is a lightweight, but never admits it,” Emmett said.

“Oh, trust me, Emmett—I remember that from college,” I said.

“This is nothing but vile gossip,” Devin said. “Now if you’ll all excuse me, I’m going to go grab another beer.” He got up, tripping slightly over my leg in the process.

Everyone laughed, and for a second I was wondering if Devin would feel bad—but I realized then that he was laughing the hardest. “Okay, okay, fine,” he said. “I’m a lightweight. But it’s not true that I won’t admit it.”

“Devin also should never be allowed to start talking about Dutch golden age painters,” Shane said, pointing a finger as Devin went to retrieve another beer. “I swear to God, there was one night where I casually mentioned the concept of chiaroscuro, and Devin rambled for at least two hours.”

I had no idea what Shane was talking about. “Chiara-what?” I asked, shaking my head.

“Chiaroscuro,” Devin said, practically running back into the room with a beer bottle and opener in his hand. “The beautiful interplay of contrasting light and dark tones in a painting. And Shane happens to be exactly right about this one—I could talk about it forever.”

“Okay, Devin, but Rembrandt’s best work doesn’t really even use chiaroscuro,” Meredith said.

“Are you out of your mind? Of course, it does!” Devin said, gesturing wildly with one arm.

“I mean, I think that’s kind of what Rembrandt used exclusively, Meredith,” Shane said, cocking his head at her. “Let’s not go crazy here.”

I tuned out of the conversation as it turned to more different types of art, and the four of them began flinging out names of painters faster than I could keep up. I sort of sat there silently for a few minutes, sipping my beer, watching Devin’s eyes light up as he traded barbs with Shane and Emmett.

He sounded like a scholar. It was kind of amazing to witness: Devin in his element, talking about things that I couldn’t share with him when it was just us one-on-one.

It was beautiful, to be sure.

But after a few minutes, my heart began to ache a little.

Was this how it would be if I was with Devin? Would it be a constant push and pull, and would he be able to even have fulfilling conversations with me?

I thought about what most of our conversations had been about since I’d returned to Rose Falls and knew that we’d never been able to have the level of discourse he shared with his friends and brother.

I knew how to heal patients’ wounds, but I had no idea how to talk like Devin did.

It sent a flash of fear through me that I hadn’t felt since before Thanksgiving: was I good enough for Devin? And could this ever really last?

“Russ was actually doing that the other day!” Devin said suddenly, crossing over toward me and sitting in my lap on the couch.

“What?” I said, broken from my spell.

“You totally weren’t listening, were you?” he said, smiling at me. He looked like an angel, sitting there in my lap, and despite the hole I’d been falling into mentally, I couldn’t help but get lost in his eyes.

“Guilty as charged,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

“I was talking about value. Remember when I was showing you how to draw the other day? How you can lead the eye to where you want it to go in a drawing, based on shadow and highlight?”

I nodded. The day after he spent the night at my house, he’d sat down to draw a little sketch of Pepper and had taught me some of the terms.

“Yeah. You used the lightest highlights in Pepper’s eyes and nose, to draw the attention there.”

“Exactly!” Devin said.

“Damn, Russ looks like you’re gonna be Devin’s newest best student within a few months,” Emmett said with a wink.

“Russ learned more with one drawing class than most people learn in a month,” Devin said.

“I need to start going to those classes again,” I said.

“Now that you guys admit to each other that you’re in looove?” Meredith said.

“Oh, shut up,” Devin said, picking up a cat toy and tossing it at Meredith. Pepper seemed to appear out of nowhere from under the couch, bounding over to Meredith and nabbing the toy from her lap.

“What about you, Devin?” Meredith said. “I know you hate this question but have you finally started painting for yourself again?”

Devin groaned, leaning back on my lap a little. “Okay. Fine. The truth is, I have been working on something small, but I haven’t told any of you because I knew you’d just think it was cheesy.”

“Are you kidding? We think everything you do is cheesy!” Meredith joked. “But seriously, that’s awesome.”

“Can we see it?” Shane asked from the chair across the living room.

Devin actually blushed. “It isn’t quite finished,” he said.

“That’s okay,” I said, resting my hand on the small of his back. “When have you been doing this?”

I hadn’t had any idea that he’d been working on something in his spare time. I definitely hadn’t seen him working on it.

“Well, it started about three or four weeks ago,” he said. “I didn’t feel like going out much, or being social.”

“We know,” Meredith said. “I thought you were busy with work.”

“I was, a little,” Devin said, sliding off my lap and standing up. “But I also started to go into work early sometimes and take an hour to work on my own painting. It’s… nothing crazy, but fine—I’ll show you guys. Gotta run across the street to get it.”

Devin handed me his beer and he was off, leaving me in the room with Meredith, Shane, and Emmett.

For a second I was worried—Devin was the glue that held all of us together, and would I even be able to make small talk if he wasn’t around?

But Meredith broke the silence as soon as Devin was out the front door.

“Russ,” she said, seemingly more serious than she usually was.

“What’s up?” I responded.

“Thank you,” she said, “from the bottom of my heart. I was afraid to say anything too serious but over the past few months… maybe even the past year, I was worried about Devin.”

Emmett nodded in agreement.

“Worried? Why?”

“He had… stopped showing interest in anything. No guy was ever enough for him. He stopped painting things on his own, and honestly, it seemed like he was resigning himself to some sort of life of solitude.”

“Wow,” I said, surprised.

“I know,” she said. “He’s only thirty years old, but he was acting as if he might be alone forever. But since you came back… Dev is himself again.”

I felt a little squeeze in my heart, hearing Meredith’s words. It was striking to have such a serious conversation with her, anyway—she was normally so sarcastic and joking—but the things she said also went straight to my heart. Feelings welled up in me faster than lightning.

“That means so much to me,” I said. “I thought I’d ruined things with him, but if I can improve his life in any way, make up for it, however, I can… that’s the most important thing, to me.”

“I think you’re really good for him,” Emmett said, and Meredith and Shane both nodded in agreement.

I pulled in a deep breath, puffing out a brief laugh. “God, you guys are going to get me all teary-eyed if you don’t watch out. Devin will come back and wonder what the hell happened here.”

Meredith laughed, waving a hand. “We all know what happened here. You guys fell in love.”

She got up from her seat, crossing over to lean down and give me a tight hug.

“Awww,” Emmett said from the other side of the room. “I gotta say, this is very sweet, and all, but my question is this: is this all some sort of ploy, Meredith?”

“Ploy?” she said, standing up again and facing Emmett. She put her hand on her hip. “What ploy would I need to pull?”

“I know what you’re trying to do. You want to butter up to Russ so that you can be the one to cat-sit Pepper when they go on vacations!”

She inhaled quickly in a gasp, a look of mock shock on her face. “What an accusation, Emmett!” She paused for a moment, looking from me to him and back again. “Emmett is wrong about my ploy, but he is right about one thing: I would love to cat-sit for Pepper whenever you need.”

“Nope, I am going to be the default cat-sitter!” Emmett said. “Pepper loves me.”

“Pepper loves everyone,” Meredith said, laughing.

As they both fawned over the cat I couldn’t help smiling and even slightly blushing. I felt good around these people and knew that in time, we would probably become great friends.

Soon we heard the sound of the front door again and Devin came in, holding a small canvas in his hands.

“Okay,” he said, “This is it.” He turned it around to face us, and immediately I knew exactly what I was looking at.

It was an incredibly detailed depiction of the maple leaf he’d found, the first night I returned to Rose Falls. I remembered it so well—the beautiful gold, green, and red of the leaf. He’d left it at my house that night and I’d returned it to him, hoping to God that I’d be able to rekindle my friendship with him.

Now here it was, only a couple months later, and things had changed so much.

“Devin, that is incredible,” Meredith said. “Why would you ever be worried to show that to us?”

He let out a long sigh, staring down at the painting. “In the art world, there is always so much pressure to be unique, different, to do something no one has ever done before. For a long time, I let that get me hung up—I didn’t want to paint anything if it wasn’t going to be somehow groundbreaking. But of course, all that meant is that I never painted… anything.”

I reached out and stroked Devin’s forearm as he stood in front of me.

“But honestly? I decided to just say fuck it. I like foliage. I like flowers, and fall leaves, and all the colors that nature offers. I don’t care if it’s cheesy, or overdone, or obvious… I’m done denying what I love.”

Meredith let out a little squeal, walking over to gently take the painting from his hands. “You’re so fucking talented, Dev.”

“She’s right,” Shane added. “It’s incredible. Who cares about being shocking?”

“I don’t know much about the art world,” I said, standing up to put an arm around Devin, “but I know beauty when I see it. And Devin, you’re a master at this.”

“You guys, you’re going to make me blush,” Devin said.

“You’re already blushing,” Emmett added with a grin.

“You’re following your heart, and that’s why you’re happy, Dev,” I said low into his ear, bringing him close to my side as the other three inspected the painting.

“I’m happy with you,” he whispered, looking up at my eyes.

“And I hope I can make you happy forever.”

The night devolved into more drinking, playing with Pepper, and of course, a good amount of laughter. Throughout the blur of the evening, there was one shining light: Devin, my best friend, my partner in crime, my love.

For the first time in so many years, I felt like I was at home.

I belonged here. And I’d stay as long as I was capable of it, right by Devin’s side.