Page 123 of The Best Shot

Ignoring all of this, Nico sat up, set his drink down, and took off his sunglasses.

“Antarctica.”

I met his eyes. “Yep. It’s pretty big for her.”

“Big for you too.”

Well, fuck. Of course he knew.

“This friend group is too fucking close.”

“I’m not in the group chat,” Nico said. “But I am in the group chat.”

Across the pool, Yasmine and Annie were inching toward the deep end, away from Tabby’s wrath. I watched her laugh.

The lack of privacy should’ve bothered me more than it did.

“So?” Nico pressed.

“So, I’m working on it.”

“What’s there to work on?” Grant said easily. “Pack a bag. Get on a plane. Watch your woman photograph penguins for six months.”

Apparently, he was also not in the group chat while somehow being fully briefed by it.

Carter looked over from the grill. “That is an insane oversimplification of what she’s asking.”

Grant frowned. “How?”

“Six months is a long damn time. People have businesses. Mortgages. Responsibilities.”

“And?”

“And Antarctica isn’t a long weekend at the lake.”

Grant shrugged. “My woman needs me somewhere, I’m there.”

“You also have paperwork, shared property, and vows involved,” Carter said. “That makes the answer simpler.”

Grant’s expression barely changed. “Vows wouldn’t make it simple. She would.”

Carter shook his head and turned back to the grill.

“I can’t go,” I said, quieter. “There’s too much here I can’t walk away from.”

Nico didn’t ask what. He was the only person on this patio who wouldn’t have to.

“So instead of telling her that,” he said, “you’re commissioning flan.”

He had a point. The woman I loved had handed me an open door and I was answering with fucking pastry.

Carter set down his tongs and looked at me like I was about to step on a rake.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Nico picked his drink back up. “That’s been obvious for a while, friend.”

The string lights caught the water. Music drifted out over the yard.