The next night was Molly’s birthday party at O’Riley’s. Kylie was happy to take a night off from thinking about her life to celebrate. Finn and Sean decorated the pub, something they did for everyone’s birthday, which meant they all did a lot of celebrating.

Tonight’s Wild West theme was Kylie’s favorite. It wasn’t much of a stretch for the pub, which had whiskey barrel tables and a bar crafted from repurposed longhouse-style doors. Adding to the effect were the hanging brass lantern lights and the horse-chewed fence baseboards.

Everyone dressed the part. The girls had met up at lunch and hit their favorite costume shop around the corner. Kylie hadn’t had the time so she’d just added a hat and boots to her jeans and plaid button-down, and called it good.

The birthday girl was dressed to the hilt as a lady of the night and was the center of attention, which she seemed to enjoy.

“You beat me to that one,” Tina said about Molly’s costume. Tina was wearing something that was probably supposed to be a lady of the night but instead more resembled Little Bo Peep—if Little Bo Peep had been six feet tall, mahogany-skinned, and gorgeous. “I’m trying not to hate you.”

“Hey, I’m not getting any, okay?” Molly said, adjusting her corset. “I thought I’d up my game tonight.”

“I’ll up your game, baby,” said a guy on the other end of the bar.

The guy’s buddy shook his head. “Man, are you nuts? That’s Joe’s baby sister.”

The first guy went pale, stammered an apology, and nearly ran out of the pub.

“Dammit, Joe!” Molly yelled.

Joe, across the room and involved in a mean game of darts with Caleb, Spence, and Lucas, looked over. “What?” he yelled back.

“Stop ruining my sex life!” his sister yelled.

With a grimace, Joe put his fingers in his ears and turned away.

Molly rolled her eyes. “He’s not going to stop. He’s giving me anxiety. I need some action. My lady bits need some action, people!” she said. “Someone needs to man up!”

“Thought you were going to try online dating,” Elle said.

“I did. But it turns out there are a lot of frogs out there.” Molly looked around the pub a little wistfully. “I mean, it’s not like I’m asking for too much. All I want is a six-foot-plus guy who’s funny, smart, respectful, outgoing, well dressed, loyal, honest, hardworking, and obsessed with me. Oh, and he should have great stubble too. Or a beard.”

Elle snorted. “Well, if that’s all.”

“Hey,” Molly said, pointing at Elle without taking her eyes off the crowd. “You don’t get to judge. You’re wearing a diamond ring that could blind the whole city.”

They all looked at the ring Archer had put on Elle’s finger. It could indeed light up all of San Francisco. Maybe the entire state of California.

“I know diamonds are supposed to be a girl’s best friend,” Willa said, “but then leggings happened. Leggings are the new diamonds.” She looked at Tina with her perfect hair and makeup and sighed. “The fact that you wear extensions and false eyelashes astounds me because I can’t even be bothered to put on real pants.”

“Girls, that’s just sad,” Tina said. “You gotta use it or lose it.”

“I’m going to really hope that’s not true,” Molly said.

“Well, no matter what happens, pizza will always be there for you,” Tina said. “Through thick and thin, in crust we trust.”

They all drank to that and then the chitchat turned to Haley, who’d had a blind date the night before. “How did it go?” Willa wanted to know. She had a vested interest since she’d set Haley up with a girlfriend of hers.

“Well,” Haley said, playing with the condensation on her glass of wine. “Sober-me and drunk-me are no longer on speaking terms.”

“Dammit,” Willa said. “It didn’t work out?”

“I didn’t say that.” Haley looked at Tina. “Use it or lose it, right?”

They high-fived.

Kylie’s gaze crept back to Joe, still across the room in a game of darts with Spence and Lucas. Given their intensity, it had to be a pretty serious game, which was in complete opposition to the fact that they’d all dressed for the Western theme.

Spence was in jeans and a cowboy hat. So was Lucas, both looking extremely hot.

And then there was Joe. He too was in a hat, but his was a backward baseball cap topped with dark sunglasses he’d shoved up there and clearly forgotten about. He wore an open flannel plaid shirt in dark blues over a white T-shirt and a pair of old, clearly beloved jeans well-worn in the stress points, and even from across the room it was obvious that he had some pretty excellent stress points.

She couldn’t tear her gaze off him.

As if he felt her looking at him, he lifted his head and locked gazes with her. They hadn’t spoken since he’d left her that morning still wet from their shower, naked and panting and practically purring.

His mouth curved in a barely-there smile and she felt her face heat.

Next to her, Archer and Elle were arguing over his order, which had just arrived. “Look,” he was saying, “I love you but I asked you what you wanted and you said nothing, so I ordered wings. The exact amount of wings I wanted to eat.”

Elle narrowed her eyes. “But I only want a few—”

“Exactly the right amount, Elle.”

She paused. “Okay, but I want you to remember this because later when you want to get lucky, I’m going to tell you that you’re S-O-L because I’ve already had all the lucky I want today.”

Archer opened his mouth, but she held up a finger. “Exactly the right amount,” she said.

He stared at her and then laughed and hauled her onto his lap. Elle smiled and grabbed a wing, making yummy sounds as she ate it. Archer watched her, then leaned in and licked the sauce off the corner of her mouth, making his own yummy noise.

“Is that what love is?” Molly asked the room. “Sharing food when you don’t want to?”

“Yeah,” Kylie said softly. And it was also letting someone in when maybe you hadn’t meant to. Again her gaze sought out Joe and again he looked at her right back, not bothering to hide it. He clearly spent zero time worrying about what anyone around them thought. It wasn’t a problem for him.

Nope, his problem was that he didn’t want to let love in.

Which of course had somehow, when she hadn’t been looking, become her problem.

Later, after they’d all finished eating, Molly opened her presents. When she got to Joe’s and unwrapped the gorgeous mirror Kylie had made, she went stock-still before lifting suspiciously sheeny eyes to Joe.

“It’s the right one, yes?” he asked in the universal voice of male panic when a woman appeared to be on the verge of tears.

“Yes, you idiot,” she said and then limped her way closer and threw herself at him.

“Okay.” Joe patted her on the back. “Okay, then.”

“Such an idiot,” Molly muttered and held on.

He grimaced. “Are you crying or drooling?” he asked, trying to break free.

“An asshole idiot.” Molly only held him all the tighter. “I love you, you big jerk.” She pulled back and gave him a shove.

And that, clearly, Joe knew how to deal with. He didn’t budge, of course, but he did laugh and looked greatly relieved that his sister was over her moment.

Anyone could see that they had a close, strong relationship. But sometimes, like now, Kylie also caught glimpses of an odd, nameless tension between the two of them that she didn’t quite understand.

After the last present had been unwrapped, everyone scattered, to dance or play pool or get another drink. Molly plopped next to Kylie.

“You can take the boy off the street,” she said, “but you can’t take the street out of the boy. He really hates it when I get all emotional over him.”

“You like to bait him,” Kylie said.

Molly shrugged. “It’s my civic duty as his sister, right? You have any siblings?”

“No,” Kylie said. She’d often wished for a sister or a brother, someone to share the load with, someone with the same blood so she’d always have them at her back. Friends like Molly, Elle, Pru and all the others had filled the gap for her, but deep down there was a hole where family should be.

Molly was watching Joe. “He pretends he’s so tough, but I’m his kryptonite. Thanks for making that gorgeous mirror for him to give to me.”

“He paid for it.”

“Of course he did,” Molly said. “Joe knows better than most that nothing comes free. Not even friendship—or whatever it is that you two are really up to. My point is that he’d never expect anything from you.”

Kylie knew this. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it. “Friends do stuff for friends.”

“Not where we come from,” Molly said. “My dad told me he met you. He also told me you’re going to be the one to bring Joe to his knees.”

Something deep inside Kylie reacted to that. She wanted to say it was denial. And maybe a week ago it would’ve been. Deep, dark, head-in-the-sand denial. But today, right now, after all the things she and Joe shared, all the intimacy . . . it wasn’t denial at all.

It was hope, which was infinitely more dangerous.