Sex couldn’t magically make things easier.

Her parents were the unicorns, she decided, watching as Darlene spun around in a short black dress that showed off her long legs. In the only impractical pair of shoes she owned, she was the same height as her husband.

They looked happy. They practically glowed with it.

And then there was Kimber and Kyle. Barely twelve years into their marriage, they’d gone from hot and heavy high school sweethearts to roommates who couldn’t communicate their most basic needs.

This was the reality of most of the relationships Remi saw. People didn’t stay happy. Hell, most times they didn’t even stay together.

What would happen when things ended with Brick? Would Mackinac still feel like home? Or would she avoid the island even more than she had after his marriage?

His marriage to her best friend. They still hadn’t talked about it. It wasn’t a topic of conversation for acquaintances or casual lovers. And she wasn’t sure she would like the answers she got.

The Audrey Remi remembered from high school was pretty, book smart, and easygoing. She’d never witnessed sparks flying between her best friend and her crush. The sparks had been reserved for Remi and Brick. Yet he’d pursued Audrey, married Audrey. The reliable one. The comfortable one. The easy to love one.

She remembered the hurt, the utter devastation. She’d been invited to their wedding, had actually come back to Mackinac with the intention of going. Of showing Brick that he didn’t have her heart anymore. But when it came time, she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t bear watching him pledge himself to another woman.

So she’d feigned the flu and then told herself that it was just the remnants of a silly teenage crush. She pretended that she was more hurt by Audrey not telling her they were even dating. Their friendship had fizzled somewhere after high school and college. Somewhere along the line, Audrey and Brick had become strangers to her with their own lives apart from hers.

She watched Brick, sleeves rolled up as he traded an empty chafing dish for one full of pulled pork, her father’s favorite.

He was a caretaker, a protector by nature. He wasn’t open to the wild tumble of life, the flow of picking up and moving on. He was a monument. Cast in stone and planted in permanence. And sooner or later, he was going to break her heart again.

Only this time, it would be worse.

How would she survive? How would she look at him across the table in her parents’ dining room and not remember the filthy promises he’d whispered in her ear as his body had taken hers to new heights?

This couldn’t work out. It was destined to end horribly. Maybe that’s why he’d fought the attraction so valiantly. Maybe Brick always understood the potential damage while she was only beginning to realize the truth.

Kyle was staring at his phone, thumbs flying across the screen, as his wife danced with Ken. Hadley and Ian were working their way through their parents’ abandoned slices of cake.