Kiera put our things in the closet, then grabbed my hand so I could lead us to the kitchen. She was going to need a drink for this. Because even with all these people, I could feel the sting of goodbye between us, and if I could feel it while I was buzzed, then she could definitely feel it completely sober. I squeezed us through the dancers in the living room to the gamers in the dining room. There was a large group playing a dice game at the table. A game I was sadly all too familiar with. A local variant of Three Man. Or as I liked to call it: Let’s-Make-Sure-Kellan-Gets-Fucked-Up Man. I really wasn’t sure why people, men and women alike, tended to gang up on me whenever we played drinking games. Well okay, I kind of understood why.

Matt approached Kiera and me while we were watching the game; from the curious look on Kiera’s face, she’d never played this particular drinking game before. “Hey, you made it,” Matt said, clapping my shoulder. “People have been asking for you.”

I smiled at Matt, taking in his glazed expression. He might have been holding back at the bar, but now that work was done and he was home, caution was going out the window. Good. He needed this too. As I nodded a greeting at Rachel, attached to Matt’s shoulder, Matt said, “Hey, Kiera. We got everything. What’s your poison?”

I had to agree as I looked over the collection of alcohol covering his counters. He damn-near did have everything. Guess he was right about having it under control. Not that I’d actually been worried. It was Matt after all. He practically slept with a planner under his pillow. And thank God he did. One of us needed to be organized.

Rita had followed us to the party and had settled right in, making drinks in Matt’s kitchen. Meeting her eye, I mouthed, Beer, right as I heard Kiera tell Matt, “I’m good, really, thanks.”

Matt accepted her answer with a nod, but I twisted to face her. “Uh-uh, you need a drink.”

She smirked at me. “You’re going to peer pressure me to drink?”

I rolled my eyes at her answer. Normally, I wouldn’t have cared less if she drank at a party or not, but tonight…tonight was different. She needed to let go of the reins on her brain. We both did. Leaning in, I murmured in her ear, “I don’t want you spending the entire evening thinking about me leaving.” She pulled back to look at me, and the look on her face matched the feeling in my chest. “I don’t want you spending our last night thinking about it…and you will, right?”