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“You didn’t know? He didn’t tell you?” Jess smacked her forehead with her hand “No wonder you were still so angry! Our cousin is so stupid He never coht out and says what he means anymore”

“I’ve noticed that,” Abby remarked dryly

“Well, he did get burned Like the night Erin and Josh got engaged and he made a fool of himself at the Rusty Fern We were all there”

“Erin was dating Tom?”

“Oh, yeah She was vacationing here with her fa too, and full of piss and vinegar as our mom would say We all kneeet on her And then Josh came home from school and swept her off her feet”

“Toht for her?”

Sarah wiped her fingers on her paper towel “He and Josh had grown up like brothers Bryce, too We’d been through a lot as a fa accident and Josh was a mess When Tom knew Erin felt the same way for Josh, he stepped aside Problem was, he’d fallen in love with her anyway I think a part of hi with Josh would burn hot and fast and flao back to med school and that would be the end of it and Erin would come back to him Only it didn’t work that way Erin spent Christmas with our family that year It was barely four months after they met, and Josh proposed”

“That’s fast”

Jess sotten over her The night of their engageot drunk, stood on a table, and told everyone that Erin wasman That she could have done better with him and how he’d had her first anyway It was quite an uncoet off the table or he’d take him to jail, brother or not”

Abby tried to i that sort of announcement Not Tom, who kept his emotions hidden Who hid behind a slick exterior of charht he’d kissed her, he’d hedged He’d only done it because he wanted to No deeper explanation Just an i the real To in his eyes as he told his cousin the first punch was free

“That doesn’t sound like so Tom would do”

“Oh, the old Toed since then,” Sarah confirot e out at Fiddler’s Rock We hardly saw hiht that once they were et over her But he didn’t He put all his t

iy into his business Seriously, you’re the first woood sign”

“Kind of backfired” Abby sipped at the wine Goodness, Jess really did kno to pick them First the pinot at her shop and now this lovely bold shiraz “This is really good, Jess”

“Drink up” She raised her still-full glass “And cheers To new friends and new babies”