When her tears slow, she sniffs and says, “I still don’t like you.”

A shocked laugh rips through me before I can stop it. “Yeah, I don’t like you very much either.”

We amble back to the car without saying another word.

“Well?” Corinne asks.

Tara stiffens her shoulders and pulls out onto the road. “He’s fine. He’s going to be fine,” she says without any conviction in her tone.

She drives back to the house without any snarky remarks or evil glares in my direction. Her somber mood doesn’t make me feel any better. When we get back, I’m the last to go inside. I linger on the front porch, looking out into the night. Where the hell are you, Tanner?

I swallow the lump in my throat and go in the house.

“I’m beat,” Amelia says. “Is it okay if I crash here tonight? It doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to leave until morning when the road is open. Tanner said I could stay, but I don’t think he meant all night.”

Tara shrugs from her reclaimed spot on the couch.

“You can stay in the spare room,” I tell her. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

We take a couple of the candles with us, so she has light.

“Thank you.” Amelia sits at the head of the bed and hugs a pillow to her chest. “I’m sorry about all this.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

I take a seat on the end of the bed and face her. “Was it my fault?” Tara certainly thinks it is, but she wasn’t there. “I’ve been going over it and over it all day. Replaying times that the three of us were together and the things I might have said or done…”

“No.” Her voice has a slight lift to it, and she laughs. “You were always so adamant that you were just friends. I thought you must be holding on to him any way you could and hoping he’d return the feelings someday. Believing that kept me from facing the fact that what he and I had felt inferior to what he had with you. He’s different with you. He always has been.” I can make out her small smile in in the mostly dark room. “It wasn’t your fault any more than it was Tanner’s. You two just fit together. I want that.”

“Thank you. He cares about you a lot. I know that probably doesn’t help, but I thought you should know.”

I stand and start out of the room, but Amelia stops me. “Sydney?”

“Yeah.”

“Tara will come around. She loves Tanner too much to stand in the way of anything that makes him happy, and you make him happier than anything. She’ll realize that.”

I want to believe that’s true. I really do.