“What are you—” she starts to ask.

I answer her with my lips pressed against hers. She fights me for half a second before she moans, pulling me into her. It’s just as good between us as I remember. Better even. We’re saying everything we need to with our lips and our tongues. She kisses me back with so much fucking passion it’s like it's been bottled up all these years. She runs her fingers through my hair, yanking forcefully as she demands more. Never breaking the kiss, I grab her legs and wrap them around my hips. I grind into her and she tightens her legs around me to press into me deeper. My dick is harder than steel, dying to be inside this woman where it belongs.

I break away from her mouth and move down her neck. “God, I hate that I can smell his cologne on you.”

Devyn tenses and pulls back to disentangle herself. I step back and meet her eyes. Shit, she looks like she’s about to cry.

She points toward the bathroom door. “Go, Riley! I’m not this girl. You can’t just go around saying things like that, kissing anyone you please.”

“I wasn’t the only one doing the kissing,” I remind her.

She groans in frustration. “Just go! I’ll be out in a minute.”

I try to get a read on her but she’s shutting down. “Dev—”

A tear drops down her face. “GO, RILEY!”

I step back and take a deep breath. I slam my hand against the door. “Fuck!” I unlock it and pull it open with much more force than necessary. Before walking away, I lower my voice and say, “I’ll give you time to get your shit together, but don’t walk away from this, Devyn. Don’t walk away from us.”

DEVYN

I TURN TOWARD THE mirror and stare at my reflection after Riley stormed away. God, what am I doing? My hair is tousled and my lip gloss has been sucked off entirely. I make myself as presentable as possible and take a deep breath. I can do this. I’ll just go out there, tell everyone I have a headache, and then Jackson and I can leave so we can talk privately. I can’t put this off any longer. My reaction towards Riley just now proved that. It’s not fair to Jackson to continue along the path we’re on.

I make my way back to the table a moment later. Riley is noticeably absent and the remaining four are suspiciously quiet.

Drew clears his throat. “Uh…Riley had to go—said he had something to take care of.”

“Oh.” I look up at Jackson. His ears are cherry red and his eyes are narrowed into slits.

Rainey touches me lightly on the shoulder. “Everything okay, hon?”

I fidget nervously as all eyes are on me. “Um…I have a headache. I think I need to call it a night.”

Jackson stands without a word and begins walking towards the door.

I nod towards him. “Um…I guess we’re going now. Lorraine, I’ll call you later.”

“You’d better,” she says.

Jackson barely says a word to me on the entire drive home. The tension in the air is suffocating. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him angry before but that’s definitely what this is. Does he sense that something happened between me and Riley?

He pulls against the curb in front of my building.

“You’re not coming in?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “No. I don’t think that would be wise right now.”

I shift my body towards him. “Jackson, I really think we need to have a talk.”

“So talk.”

“Here? Can’t you just come up for a little while?”

He sighs. “Devyn, if you have something to say to me, please just say it already.”

I take a deep breath. “I kissed Riley.”

“Did he kiss you, or did you kiss him?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes, I think it does.”

I bite my lip. “He kissed me…but then I kissed him back.”

“I see,” Jackson says, perfectly composed.

“C’mon, Jackson, how can you be so calm about this? I just told you I kissed another man! It’s okay to be angry.”

“Oh, I’m angry,” he says. “But I think there’s already been enough shouting this evening.”

“What? What does that mean?”

His face flushes. “You were in a fucking bathroom, Devyn. Fifty feet from our table. Ever hear of something called bathroom acoustics? I heard everything. The entire group heard everything. Well, except when at one point the conversation ended entirely. I suppose that’s when the kissing commenced.”

I blanch. “Oh my God. Jackson, I’m sooo, sooo sorry. I never planned for anything like this to happen.”

He releases a cynical laugh. “What the hell were you thinking, Devyn? Do I make you that unhappy?”

“What? No, of course not!” I try grabbing his hand but he pulls away. “Jackson, I am truly sorry. You’re a good man. You’ve been so wonderful to me and Nathan.”

“Just not good enough,” he mutters.

“Jackson, this has nothing to do with you.”

He rolls his eyes. “Really, Dev? It’s not you; it’s me. That’s your excuse?”

I take a deep breath and blink back my tears. “You deserve someone who didn’t give their heart away years ago. When we got together, I really thought I was ready to move on. And things between us have been good. But I’ve always held back. I know you know that, Jackson. I just don’t think either one of us was willing to admit why.”

He sighs. “So you’re going to be with Riley?”

“I don’t know,” I say, “but continuing this relationship isn’t fair to either one of us. Riley’s reappearance brought feelings to the surface that I thought I buried a long time ago. I need to figure out what I’m going to do about them.”

“So we’re breaking up?”

I nod as a single tear falls. “We’re breaking up.”

RILEY

I DRIVE AROUND FUMING until I end up at the house I just bought. I park against the curb and just stare at everything this house represents. It’s everything I’ve dreamed of but none of that matters if Devyn isn’t in the picture. Well, that’s not totally true, because I will be a constant presence in my son’s life no matter what, but we can’t be the family unit that I’m picturing if she’s married to that asshole! How could she accept his proposal? Wait a second…was she wearing a ring? Could he have lied? Fuck! I can’t remember! I saw nothing but red as he continuously touched her every chance he got.

I take a few deep breaths to calm down. Only one way to know for sure. I pick up my phone and dial her number.

She answers right before my call goes to voicemail. She doesn’t say anything but I can hear her breathing.

“Dev, are you there?”

She blows out a breath. “Yeah, I’m here.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Do you really need to ask that, Rye? My head is messed up. This probably isn’t the best time to talk. I need to sort through some things.”

Is she crying? “Devyn, talk to me.”

She sighs. “Jackson and I broke up.”

Did I seriously just hear that? “So you’re not going to marry him?”

“What? Who said that I was ever going to marry him?”

“He did,” I reply. “Well, not exactly. But he told me that he proposed and then implied that you said yes.”

She groans. “I’m such a horrible person.”

“Why would you say that? He’s the asshole who lied!”

“Don’t call him names, Rye. I’m the one who lied to him for two and a half years. It’s bad enough that I’ve been lying to myself. He didn’t need to be dragged into it. He’s a good man. He’s just not the right man.”

My ears perk up. “And who is?”

She ignores my question. “I need you to do me a favor.”

“Name it.”

“I need you to call your realtor. I want to show Nathan his new bedroom this weekend.”

I’m smiling so wide my cheeks hurt. “Does that mean what I think it means? Are you agreeing to move in with me?”

“Yeah, Riley...I am.  Balls to the wall, baby.”

DEVYN

“HERE IT IS,” RILEY says.

We just pulled in the driveway of Riley’s new home. Our new home, rather. God, that’s so strange to say but at the same time, it feels so right. The house is a Craftsman style, painted light blue with white trim. I smile when I see the white wooden swing hanging by some chains. I can easily picture relaxing on it under the covered porch, lying on Riley’s lap, with a cold beer in hand. The yard is meticulously landscaped and has a few mature trees offering shade.