“Okay, whoa. It is not like that. We’re just sleeping together until she leaves.”

“But you like her,” Law pressed.

“Of course I like her. I don’t make a practice of sleeping with people I don’t like.”

Law looked over his shoulder. “So you’re friends. And you’re sleeping together. And she’s coming with you to drop your sister off at university.”

“That’s right.”

“So basically you are a couple, but you won’t cop to it. Is that because of you, or does she share this delusion?

“We are not a couple.”

“Why not?”

That, surprisingly, had come from Jake. Sawyer twisted around to look at him. “Because she lives in Toronto. She’s been here under duress. She’s leaving.” God. Were they being obtuse just to irritate him, or were they really this dumb?

“But so is Clara,” Jake said.

“So?”

“So you can leave, too.”

Sawyer wasn’t sure what he was more gobsmacked by, what Jake had said or the fact that he’d said it at all. “I can’t just…do that.”

“Why not?” Law asked.

“My life is here. My job is here.” His voice was rising. He ordered himself to calm down. “You assholes are here.”

“You’ve done your time, man,” Jake said quietly. “Clara turned out great, and that’s to your credit, but you can be done now.”

Sawyer sucked in a breath. The thing about the bromance—historically, anyway—was that they helped each other without needing to analyze everything to death. That was why Law and Jake came to all of Clara’s plays and science fairs. Why they’d babysat when she was younger. Why Sawyer and Clara spent every holiday with Jake or Law and their extended families.

So on the one hand, what Jake was saying wasn’t a surprise. Jake and Law had been there. He just hadn’t really grasped how much they had seen.

But if they had seen all that, really seen all that, they should understand that it wasn’t like he could just shed his life like an old skin and skip merrily off to Toronto after Evie. “You guys don’t understand. It’s too late. She’s from another world.”

“Toronto is three hours by car!” Law objected.

“Not just geographically. She’s into documentaries and…collections development.”

“She’s into what?” Jake said.

“Exactly.” He could see Law ramping up again. “Look. You guys have made your point. But it’s too late.” Unlike Ariel and the prince, they couldn’t live—not forever, not happily ever after—in each other’s worlds.

Law still looked like he was going to object, but Sawyer was done with this conversation. “I’m done talking about this. You assholes want to paddle this thing back to shore or do I need to jump out and swim?”