“Honey,” Cat said softly. “He’s a guy. You walked out. That’s all he needed to know. He’ll never ask.”

“He said he’d fix it. ‘It’ being me and our marriage.”

Cat was still shaking her head. “We’re missing pieces. What happened that morning exactly?”

“We woke up hungover,” Maze said softly, remembering every little detail in spite of telling Walker she did not. “But even dying, I was ridiculously happy.” She shook her head. “So dumb, because he woke up quiet and somber and unhappy. He actually apologized for letting us make such a huge, stupid mistake. Then he went out to get me some aspirin and caffeine, and I . . .” She winced. She wasn’t exactly proud of this part. “I was reeling over being a mistake. And we all know how well I deal when I’m reeling. But the bottom line was that I refused to be anyone’s damn problem. I knew he was leaving for another tour of duty, which also made me a liability. Not wanting to hear it again in greater detail, I left him an I’m sorry note and sneaked out. I went and found drunk Elvis, who promised not to file the papers, which meant the wedding was as good as never happened. Then I let Walker know via text, and that was the last we ever talked about it.”

“Wow, you really did walk away from him,” Heather said.

“More like ran,” Caitlin noted, sounding incredibly unimpressed with her.

“I was a mistake to him,” Maze insisted.

“Not you,” Cat said. “He never said you were a mistake.”

Heather nodded in agreement.

“You weren’t there, you didn’t hear him say it,” Maze said quietly, a little thrown that they weren’t automatically agreeing with her. “And anyway, the mistake lives because Elvis did file the papers, meaning we’ve been married this whole time.”

“Oh my God!” Heather exclaimed.

“Seriously?” Caitlin asked.

Maze nodded. “He told me a few days after we got here.”

“And you’re just now telling us?” Cat asked. “Wow.”

“It took me until now to process,” Maze said.

“Wow,” Cat said again.

“It threw me,” Maze said. “Don’t be mad. I can’t do this if you’re mad.”

“Do what?”

“Anything,” Maze said truthfully.

Cat’s eyes got teary. “Aw. But you’ve gotta promise you’ll tell me stuff!”

“The next time I’m drunk and plan anything stupid, you’ll be the first to know,” Maze said.

“Thank you.” Cat smiled. “You’re married!”

Maze shook her head. “Don’t get excited. We’re filing for a divorce.” As soon as she signed the papers . . . “And I really don’t want to talk about this anymore,” she said, pulling a page from Cat’s book. “This is your night, we’re moving on now. And it’s Heather’s turn.”

“Fine, but this isn’t over.” On that note, Caitlin pulled out two twenties and slapped them into Heather’s waiting palm.

“You’re kidding me,” Maze said. “My sex life’s worth only forty bucks?”

“Back then, forty bucks was a lot to me,” Heather said. “Still is, actually. I can feed Sammie and me for a week if we’re careful.”

Maze’s heart squeezed on that, thinking about Heather working multiple jobs waitressing and bookkeeping to make ends meet. She pulled forty out of her wallet—her spending money for the week, because she wasn’t much better off than Heather, but at least she had only one mouth to feed—and pushed it across the tabletop. “Seems only fair that I pay up too, seeing as I started the whole thing with Walker to begin with.”

“What do you mean you started the whole thing?” Cat asked.

Heather read Maze’s expression and smiled. “You made the first move.”

“After he dared me to kiss him, yes.” Okay, so she’d made the second move too . . . Not that Walker had been a slouch in that department. She might have started it, but he’d certainly finished it in ways that she still dreamed about at night. And though she’d long ago convinced herself that she remembered it being far better than it was, the other night on the bluffs had proven her wrong. Very wrong. He’d been everything she remembered.

And more.

“Truth or dare?” she said desperately to Heather.

“After what you two just went through? Dare,” Heather said firmly.

“No.” Cat shook her head. “New rule. Dares are out tonight. So truth.” She softened her voice. “Tell us what’s going on with you and your baby daddy.”

Heather stared at her for a beat, then tried Cat’s trick of dropping her forehead to the table and banging it a few times.

“Yeah, so that doesn’t actually help,” Maze said.

Head still down, Heather sighed. “He’s not in my life.”

Cat gasped. “But you said—”

“I lied. We met in a bar. He drove a motorcycle and had a wicked smile. We had a really great night, and in the morning his alarm went off at the butt crack of dawn. He said he had to work and that he’d call me later. Long story short—he didn’t.” She swallowed hard. “When I found out I was pregnant, I texted him, but he ghosted me. Walker came and visited me on a day that I was having a really hard time and was freaked out about doing this all on my own. So he went looking for the guy.” Heather paused, drew a deep breath, and lifted her head, her eyes bright with tears. “He’d been killed on the way home the morning after our night together. He was sideswiped by a Mack truck.”

“Oh my God,” Caitlin said, and climbed out of her side of the booth to scoot in next to Heather before wrapping her arms around her. “You went through this all alone?”

Heather sniffed. “That’s not even the worst part. His parents sued me for custody of Sammie. They didn’t win, again thanks to Walker, but for a long time it made me doubt my ability to do the mom thing. I’m still on shaky ground. I mean, let’s face it, I can barely take care of myself, much less two of us.”

“I think you’re doing amazing,” Caitlin said softly, tearfully. “Sammie’s amazing.”

“And you’re not alone,” Maze said, also leaving her side of the booth to squeeze in with them both. “Not ever again. We need to stick together and keep each other from making stupid mistakes.”

“Hey, at least you’re both doing better than me.” Cat wiped her tears away. “I’m about to marry into a family who thinks I’m not good enough for their son.”

“You’re perfect,” Maze said.

Caitlin shook her head.

“Okay, so you’re perfect just the way you are.”

Caitlin snorted. “You don’t understand. Dillon doesn’t have any siblings, but there are cousins, and they’re very close. And those cousins all married big—one to a stockbroker, another to a doctor. One’s married to a former Olympic skier. They’re people who do it all, babies and careers. I can’t compete with that.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” Maze said. “We like you just the way you are. And Dillon must agree. I mean, he put a ring on it.”