She sucked down the cool drink with a sigh. “Thank you.” She blinked. “What happened to your cheek?”

“It’s a long story that I’ll save for another time.” Noah returned the cup to the table, and then his finger traced a gentle line from her ear to her jaw. “How do you feel?”

“Better now that I know you’re really here and I’m not just hallucinating.”

His eyes pinched at the corners. “I’m so sorry, Lexa. I tried to get here. I had a big grand gesture planned to swoop in just in time and tell you how sorry I was before you went in, but I was too late.” His throat worked against a swallow. “I didn’t know . . . I didn’t think you were going through with the surgery. I should have been here with you.”

“You’re here now.”

His lips thinned. “That’s not good enough.”

Alexis turned her face into his hand and kissed the tip of his thumb. “It is.”

“You’re interrupting my groveling.”

She met his eyes. “You don’t need to grovel, and I don’t want you to grovel. I want you to kiss me.”

Noah lowered the arm of the bed and gingerly sat down next to her. He reached one arm across her body and pressed his hand into the mattress. “I have to say this first.”

Alexis sighed and settled into the pillow beneath her head. “You really don’t.”

“The things I said to you were cruel and inexcusable.”

“Are you forgetting what I said before that?”

“It doesn’t matter. You tried to apologize, and I threw it back in your face. And when I did that, I not only betrayed you, I betrayed our friendship.”

His words were a skewer through the thin membrane that remained around her emotional stability. Tears turned his face into a shimmery blur.

His jaw jutted sideways. “I let my own anger blind me to the fact that you were hurting and you needed me. And so I hurt you worse.”

She cupped a hand along his smooth, clean jaw. “Okay, what do I have to say to get you to shut up and kiss me?”

He blinked. “I’m being serious, Lexa.”

“So am I. You’re obviously not going to stop all this unnecessary apologizing unless I say something in response—”

He managed to look offended. “Unnecessary? I practically threw you out of my house!”

“Because I accused you of doing something you didn’t do.”

“But you had every reason to think I’d do that!”

“Are you seriously going to argue with me right now? I just had an entire organ sucked out of me through a hole smaller than my belly button.”

His skin turned ashen.

“If you want something to be upset about, consider the fact that we can’t have makeup sex for, like, six weeks. So you’d better kiss me before the nurse gives me more pain meds and I pass out again.”

The smooth contours of his face softened. “God, I love you.”

“I know. And I love you too. I’ve loved you since the day I met you, and I will love you until the day I die. You are my best friend, Noah Logan. Forever.”

He gave up the fight, bent his head, and covered her lips with his. Gently at first. Wet and soft against her dry and scratchy mouth. But then a groan emerged from deep within his chest, and she wrapped her hand around the back of his neck to hold him, cradle him, forgive him.

He pulled back and hovered atop her mouth. “I’m sorry, Lexa. I’m so sorry.”

“Shhh.” She tucked his face against her neck. He arched over her, careful not to press on her tender abdomen. “Everything is okay now. The surgery is over, and you’re here, and that’s all that matters.”

A knock at the door brought him upright, but Noah remained on the bed, one arm draped across her. “Come in,” he responded, voice suspiciously thick.

Tentative shoes squeaked on the linoleum. Candi appeared a moment later. She hovered a few feet from the bed, smiling as she looked back and forth between Alexis and Noah. “I told you he loves you.”

“How’s Elliott?” Alexis asked.

“So far so good. He’s asking about you too.”

“Tell him I’ll come see him tomorrow.”

Candi nodded and got that hesitant, shy look on her face that Alexis now recognized. “What is it?” she asked.

“My, um, my mom wants to come see you. Is that okay?”

“Sure, um . . . yeah.” Alexis looked at Noah. “Can you help me raise the bed a little?”

Noah found the remote attached to the bed and pressed the button that lifted her top half into a semi-sitting position. A moment later, Lauren walked in looking as undone and disheveled as Alexis had ever seen her. Her makeup-free face bore the traces of too little sleep and too much worry. Her hair, normally a perfect bob along her shoulders, was now twisted atop her head in a messy bun.

Her smile was forced, but not in the way Alexis had come to expect. This was from pure weariness, not insincerity. “How are you feeling?”

“Not too bad. Tired.”

Her footsteps inched closer, and that’s when Alexis noticed that she held something in her hand. A small red box. “I have a present for you.”

Alexis traded a surprised look with Noah before returning her gaze to Lauren. “You didn’t have to do that.”

Lauren extended the box, and Alexis accepted it with trembling fingers. As Noah hovered at her side, she lifted the lid. And then blinked, holding her breath. Nestled in the velvet cradle was a ring—a deep emerald surrounded by a spray of tiny, sparkling diamonds.

“Lauren, this . . .” Alexis looked up. “I don’t know what to say. This is too much. I can’t accept this.”

“It belonged to Elliott’s mother. Your grandmother.” Lauren glanced at Candi. “We want you to have it.”

Alexis shook her head. “I appreciate the gesture, but this is a family heirloom. It should go to Candi.”

“It should go to family,” Candi said. “You’re family.”

Tears pricked her eyes again, and Alexis sought the comfort of Noah’s hand. He wrapped her fingers in his and squeezed. “I—thank you.”

Lauren hugged her own torso. “Nothing I say will ever be enough to tell you how sorry I am for everything and how grateful I am that despite it all, you did this for him. For us.”

“Lauren—”

“It would be disingenuous of me to say that everything is going to be normal and fine after this. I can’t promise that. I’m . . . I’m still reeling from all of this, just like you are, I suppose.”

Empathy flared. Alexis didn’t resent it this time. It was part of who she was, and it always would be. “It couldn’t have been easy for you to find out about me the way that you did.”

Lauren smiled in thanks. “I don’t know what happens now, or if you even want anything to happen now. But I hope that you will give us a chance.”

The last part came out weak, uncertain, as if she was afraid how Alexis would respond. Alexis looked up at Noah. His smile was reassuring, strong, and it healed her fully. No matter what, he would be there. He would always be there. And they could get through anything together.

“Well,” Lauren said. “I should . . . I should get back to Elliott and leave you two alone.”

Her shoes squeaked as she turned to leave, Candi right beside her.

“Lauren?”

She stopped and turned around.

“I’d like that,” Alexis said. “I’d like to give all of us a chance.”

Lauren nodded, her smile real and grateful. “I’m glad.”

After they left, Noah returned to his seat alongside her on the bed. “That was a nice gesture.”

Alexis set the ring on the table and settled again against her pillow. “It was, but just so you know, you are my family.” She stifled a yawn as fatigue made another run. “And my answer is yes.”

He brushed his thumb across her bottom lip. “Yes, what?”

“Yes, I’ll marry you.”

He laughed thickly. “Did I propose? I don’t remember.”

“You will. And my answer will be yes.”

He dipped his head and whispered against her lips, “You’re not supposed to make any major decisions in recovery. Didn’t you read the fine print?”

“Then ask me again when the drugs wear off. My answer will be the same.” She tugged him close and kissed him. “But I promise not to make you pick out the flowers.”

“Why not? I’ve gotten really good at it.”

Alexis let her hand drift down his chest and stop just above the waist of his jeans.

He groaned. “Six weeks, really?”

She sighed and closed her eyes. “I was exaggerating to get you to kiss me.”

Noah chuckled in that low, warm way of his. She felt the tug of the blanket as he pulled it higher to cover her torso and then heard a soft hum as he lowered her bed flat again. She wanted to open her eyes but couldn’t. The warm, dark water was too tempting.

He kissed her forehead. “Go to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

She hmm’d a quiet thank-you as darkness dragged her under.

But just before it closed in fully, his lips found hers once again. “What’re friends for?”

EPILOGUE

“You promised not to laugh.”

Alexis peered up from the table where just moments earlier, she’d dropped her forehead out of pure desperation. She might have actually burst an incision. Noah rested his hands on the back of her chair and blocked her in as he bent to kiss her.

“You should have warned me,” she breathed against his lips. “I had no idea what I was promising.”

Mack and his attendants had just finished their surprise dance routine, complete with hip thrusts, an over-the-head toss of their tuxedo jackets, and a booty smack.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it, but I’ve never hated anything as much in my entire life.”