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I walked into the restaurant first and past the few indoor tables before stopping on what seemed like a giant patio with round tables scattered everywhere.

Aspen and Remy were standing there while a few waiters brought multiple tables together so all our guests could fit in one place.

I walked over, helping a waiter with the last table. "Gracias," he grinned before rushing back to work.

"Hey, you're both the first ones here so um, pick your seats," Aspen said, gesturing towards the dozen chairs around the tables. Aspen and Remy took the first two seats from the right of the head of the table and Emilia moved past, sitting a few seats down from Remy.

I scanned the seats one, trying to figure out who would sit where and I pulled the chair right across for Emilia and sat there and she looked up at me, her eyes locking in place with mine. I lifted a brow, leaning back in my seat and resting my hands on my thighs.

"You know, sitting across from me is one thing but manspreading is another. Close your legs, Adam, your grandma's coming to sit next to you," she smirked, leaning forward and resting her arms on the table.

"Adam!"

I closed my legs, turning to look at Nana who was approaching me with a grin while Pops trailed behind her. I stood up, not missing Emilia's snicker, and turned to my grandmother. "Hey, Nana."

"Hi, honey, it's so good to see you. It's been so long."

"It has," I nodded, taking her hug. She sat to my right while I greeted Pops. Nana and Pops are my mother's parents. I don't see them as often because they don't live in San Francisco with my parents or anywhere near them either, they live in Colorado.

I don't know how but our families, both mine and Emilia's are pretty scattered across the US. Our parents live in San Francisco, both her grandparents, maternal and paternal, live in Colorado, just like mine, except my grandparents from my dad's side passed away when I was pretty young. Her aunts, uncles, and cousins are scattered across Florida while mine are mostly in Washington. It's a big mess, mostly.

"Hi, doll," Nana grinned at Emilia.

"Hi, Nana," she smiled back softly. While Nana grabbed my arm and turned to talk to me, telling me how much she wanted to catch up with me, I heard Emilia greet Pops. "How have you been, Pops?"

"I've been good, darlin', we haven't seen you in years!" he exclaimed.

"Well, I'm here now, aren't I?" she chuckled softly.

One at a time, everybody came over to the table and took their seats. "So, what have you been up to, sweetie?" Emilia's aunt, Mrs. Christy asked her.

"Um, not much, actually."

"Why are you always so modest?" Mrs. Feye asked, shaking her head. "She wrote a book, Christy. She's damn good at writing and she—"

"That was last year," Emilia cut her off, shooting her mom a pointed look.

"Yeah, but you moved," Remy chimed in. "That's not bragging," she teased.

"Oh, you moved back home?" Mr. Ben asked.

"Um, no. No, not back to San Francisco. I moved to New York."

My eyes snapped over to her.

I'm guessing she doesn't know I've been in New York ever since I finished college.

"Really? When?"

"About four months ago."

"I thought you didn't like the east coast," one of her cousins, one of the twins, I can't remember which one's which, there's Ava and Emma, they're around fifteen, I think.

"No, she loves the east coast. She talked about moving there ever since she went off to college," Remy replied.

But she hated it.

"I uh, no, I... I wouldn't say I love it," Emilia mumbled half-heartedly. I stared at her a bit longer, trying to read her but she wasn't even looking at me.

"What's your book called again? I should order it for my girls," Mrs. Kaelyn asked, glancing at the twins. She's Mrs. Feye's first cousin if I remember correctly.

"It's called Tainted Hearts," she answered hesitantly.

"I read up about it," one of the twins added. "It was mentioned in a lot of blogs and it was at the top of last year's releases on Good Reads."

Emilia turned to her since they were sitting together. "Since when are you into reading, Emma?"

Emma shrugged in response. "I don't read a lot. I just read sometimes."

"She reads whenever she has a crush on a boy," Ava scoffed.

"I do not!" Emma argued, nudging her sister's elbow with her own. Emma turned back to Emilia. "What's it about?"

Emilia paused, glancing at me out of the corner of her eye. "Why don't you come to my room later and I'll uh, tell you all about it?"

"Tell me now," Emma frowned.

"Don't you want to help me keep everybody here wondering?"

"No," Emma answered quickly.

"Are you still writing then, Em? Is that what you're looking to do?" her aunt Rosa asked.

"I'm trying," she sighed, "I'm having a bit of a writer's block. But it's nice to be here, it's like a break. I'm hoping to get back to work once I'm back in New York."

"So, are you staying in New York for good now?" her uncle Johnny questioned.

"That's the plan. At least for a little while."

"Adam's in New York too, aren't you?" I turned to uncle Andrew who asked me the question.

I nodded briefly. "Yeah. I've been in New York since I got out of college." I felt her gaze on me and it took a lot to not look at her. "You even sent Georgia to stay with me, uncle Andrew," I forced a smile.

There are a lot of uncles and aunts here, it's confusing me too.

From Remy's Dad's side, they have their grandparents, aunt Rosa, aunt Christy, uncle Tim, and Toby.

From their Mom's side, they have their other grandparents, uncle Johnny, uncle Ben, aunt Kaelyn, and her fifteen-year-old twins.

Just like that, from our Dad's side, we have uncle David and aunt Katherine with their fourteen-year-old son Sebastian.

From our Mom's side, we have our Nana and Pops, aunt Kathy, uncle Andrew and his wife, aunt Bethany. And lastly, there's Georgia, the nineteen-year-old.

"That was fun," Georgia nodded. "You gave the entire apartment to..." she trailed off, looking at her parents sheepishly when she remembered that she wasn't supposed to tell them that.

"Adam!" aunt Bethany scolded me.

"It was for one night, she wanted to bring her friends over," I shrugged. "You sent her to have a fun summer before she started college, I wasn't going to babysit her."

Georgia looked at me hesitantly but I nudged her elbow with mine, shrugging it off.

"Are you going to stay in New York forever?" Sebastian asked me. "You never visit us in Washington either," he frowned. "And you're not there when we visit uncle Finn and aunt Hazel either," he added, referring to my parents. "Aspen doesn't even know how to play football. You're in the NFL, you should be okay at it."

"You must see a lot of cameras, being a part of the NFL, no?" aunt Kathy asked me. "I heard it caused chaos at the airport on your way here."

"You were on that flight?" My eyes flew to Emilia's as she blurted out the question, not intending to, by the looks of it. She looked away from me quickly, drinking her margarita through the straw.

"Um, yeah I was."

"So was Em," Aspen mumbled, glancing between us. "You didn't... see each other?"

"Don't tell me," Nana huffed from beside me, "you two still aren't talking since your little fallout?"

"Why would she want to talk to him after that?" Pops scoffed.

I sighed softly, dropping my fork on the plate. I've heard enough from my family about all the things I did wrong in that situation. Everybody seems to agree that it was all my fault and I'm the one who ruined our friendship.

"Why would you say that?" Nana argued, jumping to my defense. "They both were at fault, both such stubborn kids. Don't you agree, doll?" She turned to Emilia suddenly.

Emilia seemed like a deer caught in the headlights. Like this was the first time someone was asking her bluntly whose fault our fallout was. She paused for a minute and then dodged the question, just like I thought she would. Because she was a coward. If she thought it was my fault, she should say it to my face. "I think uh... I think we're here for Aspen and Remy's wedding. So... maybe we shouldn't dig up the past. And if we're going to do that anyway, we should talk about their past. Like that one time when Remy made Aspen sit on a chair with glue on it and tore his pants in the third grade."

Everyone started laughing and focused their attention on Remy and Aspen's childhood antics.

I looked over from Remy and Aspen, over to Emilia. She was stirring her drink slowly, just staring at it blankly. She sighed softly, her shoulders dropping as she lifted her head, her gaze meeting mine. She held it for a long time, it was like neither one of us wanted to look away.

"You were there, weren't you, Em?" Aspen broke in, causing her to look away from me.

"Uh, when?"

"When Remy threw a box of crayons at my face in your backyard."

"Yes. I was there, I'm a witness to that attack," she nodded.

"See! You started it!" Aspen accused Remy.

Emilia glanced back at me before looking away and focusing on Aspen and Remy. She didn't look at me once throughout the rest of that dinner. But I heard all about her. People asked her more about what she's been up to and I got to catch up on lost time without actually asking her.

She did college in San Diego, just like she wanted. She stayed there up until four months ago. She published her book right before her college graduation and it blew up and performed much more than she expected it to.

Tainted Hearts. I should look it up.

Recently, because of her writer's block, her manager suggested a change of environment and scenery, hence she moved to New York. She moved but had no idea that's where I was, at least that's what her reaction and everyone else's was telling me.

At that dinner, I caught up to some of the time we'd lost without ever getting to speak to her. But I doubt I'd ever get to talk to her in that way again. I doubt we'd ever be what we once were.

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