I groaned, my mouth moving against her shirt. “I’ll need another year to recuperate from that.”
She laughed, jostling her shoulder underneath my head. “Oh, Ems. That’s what Carter’s for. He’ll help you with all the rejuvenation you need.” She tightened her hold on my arm pressed against her side. “Now, let’s get home. We have a few wine nights to catch up on.”
I almost started laughing. Yes. Yes, we did.
Carter was still with the police and after checking in with Peter and Drake at the hospital, I went back with them. Peter told me to wait with my friends until he came to get me. He and Drake were going to be questioned by police soon and he didn’t want me around them. So when we got to Noah’s place, Amanda threw her coat off and headed for the kitchen. I lingered in the hallway, wanting to call Carter’s phone just in case I got him, but Theresa yelled from the kitchen.
“Come on, Emma! You’re here. You’re back with us. We’re going to toast to you.”
“Toast?”
Noah came from behind me and went straight for the refrigerator. Amanda held a bottle of wine and wiggled her eyebrows at me. Theresa came from the cupboard with five wineglasses. I’d just finished counting them when Brian filtered in and went to the wall. He leaned against it, tugging at his collar as he shoved a hand inside his pocket. He seemed content to sit back and watch the entertainment. He pulled at his collar again and his gaze skirted mine before jumping to Amanda.
I thought he was content. Maybe not.
“No,” Noah said, distracting me as he shut the fridge door with a bottle of rum in one hand and two beers in his other. He slid a beer over the counter to Brian, who caught it and tipped it toward him in salute. Noah nodded back, then plopped the rum in front of Amanda and Theresa.
Theresa’s mouth hung open, and her eyebrows had shot up. “Uh—what?”
He nabbed the wine bottle from Amanda, flashing her an apologetic smile, and put it back in the refrigerator. With his beer, he turned to face me. He held his bottle in the air. “No wine for you ladies tonight. You’re drinking the hard stuff because tonight—” He smiled at me, “—we’re celebrating one of our own coming back home.”
“What?” I could feel the tears forming behind my eyes. “What do you mean?”
A slow smile spread on Theresa’s face, and she grabbed a carton of juice, filling three glasses. As soon as Theresa moved the juice to the next glass, Amanda poured rum into it.
Noah waited until all three of us had a glass in hand. He gestured to me. “Come on, raise it up. This is for you, you know.”
I felt my face getting warm. “What are you guys doing?”
“Our sister is home.”
I looked at Amanda. She’d said that so softly and eloquently. She spoke as if it were a fact, as if she were declaring what we all knew. I sucked in my breath. I hadn’t known. I hadn’t—I’d thought it and felt it, but the fear of being abandoned was always there. Because of Carter, because of who I loved, I thought they’d someday turn their backs on me.
“I second that.” Theresa looked like she was bursting at the seams. She bounced up and down, waiting for me to lift my glass. “Come on, Ems. You’re back with us. You’re safe. Your sister is safe, and hey—you have a sister! A true blue sister. That’s amazing. Don’t get me wrong, though. I do not want to know what all happened out there because, you know—” She winked in Brian’s direction. “But you’re home. You’re alive, and we missed the hell out of you.”
The tears weren’t going to stay hidden. One slipped down my cheek, and I felt more coming. I tried to swallow the emotion, but I knew my smile was watery. “You guys… Thank you.” I couldn’t. The words weren’t coming. This. I really felt accepted by them, no matter what happened or what would happen. I flicked some of the tears away. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”
Theresa frowned. “Because we’re drinking rum instead of wine?”
“We love you, Emma.”
I heard the tenderness from Amanda again. When I turned to look, she held my gaze and continued to smile softly at me. She glanced to Brian, then back to me, and her smile lifted up a notch. I knew what she was trying to convey to me then. No matter what happened, we were family. I nodded, and that broke the dam. I couldn’t stop crying after that.
“Oh, Emma.” Theresa came around the counter and hugged me, glass still in hand. Amanda laughed as she joined us, with her glass, too. “Wait.” Theresa raised her glass. “We should all take a sip like this.”
“What?” Amanda frowned at her.
“I mean it. I know it sounds stupid. We’re mixed up in a knot here, but let’s try it. It can be a new thing, like a bonding, sisterly-drinking thing. If anything, we’ll all look really dumb together.”
“Oh my god.” Amanda rolled her eyes.
“Hush it.” Theresa shot her a look, but she was trying not to grin. “This is what memories are made of. When we act stupid, we know we’re going to act stupid, and we do it anyway. Now drink, woman.” She lifted up on her tiptoes, straining toward her glass.
Amanda and I did the same. My lips barely touched my glass, but I tried. Amanda screamed and began laughing. She started hopping up and down, jostling me. “Hey,” I said. My lip was almost there. I could just feel it when my glass tipped. I had one second to register what was coming, and I closed my eyes just as the liquid rained down on me.