I’d always loved Rosie Vincent. She was a dream of a mother, despite her losses, and she reminded me of my own in so many ways. As long as her babies were happy, she was happy. I couldn’t imagine how much the loss of Lizzy had affected her deep down inside. As soon as she saw me, she let out a little shriek, wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me a welcoming hug. When it came to Tom, however, I was a little more cautious. I never thought the guy hated me, as such, but I knew I wasn’t exactly his flavour of the month.

“You keeping well, lad?” he asked, one hand shaking mine while his other slapped my shoulder over and over again.

“Really well, Tom. Life’s good.”

“That pleases me.” He smiled. “That pleases me a hell of a lot.”

“I bet you’re itching for the rugby season to start up again, hey?” I asked him, remembering our chats about rugby versus football, and the debates we used to have together.

“February can’t come quick enough. There’s a new stadium opening up over in Rothwell, apparently. Some local club has raised some funds and is looking to put a squad up for touch rugby. You know… for those of us who are too brittle to go all in on the tackles, but still have passion for the game.”

“That sounds fantastic. You should definitely get involved.”

Tom laughed, punching me lightly on the bicep as he took a step back. “There’s life in me yet. You’ll have to come and watch. Cheer from the sidelines.”

“I’d like that,” I told him honestly, trying not to frown in confusion at this new version of a man who was, most of the time anyway, a little grumpier with me than he was currently being.

I was relieved to speak to Paul when he and Suzie charged over. The idiot scooped me up off the floor in an attempt to lift me into some sort of fireman’s lift. It was a good job my beer was nearly empty, because otherwise he’d have been the one complaining when it spilled over his arse

“Fucking hell, you’re more muscular than you look, aren’t you, Marcus?”

I laughed as I landed back on my two feet with a thud, tugging down on my shirt that had crept up and flashed my bare stomach to the entire room.

When I glanced back up, Suzie was staring at my waistline, and unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one to notice.

“Erm… wife?” Paul snapped, waving his hand in front of her face.

“Wh… who? I mean… Y-yeah,” she stuttered, blinking quickly.

“What are you doing?” Paul asked, clearly in shock.

Suzie’s mouth opened to respond a few times, her hands pushing through her hair before she eventually slapped them both against the tops of her thighs.

“Oh, come on. Even you must have seen those abs!” she cried to him, her minx grin on full display.

Paul’s mouth fell open. “I don’t believe it,” he whispered. “You’ve become me!”

Suzie laughed before she curled her arms around her husband’s neck and pressed her body to him. “Spend enough time with the devil and you become the devil himself.”

“I feel cheap,” Paul squeaked. “And used… and… and…”

“You’ll get over it.” She giggled before she begged for her forgiveness with a kiss.

I bit back my grin, swallowed my laughter, and looked away, not wanting to be that particular pervert at the party. But when I glanced around, all I could see were couples. Alex and Nat. Suzie and Paul. Tom and Rosie. All of their friends: couples. The only two single people at the party were my sister and me, but Sammy didn’t seem to mind as she sat around the table, staring down at her phone with a sly grin on her face.

I was, admittedly, just about to make my excuses and leave, or at the very best, get Cam to text me with a false emergency message, but my plans drifted away as the Vincent’s front door blew open in a flurry, sending a heavy wash of winter weather down the corridor towards us all. The air filled with cries of Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! You made it! You’re here! Suzie and Natalie screaming at the top of their lungs like that dude from Fifty Shades of Grey had just walked in.

“Who is it?” Paul asked.

“Beats me,” Alex answered, shrugging as he leaned back to try to get a clearer view down the hall.

Sammy was the next to scream as she ran through the corridor, throwing herself around whoever Nat and Suzie were currently squeezing the life out of.

“Alright, get off me, you weirdos,” another familiar voice cried out.

Daniella Marston pushed her way through to the kitchen, all sunshine blonde, wavy hair, long legs in tight jeans and an off-the-shoulder grey T-shirt that most people wouldn’t have been able to pull off. Suzie was clinging to her, while Sammy and Nat were following closely behind, both of them giddy with excitement at having their friend back.

“Danni!” Alex yelled out as he walked over, picked her up by the waist and spun her around. She gave him a tight squeeze in return, and it hit me then that the two of them had obviously spent a lot of time together in Greece. Paul was next, earning himself a slap on the back of the head from Danni when he tried to swat her arse.

They were so at ease with one another, such great friends right down to their very cores, it made me miss the whole gang when I thought I hadn’t been missing them that much.

As soon as Danni saw me, her eyes lit up and she sashayed across the room. There was something very intimidating about a woman who knew her worth and let that knowledge and power shine. I don’t know how she did it, but Danni somehow managed to keep the perfect balance of being confident without being arrogant. I guess it helped that she had friends like this around her when she came home.

“Thank God someone has alcohol,” she said as she grabbed my beer straight out of my hand and drained the bottle completely. “Ah,” she gasped. “That’s about twenty-four hours overdue.” Danni wiped her mouth with the back of her free hand as she held the, now empty, bottle out to me. “Hey, Marcus. Good to see you.”

“Danni.” I gave her a small nod, my eyes bulging as I took my empty beer from her and slid it onto the kitchen counter. “Good to see you, too. Thanks for finishing my beer for me. I was having trouble with that, apparently.”

“How the hell have you been?” she asked, folding her arms under her boobs and pushing them up as her face came alive with excitement and intrigue. She had the most beautiful blue eyes that held mischief and a constant air of happiness within them.

I scratched the back of my head awkwardly. “Oh… you know…”

“Still depressed about the split, huh? Getting dumped for another guy is never easy.”

I dropped my hand and stared at her in surprise.

“I feel for you. Someone had to suffer, though, right? Shame it was you. I always really, really fucking liked you.” She frowned, completely unaware that the whole audience around her was now staring at the two of us in shock and surprise.

Jesus.

“You’re a hot guy, Marcus. Someone else is going to come along and sweep you off your feet, and you’ll forget all about what happened this summer. Who’d have thought Natalie Vincent was such a little heartbreaker, hey?”

“Christ, Danni,” I cringed. Not for me… for her. The entire room was now staring at her like she had three heads and a donkey’s tail stuck to her arse.

Danni glanced around as a room full of wide eyes burned holes into her head.

“What?” she asked them innocently. “It’s not like we don’t know what happened, is it? I mean… wait. Have I walked into a parallel universe where the tables have turned again? Is Nat now back in love with Marcus, only Alex doesn’t know it?”

Silence.

Thick, heavy silence as I stared at her with my lips pressed together and brows raised high.

“Why are you all looking at me like that?” she whispered.

“So… this is what it feels like to not be the biggest idiot of the party,” Paul muttered quietly.

“Ohh-kay,” Alex dragged out, cutting through the silence of the small group to turn Danni away from me and guide her away. “Drink, Danni? Something nice and strong? Something that might burn that throat of yours?”

“Yes!” she cried out, her eyes alive again as she glanced back over her shoulder at me and grinned. “You’re looking fit, Marcus. You keep that shit up.” She purred and clawed the air like a cat.

I gave her a salute as thanks, blowing the air out of my cheeks as I watched her walk away.

“Okay,” I huffed out to the people still standing around me, clapping my hands together. “This is just getting weirder and weirder, so I think I’m going to love you and leave you. Grab a cab and—”

Knock. Knock. Knock.

“I’ll get it!” Sammy shrieked, her little legs running frantically to the front door before anyone could dare to argue with her.

Who the hell was crashing the party now?

It didn’t take me long to spot the blonde, friendly giant above all the heads.

You had to be kidding me.

“Hey, man.” Cameron grinned as he walked over to me, wearing his cargo pants and a loose-fitting linen shirt in the middle of fucking December. His hand slapped my back while I remained completely lost for words. “What? Didn’t expect to see me here?”

“Do I even want to know why you’re here?”

Cam scowled playfully. “Would you believe me if I said my spidey-senses picked up on your distress signal and I came here to rescue you from being the ditched ex at the lovers’ tea party?”

“Nope,” I answered, popping the P. “You’re not that good.”

“Ha! You got me.”

“My sister texted you, didn’t she?”

“Yep.”

“And she’s been texting you for how long?”

He shrugged a shoulder. “Few weeks.”

“You mean ever since you waltzed back into her life and made her scurry off our driveway that day?”

“That’s the one.”

“You know she’s crushing on you, right?”

“Yup.”

“Fuck’s sake, man,” I grumbled, quickly looking around every surface for a fresh beer. When I looked up, I caught the look on Paul’s face as he stared at Cameron, wide-eyed and mouth open. Next to him was Suzie who was doing the same. Next to Suzie was Nat, who wasn’t exactly hiding her appreciation, either. Beside Nat was Sammy—my little fucking sister—openly swooning over my best mate. She may as well have had birds chirping around her head and stars in her eyes.

“Snap out of it, you lot,” I huffed at them, watching as they all blinked away their adoration and turned around in embarrassment. “You stay away from my little sister,” I told Cam, pointing at him and giving him my best glare. I didn’t actually care if he went after her. She was a grown-arsed woman, and I knew a lot worse guys out there than him. Still… it felt like the big brotherly thing to do to at least try to warn him off once or twice before I gave them my consent.

Cameron laughed, slapping me on the back again before he shuffled his legs farther apart and folded his arms over his chest. “Consider me told.”

“I’m going to find beer.” A whole freakin’ keg of it, I thought to myself as I made my way to the Vincents’ garage where I knew Natalie’s dad had a fridge full of fresh alcohol for every occasion. Pulling the door open, I bobbed down and eyed the beers that were lined up in a row. I’d just grabbed hold of one when I felt my phone buzz in my pocket.

I twisted the cap off the bottle of Budweiser and smiled to myself.

I knew I should have expanded on that particular story, but a part of me wanted to see what her response would be.

That was it.

It didn’t take her long to respond.

Didn’t I know it?

I smiled to myself.

I walked back into the party, and Alice didn’t stop texting me all night long after that. There wasn’t anything particularly flirtatious about our conversation, but it was comforting to have someone to moan to whenever Cam was occupied with Sammy, or whenever I felt a stirring of something weird in my stomach from looking at Natalie and Alex together.

The evening wore on, and without conscious thought, I found myself wandering out to the back garden when I spotted Thomas standing at the end of it next to a small bush that only had a few leaves on it now that the winter season had practically stripped it bare.

“It’s getting cold out, Tom. You should get inside,” I told him, watching as he turned around and tried to subtly wipe a tear away from the corner of his eye.

Shit, I should have stayed away.

He nodded, quickly looking away as he rubbed his eye again. “I just needed some fresh air.”

“You okay?” I asked, coming to a stop beside him, pushing one hand into my pocket while my other held a beer tightly.

Tom let out a stream of air, which came to life as a small cloud in front of him as the heat met the cold. “Just having a Lizzy moment.” His eyes fell to the small fairy ornament that sat in the soil underneath the barren branches of the bush.

“Want me to leave you alone?”

“No. You can stay.”

“Bad time of year?” I asked softly, knowing that Lizzy’s absence had always seemed to hit them that little bit harder in December when they had a lot to celebrate.

“They’re all bad times without her. Can’t let my other girls see me struggling, though.”

“I understand that,” I told him. “But… if you ever do need someone to see it, someone to share it with… I don’t mind being that guy.”

He tilted his head, raising his chin to look at me from the corners of his teary eyes. “I’m sorry if you ever thought I treated you with anything other than respect, Marcus.”

“You didn’t,” I lied. No need to beat a man when he was down on the ground, grieving for a loss I couldn’t even begin to comprehend.

Tom smiled softly. “It’s hard trying to keep everyone happy, isn’t it? Being the man everyone relies on to fix things, solve things, and keep everyone standing. You feel like you’re not allowed to make mistakes or crumble, too, don’t you? And when you do mess up, even if it’s only a little bit, those tiny errors plague us more than the biggest mistakes seem to plague the idiots.”

“I don’t mind looking after people. It brings me some kind of peace.”

“Me, too,” Tom whispered.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be what Natalie needed me to be,” I found myself saying without much thought, liking the way it felt to set that apology free. “I tried.”

Turning around, Tom moved to walk past me, stopping when his hand landed on my shoulder. “You were exactly what she needed you to be. Thank you for looking after her the way you did, and for loving her and never mistreating her. You’re a good man. I hope now, you can go and live your life and find someone who loves you wholeheartedly. I know Natalie wants that for you more than anything.”

“I think I need to concentrate on learning to love myself first.”

“Aye.” He chuckled as he began to walk off. “That as well.”

He left me standing there, watching him as he walked away while the hurricane that was Danni Marston came charging out the back door towards me wearing a mischievous grin on her face, with my name falling from her lips.