Hold the Forevers

“Nope. Just Josie.”

Cole slung an arm around my shoulders. “Can confirm that Josie was like this before television.”

Josie snapped the picture with her best angles and then grinned at Cole. “Obviously. I was the one who took those incredible pictures of you at the football game.”

“It’s still unfair that Josie was there and I wasn’t,” Marley added as we all settled into the living room. Sunny curled up into Marley’s lap and looked like she was never planning to leave.

“Wait … I’ve heard this story,” Kristen butted in. “There are pictures?”

Josie held up one finger. “Hold, please.”

“Oh, here we go,” I said with an eye roll.

Josie passed her phone to Kristen. “There. I took those when they first met.”

“Why are those still on your phone?” I asked, my cheeks going red.

“I never delete pictures.”

“Dear God,” I groaned.

“I can’t believe you two started dating your freshman year,” Kristen said, handing the phone back. “That’s so romantic.”

Minus the years in between when he had been in San Francisco and everything had crumbled to pieces.

“We got lucky,” Cole said as he pressed a kiss to my hair. “Found our person early.”

“If I were still with the guy I’d met in college, I’d be divorced, or one of us would have been murdered,” Kristen said.

Marley nodded. “Same.”

Josie shrugged. “I didn’t date anyone in college.”

Marley and I snorted at the same time.

“What? I didn’t!”

“Define date,” I said with an arched eyebrow.

“Whatever!”

“SCAD was a breeding ground for cute, charismatic, artsy types,” Marley said. “You were the queen of that breeding ground.”

Josie huffed. “You two are the worst.”

Kristen grinned. “I love this.”

“Anyway,” Josie said with a pointed look at the two of us.

“Aren’t you engaged?” Kristen asked.

“God, you do stalk her,” I joked.

Kristen shot me a look with a half-shoulder shrug that said she really did. “Sorry.”

“I am engaged!” Josie exclaimed.

“At least we can go to this fucking wedding,” I grumbled.

“It’s not my fault that I eloped.”

Marley laughed. “Isn’t it kind of your fault?”

“Okay, yes, but it was the right decision at the time,” Josie said. “And now, a full wedding where you all can be there and be bridesmaids makes more sense this time around.”

“What about the next wedding?” Marley deadpanned.

Josie swatted at her. “You’re lucky you’re my best friend.”

“When is it happening?” Cole asked. “I’m about wedding’d out. We had three this spring and have three more this summer.”

“Sorry, man,” Michael said. He’d gotten married in the spring.

“I swear, everyone we know is getting married.”

“Is one of those Elle’s wedding?” Marley asked.

I nodded. “Yes, I’m a bridesmaid for that one!”

“I’ll be there. I just got the invite. It’ll be good to be home and see Maddox.”

“Yes, Savannah weddings are all beautiful,” Cole said. “But, Josie, seriously, wait a year at least.”

She rolled her eyes. “Sorry to disappoint. I was thinking fall … but maybe next summer.”

He sighed. “That will be wedding number seven this year.”

“I think that’s sweet,” Kristen said. “Soon, you’ll be planning your own nuptials.”

I froze at those words and the abrupt change in conversation. A wedding. We’d hadn’t even been together a year. Of course, we’d been together for over two years before, but that had been in college. That was different. Now, I was twenty-seven, and that was kind of the next step in life.

Not that it was the first time I’d ever thought about it. I’d thought about it with two people. And we were here again, discussing something I actually wanted with Cole. I just didn’t know how to not think of Ash too.

“Let’s not scare her,” Marley said.

“I was joking,” Kristen said. “The patriarchy dictates when people get married or if they even do. People can live a perfectly happy life together without some legal piece of paper.”

“Hear, hear,” Josie said, holding her glass aloft.

Cole squeezed me tighter, letting the conversation change.

The rest of the evening was wonderful. And by the time the last person left, we were tired and somehow also buoyant. Cole ordered in Thai for a late dinner, and we sank down into the couch with the pile of presents in front of us. Sunny had overexerted herself with all the attention and was passed out in her bed like the lazy pup she was.

“Marley said this was for you.”

“Should I be scared?” he asked, shaking the package.

“Probably.”

He tore the paper and then looked skeptical. “Why did Marley get me a rice cooker?”

I covered my face and burst into laughter. “I might have told her about that time you burned the rice.”

“Lila!”

“It was too funny.”

He poked me in the ribs until I giggled.

“I surrender!” I gasped.

He released me and then drew me in for a kiss. “Tonight was special.”

“It was.”

“I want nights like this all the time.”

I nodded and leaned against him. “Me too.”

“Were you spooked about the wedding talk?” he asked after a second.

“No …”