I wasn’t sure why I’d brought Micah and Rory with me. Maybe I wanted them to see my life here. Or maybe it aggravated me they’d taken her side yesterday, and I wanted some time with them myself. I’d worked too long and too hard on them to lose them to my little usurper.

I did kind of appreciate their loyalty to her, though. That might be useful.

Climbing out of the car, we jogged up the steps of my house. Everything looked exactly the same as when I’d left more than a year ago. I had no idea where my keys or clothes were at this point, but I guessed the crew had kept my apartment at Delcour, so I should have a good supply of things still there.

I squeezed the handle, the door opening immediately, and I smiled smelling the fresh flowers my mom always kept in the house as I stepped inside.

The foyer was grand and white, like Blackchurch, but my mom was a far better decorator. It was light and airy, and I smiled as the guys followed me, looking around themselves.

“Hello?” I heard Meredith’s voice. “Who is that?”

The head housekeeper rounded the corner, drying her hands on a towel with her hair pulled back in a ponytail so tight her eyebrows nearly reached her hairline.

She smiled, seeing me. “Will!”

“Hey.” I leaned in, giving her a peck on the cheek. “Any of my family home?”

I didn’t want to give her a chance to ask questions.

She shook her head. “No. Your parents are in California for the week on business, and there’s no one else here. Should I call Mr. and Mrs. Grayson?”

“No,” I blurted out.

This was actually perfect. I missed them, but I had more pressing matters right now that were better dealt with them out of the way.

“I’ll surprise them,” I told her.

She looked at Micah and Rory, and I could see she wanted to talk more, but knew it wasn’t a good time for a chat. “Well, it’s good to see you.”

“Yeah, you, too.”

“Do you want something to eat?”

“No,” I lied, remembering how I loved her breakfast casseroles. “But I’ll be back in the next few days. Just pass on the message to my parents when they get home that I’m in town, and I’m not going anywhere.”

She grinned. “Good. Your mom needs her spin partner back.”

I groaned inwardly before she winked and walked away.

“Spin partner?” Rory repeated.

“Shut up.”

Micah snorted, and I rolled my eyes.

I looked around, intending to go to my room and pick up some things when I got here, but now I didn’t feel up for it.

“You need clothes or something?” Micah asked.

I didn’t answer. I walked to the small table on the wall, instead, and pulled open the drawer, taking out some car keys.

I tossed them to Micah. “Take the Audi and follow me.”

We left the house, and they hopped in my father’s car as I took Kai’s, all of us jetting into the village and sliding into spots just along the curb in front of the theater. I had something to give them, and more business to take care of, but as soon as I grabbed the envelope and climbed out of the Porsche, I looked up and saw something new in the distance.

What…?

The leaves rustled in the trees, the smell of pizza wafting out of Sticks hitting me, but I didn’t even look when someone noticed me and called out, “Oh, my God. Will! You’re back!”

I kept my eyes on the top of the small hill, in the center of the park, in the middle of the village.

Where the hell did that come from?

We jogged across the street, the guys following me into the park and up the incline, my heart pounding as I took in the massive, beautiful, wrought-iron gazebo standing in the place of the one I’d burned down.

As if it had always been there. And Emmy’s had not.

After the fire, the city had cleared away the debris, and a few years later I was out of jail, constantly avoiding the emptiness that loomed to my left every time I went into Sticks or the theater or the White Crow Tavern…

I’d only been away less than a year and a half this time, and someone had rebuilt a gazebo in the old one’s place?

Someone had taken away my chance to make amends.

Not that I’d been rushing to do it myself, or even sure that I wanted to, still pissed at her constantly as I was, but… I didn’t like the opportunity to decide for myself taken away from me now.

“This was the gazebo?” Micah asked. “I thought she said it was burned down.”

I’d forgotten she’d mentioned it that night at the dinner table. I wasn’t about to explain myself, especially when I had no idea who built this, but why wouldn’t Michael or Kai stop them? They would anticipate I had plans of my own for a replacement someday. Or they’d anticipate that I’d eventually have plans of my own.

I gazed up at the black, circular structure with four sets of stairs, one each on the north, south, east, and west sides leading up to the landing, and the open roof, the beams coming from all sides to join at the top, letting in the falling leaves overhead and the rain during thunderstorms. Ivy wrapped around the railings, almost like the gazebo grew out of the land.

It was quite beautiful, actually. I wouldn’t have done it better, so there was that consolation.

Well, shit…

Exhaling, I shook my head and turned away, facing the guys as I dug in the envelope. “The car is yours for now,” I told them.

My parents wouldn’t balk at me borrowing it for as long as I needed. They just didn’t need to know it wasn’t for me.

I handed Rory another key and pointed to our family’s movie theater behind him. “There’s an apartment at the top. Fully furnished, the fridge is stocked, and it’s all yours.”

My eyes shifted from him to Micah, and I handed them each a phone and a billfold.

Rory’s brow knit in confusion as he opened the wallet and sifted through the license, the credit cards, and the cash, everything rush delivered this morning at the train station.

He looked up, pulling out the Black Card with his name on it. “You didn’t have to do this.”

“I didn’t.”

Micah’s black eyebrow shot up, and he looked at Rory, and then at me. “Our parents?”

I didn’t answer. I’d made lots of calls last night, but it wasn’t as much of a miracle to arrange all of this on short notice as it probably seemed to them. I’d been planning all of this for a long time, and me and my little laptop in my attic room had started these wheels in motion a long time ago.

They had a car, a place to stay, money, and they didn’t have to return to the families that had hidden them away in disgrace. It was the start of a new life, and it was the least they deserved.

“Do what you want,” I told them. “Stay. Go. Flush the money and cards down the toilet.”

I wanted them here, but they had to want it, too.

“Just give me the weekend,” I said. “See if you want to build a life here.”

They glanced at each other, knowing they could go anywhere, for at least a little while.

Their families only agreed to leave them alone, because my friends and I—Graymor Cristane—came with the deal.

But I wasn’t forcing them to do anything they didn’t want to do.