It had been a long time since that night when I’d slammed a teenage Alex into his door and threatened him. I’d made him a promise that day—a promise that would last a lifetime, even when they were back together.

“You hurt her, I hurt you.”

I’d never been a violent man by nature. My life hadn’t given me much reason to handle a situation with my fists when my mouth seemed to get me out of enough scrapes as it was. Humour dilutes everything. It can make even the worst moments in someone’s life seem that little bit lighter if the timing and the delivery are right. But that night, when I’d watched Natalie crumble in my arms, sobbing her heart out over a boy I didn’t think would ever deserve her love again, there hadn’t been a single drop of humour left in my entire body. All I’d felt was anger and the desperate need to save her from hurting.

“I mean it. Look at me.” I stood toe-to-toe with him, glaring up ever so slightly as, even though he was younger, Alex stood above me. His nostrils flared, his jaw ticking over and over again as he stared down at me and remained silent. Controlled. Eerily still.

“If you care for her, even a tiny little bit, or if you ever did care for her before you decided to shit all over her life and destroy her completely, you will leave her alone. You will stay away. You won’t contact her ever again. You’ll never even look in her direction. You stared into her eyes for the last time last night. It’s over. From now on, she deserves more.”

I searched his eyes, curling my fingers tighter around his shirt and pushing my fist harder into his chest.

“Don’t give me a reason to hurt you. I don’t like being this guy, but I have no problem backing up this threat. You’ve been warned. You’d be wise to listen.”

Seemed like a good idea at the time, I suppose, even if I did sound like a poor man’s Al Capone. He’d been a jumped-up, arrogant seventeen-year-old in my eyes. He was easy to scare.

Now, though, Alex was a man. I’d seen him at Paul and Suzie’s wedding clear enough. He was stronger, more determined, different. I saw it all those months ago when I started to feel my world slipping through my fingers once again. Fair play to him, he took my first warning and respected it for five years. I just wondered if he had the common sense to respect it until the day he died. Whether I was with Natalie or not, the threat still stood, and I had no problem arranging for that day to be sooner rather than later if he dared to ever hurt her again.

But for now, and under complete and utter emotional duress, I had to play nice. After telling Natalie I would be there, she’d texted me back, making it more than clear how much it meant to her that I was willing to make the effort.

It wasn’t until I knocked on the Vincents’ front door that I found myself wondering what Alice was doing, and that was when I realised the nerves were kicking in. If Alice were here, she would hold my hand. I wouldn’t feel like the odd one out. She’d reassure me that I was doing the right thing. She would—

Stop it, Marcus!

To both my relief and my surprise, Sammy answered the door, her smile fading when she realised it was just little old me.

“Hey!” I cried. “Lil sis.”

“Uch,” she grumbled. “This is not what I expected when I opened the door.”

“What? Tall, dark, handsome visitors are frowned upon now?”

“They are when we share the same DNA and came out of the same birth canal.”

“Eww.” I groaned, pulling my chin back in disgust. “You did not just say that.”

“Oh, come on. Birth canal is much better than—”

“Don’t!” I snapped, cutting her off as I held my hand up in front of her.

“... Mum’s vagina.”

“I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit.”

Sammy’s look of victory had her jutting her hip and folding her arms across her chest. “For a man who loves the ladies as much as you do, you sure are touchy about anyone mentioning their va—”

“Alright, alright, alright. Enough noise from you, young lady. As your older brother, I’m officially giving you your first warning before I put you over my shoulder and dump you in the naughty corner for crimes against my ears.”

Sammy grinned brightly before she glanced behind me. “No Cam?”

“Cam?” I frowned. “Why would he be here?”

She shrugged and held the door open to let me through. “Thought you might have bottled it without your big, burly cheerleader friend pushing you forward.”

“Gah. You’re right. I’m a total pushover without him. What can I say? He looks great in a skirt.”

Sammy’s cheeks flushed just a little bit before she waved me through. “Dickhead.”

“Samantha Anderson.”

“What?”

“Are you crushing on Cameron?”

“Um. No,” she blurted out. “Not even a little bit.” Her smile vanished completely before she huffed at me, stomped her foot, and stormed off through the hallway, down into the kitchen at the far end of the house.

Fuck! She totally was crushing on Cam. The last time she’d behaved like that was when I teased her about fancying her music teacher in high school. Swoony bastard with his guitar playing skills had the teenage girls giggling and blushing whenever he walked past them.

“Hey, you made it!” came a familiar voice from the kitchen doorway, and when I looked up, there she was. I steeled my stomach and took the invisible punch that seeing Nat delivered, smiling through it the whole time as she walked towards me in a bronze-coloured calf-length dress that was cinched in at the waist and swished around her knees when she walked.

Just because we’d broken up, didn’t mean I couldn’t appreciate how fucking beautiful she was. Her long blonde hair was half up, half down, and I had no clue whether she was wearing makeup or not—only that she was shining as she walked towards me with a look of relief on her face.

“Did you doubt me?”

“Honestly? I wasn’t sure,” she admitted softly as she pressed herself against my chest and wrapped her arms around me. It was a different hug from the millions we’d exchanged in the past. I felt what she delivered. It was a friend’s hug. An embrace of love, not lust.

Stomach steeling time again. Gut punch number two.

“I’m a man of my word. But, if you could stop getting more beautiful every time I see you, that’d be great.”

“Ever the charmer.”

“You look amazing,” I told her as I pulled away and held her at arm’s length. “I, however, feel under fucking dressed.”

Nat laughed and rolled her eyes, not even bothering to look at my clothes as she guided me forward into the kitchen. “Marcus, you look great.”

“I woke up like this.”

She gave me a sideways glance as she smirked and shook her head. Before I could say anything else, I was being guided into a room with a large gathering of people. Sammy was smiling and joking around with Paul and Suzie, who both glanced my way, held up their beers and smiled as they welcomed me into the fold. There were around ten to fifteen of Thomas and Rosie’s friends, some of whom I recognised from previous years’ birthday parties, and a couple who were new to me. It seemed like everyone was aware of exactly who I was, each one taking their time to acknowledge my entrance, while all I could do was push the hair out of my eyes before I slid both hands into the back pockets of my jeans and glanced back to Nat.

“Maybe this was a bad idea,” I whispered to her.

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to be that guy, aren’t I? The ex who everyone feels awkward around now.”

Her eyes flashed with the briefest hint of sadness before her hand found my back and started to rub it.

“Nobody looks at you that way. You were never defined by me, Marcus. You’re you. You’re bright, intelligent, funny, a ray of sunshine in everyone’s life. Stay. Please…”

I groaned and rolled my eyes, pulling my hands out of my pockets and running them through the curlier parts of my hair again. “Fine. I’ll stay. Let’s get this whole awkward phase out of the way.”

“Always so dramatic,” she said with a smile.

“We both know why I’m really here, Nat.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Time to meet the new boyfriend, right?”

“I’m ready if you’re ready…” a manly voice boomed behind me. Ah, I knew that voice well. That fucker had haunted my nightmares for five long years, and now I had to try to condition myself to hear it and see him differently than before.

Turning slowly, I looked up to see the infamous Alex Law smiling back at me. Irritatingly handsome bastard. His hair was shaggy yet stylish, and he was one of those annoying menfolk who made all his clothes—white shirt, blue jeans, and tan belt—look like they were almost too small to contain his muscles, but not too small to make him look anything other than Natalie Vincent worthy.

Cock.

Shit. No. Time to be nice. Nice cock. Wait. That sounded wrong, even in my head.

“And as if by magic,” I said a little too sarcastically.

Alex held a bottle of beer in one hand, keeping the other in his pocket as he studied me. Tense and awkward didn’t even begin to describe the atmosphere that hissed and crackled around us.

“Thanks for coming over tonight, Marcus,” he said smoothly. “It means a lot to Natalie that you’re here.”

“Yeah?” was all I could think to say. Well, at least Natalie would know she got rid of Dumber and was now just with Dumb.

Alex gave me a nod, his smile never fading. “Yeah. I told her you’d probably wimp out and bail,” he admitted, shrugging one shoulder casually.

Motherfucker. “I don’t bail,” I answered back calmly. “I honour my commitments.”

“You most definitely do,” Alex said, grinning harder. “And I’m just messing with you.”

“Good one,” I mumbled.

“Shall we just do the manly handshake thing and get it out of the way nice and early?”

“Do we have to?” I cringed.

Alex glanced sideways, signalling to the group of people across the room. I turned my head slowly to see every single one of them eyeing us like we were a set of ticking bombs, waiting to go off.

“They either want us to move on as friends or take this outside,” Alex said quietly.

“Marcus,” Natalie breathed out behind me, moving closer to press her hands into the small of my back. Her fingers curled there, and I had to close my eyes for a short second and remember what the two of them were currently going through with Alex’s dad. Now was not the time for me to play arsehole versus dickhead, the civil war edition.

I turned back to look at Alex as I let out a long, tired-as-hell exhale. “Christ, I’m such a crowd pleaser.” I held out my hand for him to take, and Alex’s eyebrows rose high as he lifted his hand out of his pocket and pushed it into mine.

“Good man,” Alex said.

“Let’s hope I can say the same about you in time.”

He let out a small huff of a laugh, but I knew he saw a slight flicker of contempt when he stared into my eyes. It wasn’t that I wasn’t trying. I was. I wanted to like the guy. It would definitely make life easier. But forgiving happens quicker than forgetting, and I wasn’t in a rush to be his best mate anytime soon.

Natalie’s sigh of relief behind me didn’t go unnoticed.

“Tell me there’s alcohol,” I said to him as we both faced the others.

“Enough to sink a ship.”

“Keep saying things like that to me, Alex, and I’ll be the one to run off with you next.”

Alex’s smirk grew as he puffed out a stream of laughter through his nose. For someone who was three years younger than me, the guy had a stance about him, a presence that made you think he was at least three years older.

“I’ll go grab you one,” he said. “You catch up with Nat.”

Then he disappeared, and Natalie slipped into place beside me, both of us watching Sammy, Suzie and Paul as they erupted into a fit of laughter over something we weren’t privy to.

“Thank you,” she said in a whisper.

“I’m happy for you. I wouldn’t be here if I weren’t.”

“I know.” She gulped, nodding her head softly over and over again. “I know. I just…” she released a small sigh. “He’s important to me.”

“And you want me to like him…”

“Yes.”

“Give it time,” I urged her. “Give us time to adjust.”

“Marcus?” She made my name sound like a question, her smile turning sad before she glanced up at me through those innocent, pure blue eyes of hers. I had to suck in a subtle breath to ignore the bollock punch that one look from her delivered.

“Yeah?”

“How did you know?” she whispered.

“Know what?”

“How did you know that I loved Alex while I was with you? What did I do wrong that let you see what I didn’t want to see for myself?”

“Aside from the obvious,” I began, offering her a sympathetic face. “You used to say his name in your sleep.”

“What?” Her eyes widened, and her embarrassment took over.

“It only usually happened when you were stressed, but it got worse in those last weeks of us being together.”

Natalie bowed her head, fiddling with the drink in her hand. “Why didn’t you ever say anything? Why would you put up with that for so long?”

Lifting her chin with my finger, I looked into her eyes before dropping my hand altogether. “You were sleeping. I couldn’t and wouldn’t punish you for that.”

Her eyes creased at the corners when she smiled her lovely, warm, appreciative smile, and just as quickly as Alex had slipped away, he slipped right back into place, making me move away from Nat as he handed me a cold beer.

“Cheers,” I said to him.

Alex raised his bottle, tilting it as he spoke. “To new beginnings.”

He slipped his arm around Natalie’s waist, her body falling against him with a smoothness and grace that made it seem like the two of them didn’t even know how to stand apart anymore. Her head rested in the crook of his arm while her hand pressed itself against his chest and she smiled at the rest of her friends in the room. Alex, clearly moving with the same instinct of getting as close to her as he possibly could, pressed his mouth to the top of her head and inhaled slowly as he held her.

And it only took a second of me seeing the two of them doing the simplest of things for me to realise that had I held on to Natalie Vincent for a day longer than I had, I’d have been robbing the world of the kind of love most people only read about in books.

They belonged together. They should probably never have been apart.

Not even for a day.