“Have they done that any other time around us since they split?”
“No.”
“There you go, then. You always say how they get on far better now than they ever did when together.” Henry placed the potato salad down on the table beside us before he wrapped himself around me fully, his firm hands finding the small of my back as I stared up at him. “Today is about you?—”
“Us,” I corrected.
“Fine, us.” That knowing smile came to life. “If anyone behaves anything less than perfectly, I’ll be using my doorman skills to kick them out in an orderly manner, friends and family or not.”
“I’m so glad you don’t do that job anymore,” I confessed. I’d hated it on our return whenever I’d known he’d offered to cover some shifts at some exclusive bars his friends owned, always worrying about him getting hurt again, or worse, attacked with a weapon. Those knife crimes were always being reported in the news, and Henry had too perfect a face and body that wouldmake many a drunk man jealous. The day he told me he’d quit it for good, I’d thrown myself at him in thanks. Literally.
Henry reached up to brush a hand through my hair, which I’d spent far too long setting into beach waves for our little soiree. “Everything’s good now. Better than either of us could ever have imagined. Remember that today when you feel overwhelmed, okay?”
I nodded my agreement.
“And remember this: I love you. I love this life we’ve built out of nothing that’s become everything.”
“Thanks to you buying this amazing house for us,” I reminded him, even though Henry hated me bringing it up whenever I dared to remind him that he’d been the one to put the majority of the work into this dream of ours… which had been far too often recently.
“Don’t bring this up again, Phoebe. You know what’s mine is yours now.”
It had been a conversation we’d had far too many times, the guilt of him spending his inheritance on anything to do with me eating at me more than I could bear some days. But after a year of commuting back and forth—Henry, once again, doing most of the work, because apparently, he hated to spend even a day away from me—he’d said he couldn’t think of any better way to spend some of it than finding a place to live together that could be ours forever.
Somewhere we could just be us again.
“My parents left me money to build a future, Phoebe. That future belongs to you. There's no life ahead of me if you’re not in it, so let me do this for us.”
That had been just one of his many arguments, and it had taken some convincing on his part, but unfortunately for me, he’d learnt a few tricks over the last twelve months that got me to submit far quicker than I would have liked.
Still… I always came away smiling at the end of it.
“You know I’m paying you back once I open my own dance studio and become a local teacher hero, don’t you?” I smiled, trying not to let the conversation get too heavy before our guests arrived.
Henry struggled not to roll his eyes. “You can try, but I already know how that’ll work out for you.”
“If your money is mine, then mine has to be yours, too, Henry.”
“Jesus, Phoebe, will you let me look after you, woman? That’s all the payback I need in this life.”
“So stubborn.”
“Yep. I live to irritate you with the happiness I promised.” He leaned down to gift me with a kiss that was cut far too short by the ringing of the doorbell, followed by the sounds of Bailey and Rhea pushing through the door without waiting for us to go to them.
“Bee!” Bailey cried out from down the hallway. “This house! Those flowerbeds out front! All those hydrangeas! This place is insane. Where the hell are you? I need to hug you right now.”
There were too many questions to respond to before her full head of dark hair came around the corner into the kitchen, and her bright white smile lit up the room in the way only Bailey’s smile could. She held the power of the sun, the moon, and the stars in that grin, and I knew one day she’d conquer the world and make it her own, because a woman like her had been made to shine.
“There you are,” she said with a laugh. “Get your hands off my girl, Cohen. You’ve been hogging her enough as it is.”
“You know I don’t share, Bailey.”
“Well, you’re going to have to learn to.” After dropping a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of champagne on the countertop, Bailey nudged Henry out of the way and wrapped me into a hugso tight, it made me squeak. “Ugh, you feel so good in my arms, Little Miss Bee.”
“You, too, Bails. But… I only saw you two weeks ago back in Matlock.”
She pulled away and held me at arm’s length. “But knowing you’re not down the road from me anymore hurts me daily.” She narrowed her eyes and cast a glance Henry’s way.
He held his hands up in surrender. “You warned me to make her the happiest she could be. I’m only following your instructions.”
