The papers weren’t signed. They hadn’t even been removed from the envelope. I held them between my fingers as my heart slammed against my chest. Did I want to know? Did I need to know? Would that somehow change something in my mind?
I bent back the prongs and opened the envelope before I started easing the papers out.
But before my eyes could glance at the name, a knock came at my door.
“Sam?”
Hearing her voice caused the papers to tumble from my grasp. I went sprinting from the room, through my townhome, bypassing the smells coming from my small kitchen. My hand fell onto the doorknob, and I ripped the door open, my eyes bulging from my head.
“Lauren,” I said breathlessly.
Her eyes fell to my hand, and I watched her sigh. I looked down and saw the ring, then quickly worked it off my finger. I shoved it into my pocket as my cheeks grew red, and when I looked back up into her eyes, I found something I wasn’t expecting.
Sorrow.
“Can I come in?” she asked.
“Of course. Yeah. You can always come in,” I said.
I stepped off to the side and watched as my best friend of more than a decade stepped into my townhome for the first time since her wedding.
“Is everything okay?” I asked as I closed the door.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“Come again?”
“I’m sorry, Sam.”
I watched her turn around as tears welled in her eyes.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t a better friend to you during this difficult time in your life. And I’m sorry I got so upset with you at J’s. I was confused and hurt that you couldn’t come to me with any of this.”
I watched a tear roll down her cheek before she quickly brushed it away.
“I hate that you couldn't tell me what was going on. After everything we’ve been through and all of the dark times we’ve had. It made me sick with anger that you couldn’t tell me what was happening with you. And I didn’t know how to handle all of that. I didn’t know how to handle my brothers suddenly clamming up and not talking to me. I didn’t know how to handle my best friend pulling away from me. Closing me out. You’re all the family I’ve got. And when all of you started to shut me out, I panicked and acted like a selfish asshole.”
I watched Lauren shake her head as my chest filled with sadness.
“I thought I was losing you like I lost my parents, Sam,” Lauren said. “I thought I was losing all of you.”
I rushed to my best friend and wrapped her up in my arms. I pulled her close as she cried onto my shoulder, my hands running up and down her back. Fuck. All of us had been impacted by this in some way, and I was too blinded by my own damn emotions to see how this was affecting her. It should’ve been easy for me to figure out. I knew her better than she knew herself. I cradled her close. I felt her cling to my back. I closed my eyes and tried to keep my tears at bay so I could be strong for her.
Like she so obviously needed.
“There’s something else,” Lauren said as she pulled back. “There’s something else I need to say.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“As weird as it is,” she said with a giggle, “If you want to be with all of my brothers, then that’s okay. I can’t say I understand. It’s strange. But, you’re my sister-in-law, courtesy of Vegas.”
“Yeah,” I said breathlessly. “Yeah, I guess I am.”
“And you’re carrying my niece or nephew., which makes us more like family than ever before,” she said. “And families support one another.”
“Yeah. They do,” I said.
“Will you forgive me, Sam? Can you?”