I couldn’t hold back a big relieved grin. “You’re the best.”
He leaned over and hugged me. “You’re the best. No matter who you like. Just so long as you don’t ever like anyone more than me. You can have a boyfriend, but you can’t have another best friend. That job is mine. Forever. You just made a binding agreement.” He nodded at the notebook paper on my nightstand.
I could tell he was teasing, but I still liked being claimed in that way.
“What about you?” I asked, trying to be brave enough to find out if there’d ever be a chance I could date my best friend.
“What do you mean? Like, who do I like?” He moved back over onto his own pillow.
“Yeah.”
He screwed up his lips while he thought about it. “I think you’re right. I’m ski-sexual. When Erin and Hazel mentioned their group of friends getting tickets to that concert thing, all I could think about was whether or not your dad would take us to the slopes instead. Do you think he will? Mr. Rokas said I’m almost ready to try the moguls.”
The laugh that bubbled up was full of relief. I didn’t need him to like me like that, as long as he didn’t like anyone else that way either.
And he didn’t. For two more years, he continued to prefer my dad’s hand-me-down skis and soft, fresh powder to any kind of date with anyone of any gender, though most of the girls in our year and at least one guy had made a play for him.
But when we learned the homecoming committee had booked a popular local DJ sophomore year, I decided to finally ask Parker out. For real. As my date to the dance. I would tell him how I felt and ask him to give me a chance as more than best friends.
I kind of wanted to do the cheesy prom-posal idea but with something related to skiing. He’d gotten a coveted spot on the Evergreen High School team, and Coach Rokas said he had more potential than anyone he’d seen in a decade. Parker was already well on his way to making a name for himself in the state competitions.
As cheesy as it was, my poster would at least make him laugh. I’d spent all afternoon adding little drawings beside each ski word.
I would be snow board if I went to HoCo solo. I snow full well taking you would lift me up, so I’m asking icely if you’ll be my date. If you say no, Alp be piste.
“What the heck is that?” Hazel asked, barging into my room uninvited.
I scrambled to hide the giant poster with a hoodie that had been on the floor by my feet. “Nothing. Get out. Jesus.”
“Who are you asking… oh.” She winced. “You were going to ask Parker, weren’t you?”
I moved the poster behind me on the bed. “I am going to ask Parker. Yes. Not that it’s any of your business.”
Hazel took my hand, which wasn’t something she did very often anymore. “Jules… Erin already asked Parker to the dance, and he said yes.”
I stared at my sister in disbelief. “That’s not possible. He would have told me.”
“She only asked him today after you’d already left.”
Parker didn’t like Erin like that. I knew he didn’t. At least… he’d never said anything about it to me if he did.
I was crushed.
“Maybe… maybe they’re just going as friends,” I said lamely.
Hazel squeezed my hand again. “I don’t think so, Jules. She really likes him.”
I looked at my sister while trying to stop myself from feeling so pathetic and disappointed. “I really like him, too,” I admitted softly.
Hazel pulled me into a tight hug. “I know you do. And maybe one day you’ll get your chance to tell him. But for now, let’s think of some other cute guy you can ask. What about Toby Finley? Oooh! Or Sean Rollins. He’s superhot and totally into guys.”
In the end, I didn’t end up taking anyone. And Parker and Erin became a thing, breaking up and getting back together so many times it made all of us shake our heads.
Over the years, I took comfort knowing I was still his person—still the first one he told when he got a killer scholarship and wasn’t sure whether to take it, and the first person he called when he needed encouragement after a crushing loss on the slopes. I never doubted for a second that he was my person, too—the guy who rushed to my side when I was injured and sent me a joke every morning without fail during my most trying days in law school.
He was mine, and I was his.
You and me. Always.
Or so I thought.
But when Erin came back around for the billionth time with a much bigger proposal on her mind, everything changed.
Because Parker said yes to her again. Only this time, he agreed to marry her—to love her and put her first forever.
And I knew nothing would ever be the same again.
PARKER
Current Day (15 years later)
“Jules, you should totally come to Mexico with us,” I said a little drunkenly. My arm rested along the back of Julian’s chair, and I could see a spot he missed when shaving. My best friend was absentminded at the best of times, but I could understand why he was especially distracted tonight. As my best man, he’d been put in charge of several important tasks, one of which was watching my sorry ass to make sure I got where I was supposed to go this weekend.
“Parker, Jesus,” Erin snorted from my other side. Even though I wasn’t looking at her, I knew she was rolling her eyes. I was very familiar with my girlfriend’s—I mean fiancée’s—eye-rolling voice.
“What? He should. That would kick ass. We’d have so much fun, the three of us, wouldn’t we?” The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. Julian and I had been close for over twenty years. There was no one I wanted more on an all-inclusive vacation in the Caribbean.
Except Erin. Obviously.
Julian tried to shrug my arm off his shoulders and move away from me. The joke was on him. If I stopped leaning in his direction, I’d fall face-first on the floor. “Pretty sure Erin wants the honeymoon to be just the two of you, big guy.”
“That’s not true,” I corrected stubbornly, clinging tighter. “I overheard her inviting your boyfriend just a little while ago.”
Julian attempted to move away again. “I keep telling you, he’s not my boyfriend. Nolan doesn’t believe in restrictive social constructs like monogamy,” he muttered under his breath. But he frowned at the man on his other side anyway. “Wait. Nolan, why did Erin invite you on her honeymoon?”
“Huh?” Nolan shook back his sun-streaked blond hair like a golden retriever who’d heard his name called and grinned affably. “Oh, nah, dude. E didn’t invite me. We were talking before dinner about how you two planned some adventure shit while you were in Mexico, like zip-lining and snorkeling, and I was telling her if she wanted real adventure, I could show her where to go outside the resort, like this kick-ass twenty-mile hike with a rope ladder you can take down into this underground cave complex—”
I wrinkled my nose. “But it’s an all-inclusive resort,” I repeated, wondering if maybe I was drunker than I thought. “Why would anyone want different adventures than the adventures that are… included?”
Before Erin said a word, I could still tell there was another good-natured eye roll pointed in my direction. “Because it’s sometimes fun to step outside of our comfort zones, Parker. That’s what life’s about.”