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“Nope.”
They embrace hard enough to knock Briggs back half a step. When they separate, Ryan touches two fingers beneath his own eye and looks at Briggs’s bruise.
“Keep ice on that shit.”
“Yes dad.”
“Take that back.”
Cade has one arm around Bliss when Ryan turns toward them. He looks between the newlyweds, then pulls both of them against him before either can speak.
“Go to Aruba, fuck on every expensive surface you can find, and be so fucking happy it becomes offensive,” he says. “You two earned that shit.”
Bliss laughs into his chest. “That’s the sweetest disgusting thing anyone has said to us today.”
“Your standards are low.”
“I married Cade.”
“Exactly.”
Cade reaches around Bliss and catches the back of Ryan’s neck. “Call me when you land.”
“Everybody needs to stop parenting me.”
“Then make better choices.”
“I’m leaving a wedding before sunrise in my clothes, not pastels and mostly sober. This is the most responsible I’ve ever looked.”
Bliss lifts her face. “I love you, Ry.”
Ryan kisses her forehead. “Enjoy your honeymoon, B. Don’t call us unless someone gets arrested.”
“What if I’m the one arrested?”
“Call Aura.”
Aura raises her champagne. “You better, but also call Ry for bail.”
The laughter surrounding them sounds ordinary. None of these goodbyes carries the weight crushing my chest because Ryan isn’t leaving any of them. He will call Cade tomorrow, insult Easton before the week ends, ignore Aura’s messages until she threatens him, and return home to whatever strange domestic arrangement he and Briggs have built in Milwaukee.
I am the only person standing here who doesn’t know whether I will hear his voice again.
Ryan looks at me. The laughter fades from his face, leaving something raw enough that my next breath catches before it reaches my lungs. He holds my gaze for several seconds, then reaches for the handle of his suitcase.
“Walk me out.”
It isn’t a question. I nod because trusting Ryan’s words means understanding that he wouldn’t have asked if he didn’t want me beside him for the final distance.
He turns toward the corridor, and I follow.
The suitcase rolls over the expensive Italian stone between us, every wheel striking the narrow seams with a soft, relentless rhythm. The sound follows us through the castle like a clock counting down toward something I didn’t know had already started.
Nobody tries to fill the silence. Cade, Easton, Rider, and Briggs follow far enough behind to give us privacy without allowing Ryan to leave alone. Aura keeps Bliss inside the ballroom because Cade and Bliss still have their own departure she is getting ready for, and tonight cannot become another moment everyone abandons to save me.
Ryan pushes open the castle doors.
Cool night air reaches my bare shoulders as we step beneath the stone portico. The drive curves away from the castle between pools of golden light, and the distant road remains empty.
