Alice shrugged. “Between you and this ex, she’ll have learned what not to look for in a man.”

My eyes bugged out at Alice’s words. How calm she was. “I am nothing like Eddie. He’s an asshole. He doesn’t give a shit about her.”

She didn’t usually like us swearing and called us out on it. Why she wasn’t now, I wasn’t sure.

“And you do?” Alice asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Yes. She’s smart and the most talented artist I’ve ever met. Have you seen her frosting flowers? She’s not fat, she’s got perfect curves that I—” I cut myself off on that one. “She’s a ringer at softball and when she smiles, the entire room lights up.”

Sarah looked at Huck. Huck looked at Sarah. Alice smiled.

“But it was all fake. Everything you did together,” Alice prodded.

Why was she being so mild? Wasn’t she mad for Astrid? How did she not understand?

“Hell no,” I countered. “None of it was. Not one kiss. Not—” I ran a hand over the back of my neck, realized I’d almost cut my head off, then dropped the knife. It clattered on the wooden chopping block. “It was easy. Being with her. Liking her. It was… oh fuck. Claire was right.”

“Claire?” Huck asked on a laugh.

“She said it was easy.”

“What?” Alice asked.

“Love.”

Sarah clapped her hands. I stared at Alice, stunned. She smiled, pleased with herself, taking me around in circles until I got where she wanted me to go.

“I don’t love her,” I said.

“Then why are you strangling that loaf of bread?” Huck asked, amused.

I glanced down, saw that I’d practically squeezed the bread to death. I let it go, then ran my hands over my face.

“I can’t do love,” I admitted.

“Why not?” Sarah asked, coming into the kitchen to give me a hug. “It’s not so bad.”

I looked down at her, saw the happiness on her face. Huck had given this to her. Completed her.

“People die, Sarah. They go away.”

Her smile slipped and when she lifted her hand to my jaw, tears filled her eyes. “I know.”

I looked up at the ceiling, feeling like a total asshat. “Shit, I’m sorry. Of course you know. Bad things happen.” Like her losing the baby she and Huck made.

“But good things do too.” She looked to Huck. “So many good things. I think I’m qualified to say that the good far outweighs the bad.”

I shook my head. “I barely know her.”

Sarah’s hand on my cheek gave me a little smack. “We’re not telling you to go marry the woman.”