Thick as Thieves (Aster Valley 4)

I kind of wanted to do the cheesy prom-posal idea but with something related to skiing. He’d gotten a coveted spot on the Evergreen High School team, and Coach Rokas said he had more potential than anyone he’d seen in a decade. Parker was already well on his way to making a name for himself in the state competitions.

As cheesy as it was, my poster would at least make him laugh. I’d spent all afternoon adding little drawings beside each ski word.

I would be snow board if I went to HoCo solo. I snow full well taking you would lift me up, so I’m asking icely if you’ll be my date. If you say no, Alp be piste.

“What the heck is that?” Hazel asked, barging into my room uninvited.

I scrambled to hide the giant poster with a hoodie that had been on the floor by my feet. “Nothing. Get out. Jesus.”

“Who are you asking… oh.” She winced. “You were going to ask Parker, weren’t you?”

I moved the poster behind me on the bed. “I am going to ask Parker. Yes. Not that it’s any of your business.”

Hazel took my hand, which wasn’t something she did very often anymore. “Jules… Erin already asked Parker to the dance, and he said yes.”

I stared at my sister in disbelief. “That’s not possible. He would have told me.”

“She only asked him today after you’d already left.”

Parker didn’t like Erin like that. I knew he didn’t. At least… he’d never said anything about it to me if he did.

I was crushed.

“Maybe… maybe they’re just going as friends,” I said lamely.

Hazel squeezed my hand again. “I don’t think so, Jules. She really likes him.”

I looked at my sister while trying to stop myself from feeling so pathetic and disappointed. “I really like him, too,” I admitted softly.

Hazel pulled me into a tight hug. “I know you do. And maybe one day you’ll get your chance to tell him. But for now, let’s think of some other cute guy you can ask. What about Toby Finley? Oooh! Or Sean Rollins. He’s superhot and totally into guys.”

In the end, I didn’t end up taking anyone. And Parker and Erin became a thing, breaking up and getting back together so many times it made all of us shake our heads.

Over the years, I took comfort knowing I was still his person—still the first one he told when he got a killer scholarship and wasn’t sure whether to take it, and the first person he called when he needed encouragement after a crushing loss on the slopes. I never doubted for a second that he was my person, too—the guy who rushed to my side when I was injured and sent me a joke every morning without fail during my most trying days in law school.

He was mine, and I was his.

You and me. Always.

Or so I thought.

But when Erin came back around for the billionth time with a much bigger proposal on her mind, everything changed.

Because Parker said yes to her again. Only this time, he agreed to marry her—to love her and put her first forever.

And I knew nothing would ever be the same again.

PARKER

Current Day (15 years later)

“Jules, you should totally come to Mexico with us,” I said a little drunkenly. My arm rested along the back of Julian’s chair, and I could see a spot he missed when shaving. My best friend was absentminded at the best of times, but I could understand why he was especially distracted tonight. As my best man, he’d been put in charge of several important tasks, one of which was watching my sorry ass to make sure I got where I was supposed to go this weekend.

“Parker, Jesus,” Erin snorted from my other side. Even though I wasn’t looking at her, I knew she was rolling her eyes. I was very familiar with my girlfriend’s—I mean fiancée’s—eye-rolling voice.

“What? He should. That would kick ass. We’d have so much fun, the three of us, wouldn’t we?” The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. Julian and I had been close for over twenty years. There was no one I wanted more on an all-inclusive vacation in the Caribbean.

Except Erin. Obviously.

Julian tried to shrug my arm off his shoulders and move away from me. The joke was on him. If I stopped leaning in his direction, I’d fall face-first on the floor. “Pretty sure Erin wants the honeymoon to be just the two of you, big guy.”

“That’s not true,” I corrected stubbornly, clinging tighter. “I overheard her inviting your boyfriend just a little while ago.”

Julian attempted to move away again. “I keep telling you, he’s not my boyfriend. Nolan doesn’t believe in restrictive social constructs like monogamy,” he muttered under his breath. But he frowned at the man on his other side anyway. “Wait. Nolan, why did Erin invite you on her honeymoon?”