The answer, of course, is Hell to the no. I don’t trust myself around Joe. I especially don’t want to be alone with the two brothers, tucked between my almost-forever and my maybe-future. I don’t know what business Joe has suggesting this in the first place. His last words to me were Stay the hell away from me. Not exactly what I call a heartwarming invitation. Maybe he wants to prove a point. To show me that he is committed to his supportive-brother act.

Or maybe it’s not an act. Maybe he is doing this for Dom. In which case, he is certainly more honorable than me, because I’m not willing to subject myself to this kind of emotional inferno.

Either way, I’m not sure what the correct answer is. I don’t know if Dom wants me to make an effort or not. Right now, he looks a little iffy about the whole thing. So I try to play it by ear.

“Let me look at my schedule this week, and I’ll get back to you, okay?” I run a hand over his pecs.

He looks at me a moment longer before he clasps my hand, kissing it. “I can tell him what you just told me. That you’re having a busy month. He’ll understand.”

It looks like Dom isn’t eager for us to do a three-way meetup either. It suddenly occurs to me that he might know more than he is letting on. He might’ve even seen Joe and me in the backyard. When we fell into each other’s arms and the entire world melted around us. The idea that he knows makes my chest hurt.

“You’re a pal.” I offer him my pinkie finger. “I’ll let you know when my schedule clears up a little. Deal?”

He curls his pinkie through mine. “Deal.”

“I love you, Dom.”

“Love you, too, babe.”

And he must, because even though we can’t find my earring, the very next day, he surprises me at work with a new set of earrings. Solitaire diamonds.

The real deal. Just like him.

It’s been a week since I last saw Joe at his parents’ house. New Year’s Eve came and went in a flurry of a house party, a hasty kiss at midnight, an empty promise for what’s to come this year.

Joe’s presence lingers, soaked into the sidewalks, drenched into the air. Salem is suddenly exclusively Joe’s territory. It’s like knowing you’re at the same hotel with a celebrity.

I find myself catching a waft of his scent in the elevator on the way to Dom’s apartment. I spot tall dark-haired men all the time again, wondering if it’s him. He fills my days, when I cannot stop thinking about him. And my nights, too, when he slips into my dreams.