Page 108 of Yours, For Good

"It is." Jake rolled his eyes. "And same with Gabe. But you two are officially together and deeply in love with Eva and Lina— respectively. I'm just pointing out that Javi and Nora are not together-together. We're currently watching them be in love without officially being a couple."

"Holy shit," I whispered.

Tremors ran deep under my skin. My grandmother said I'd know I loved someone when it pushed me out of my comfort zone and I gladly stretched myself beyond my reach. That when heartbreak wasn't enough to change my feelings, that person had landed there to stay.

I had been looking for those signs so narrowly, I had missed what I already knew. That what I felt for Nora was love like I never understood it. Not until she came into my life.

My heart swelled, beating erratically for a few moments. My friends' attention snapped to me once more. Smiles took over their faces at varying speeds, until the three of them gazed at me with knowing eyes and brilliant grins.

"He got it." Max's voice was full of excitement. "I might cry. It finally happened, and I was here to witness it."

"It's not that my grandmother was wrong," I argued nonsensically. It didn't matter. The words spilled out of me. "I have pushed myself out of my comfort zone— happily. And Nora has my heart in her hands and could break it to pieces, and it wouldn't change how I feel."

"Those things confirm what you already felt, even if you didn't realize it." Gabe's smile only grew, even as his voice remained his usual calm, warm tone. "But those are not love itself. Love is this thing glowing in your chest that says, your happiness is my happiness. That's love."

"But I care about your guys' happiness too," I argued. "And I love you. But this feeling—" I waved my hand over my chest, very much like I did at the anniversary party— "it feels different. I just can't explain how. For a while, I let that confuse me but— I love her."

"And that's why artists will always have a target market." Max sipped from his coffee again. "But now that we've established you love her, should we figure out how you're going to show her?"

Chapter 42

Nora

"WE ALL KNOW MY husband can be exuberant," Eva said, "but I need your opinion on this one. I feel like I need to draw a line in the sand with his latest grand idea."

She, Lina, Violeta, and I sat outside, coffee in hand, living our best life. It was easy to talk to them and feel like I was part of their group; they treated me no differently than they treated each other. That plus the warm morning sun on my skin, the gentle, cool breeze playing with our hair, and some of the best coffee I'd ever had, well…

This seemed very much like my wildest friendship dreams.

"What did he come up with this time?" Vi asked.

"You know he bought us my favorite house in our small town. We renovated it and made it perfect—"

"You have to see it, Nora," Lina said. "It's gorgeous inside and out — classic Craftsman touches everywhere, but with a contemporary slant, and a view of the ocean and their town that's just— wow."

"Oh, yeah, please—" Eva made a reassuring type of gesture with her hand— "we'd love to have you there. We like having the lot of you over, which is precisely part of the issue."

The conversation continued, as if their casual invitation didn't involve further welcoming me into the group. As if it didn't imply I had the kind of future with Javier, where flying across the country and parachuting into a close friend's house was a given.

It's what I had always hoped for in my life, even if that hadn't included a partner of my own. It's what I was building with Sally, too; she had invited me to stay with her for a couple of weeks, and I was planning to go and visit with her and her family. But I wasn't at the casual level of closeness this group invited me into.

"Max— I love him to death," Eva continued, "but he's simply overdoing it. He wants to make an offer to our neighbors to buy their house. He envisions turning it into a guest house with a bridge connecting it to our house—"

We all laughed at her description.

She chuckled in a half-contained cackle of her own. "He's already talking about having babies and even though I unequivocally told him he'd have to wait longer for that, he says there's no harm in planning. That we'll need more room once our kids use the rooms we currently have for guests, and wouldn't it make it easier to host all of you at once— including your parents, Vi— and I just…"

She sighed, even as she smiled wide at her husband's shenanigans.

"Definitely draw a line in the sand," Vi said. "We make do with no issues with the space you already have."

Lina lifted her mug as if for a toast. "Let him keep an eye on the prize— house and kids-wise. He can tell his realtor to check often and if the house goes on sale, that's one thing. Otherwise, he can wait."

They turned to me as if to see if I would add my two cents, and an internal scream may have popped out of nowhere in my head at the pressure of saying the right thing, but I camouflaged it behind a smile.

Everyone was kind here and eager to get to know me. I had no doubts. So maybe if I was brave enough to take their offer of friendship…

I shrugged. "Let your neighbors live in their home until they're ready to move. Otherwise it's such a waste to have a house sitting empty most of the time."