I smiled. “It’s my favorite.” See? Good together. No, not just good. We were great together.

Cooper: I’m signing off, brothers. I wish you all a good two years while I’m gone.

Dave: Same to you, little brother.

Simon: You’re going to be great, Cooper.

Jamie: Not as good as I was, but you’ll do.

Cooper: Know what I realized?

Cooper: You could ALL get married while I’m gone.

Dave: Pretty sure mine’s a done deal, bro. No could, just will.

Cooper: Well, yeah. And I’ve accepted that. But if Jamie marries Lane, and Simon marries Karen, then I will be a groomsman for NONE OF YOU. Dude. This is bad.

Jamie: Don’t worry. Karen and Simon are on the five-year plan. You’ll be back before they ever get hitched.

Dave: Ha. True.

Simon: Not true. Karen and I broke up.

Jamie: For real?

Simon: No. I’m kidding. You know I’m such the joking type.

Jamie: Sorry man. That’s terrible. What happened?

Simon: She’s engaged to someone else.

Dave: Ouch.

Cooper: Yeah. Awful. Why didn’t you say anything?

Simon: Just happened over the weekend. But, hey, on the bright side, Coop, you’ll probably be back in time to be my groomsman.

Jamie: Without Karen in the picture, you’ll probably be home and married before HE is.

Simon: Thanks for that, Jamie. Your vote of confidence means so much.

Jamie: Anytime, bro. You know I got your back.

Chapter 16

It was a good thing we’d had such a good time in Bristol. Otherwise I’d have never made it through the rest of October. Jamie was gone almost the entire month. He kept insisting things would get better, and I believed him, but the interim was killing me. Absentee boyfriends weren’t any fun.

I stayed busy at work, though the entire feeling of work had changed since Ida had left. She’d disappeared shortly after her initial conversation with Simon, flying out west to spend time with her family and to discuss, I assumed, the future of Thornton’s legacy. She’d stayed away longer than anyone had expected, leaving us all in an uncomfortable holding pattern. Only Simon’s semiregular appearance in the office gave us peace of mind. When Ida left, she’d temporarily turned over the monetary functions of the inn to him, authorizing him to take care of things while she was gone. As long as he was still showing up, we at least trusted we were going to keep getting paychecks. When I pressed him for details, Simon assured me he was no longer working for free and that Ida was compensating him nicely for stepping in when he already had a full workload. That part made me happy, but I was still nervous. He insisted his role was only temporary, which meant change was coming. I had no idea what that change was going to be.