Trace had been snoozing comfortably on the couch when the doorbell roused him. When he’d fallen asleep he wasn’t sure, but his head was protesting at being woken up. He felt dozy and groggy. It was probably his own fault – he and Justin had spent the previous night drinking far too heavily into the small hours of the morning. Then he’d been up early. They’d reconvened at the Harless house for lunch, but at some point he must have drifted off.

As he sat up he noticed that Justin was nowhere to be seen. That seemed odd since from the sound of the voices in the hall it was Lynn who’d opened the door. They were both indistinct to his fuzzy brain but undoubtedly female. So if his best pal wasn’t in the room or answering the door where had he got to?

“Trace, honey?” Lynn called out softly from behind him, unsure if he was still asleep.

“Yeah?” He twisted around in the seat to look at his friend’s mother, then caught sight of her guest. It caused him substantial surprise. “Oh, hey Reese.”

“I was just telling Reese that Justin went out to the store for me while you were napping, he shouldn’t be much longer. No doubt you two can entertain each other until he’s back.”

It was hard to read the expression on Lynn’s face. Trace wasn’t sure how much Justin had mentioned to his mother about the baby steps he and Reese had taken to repair their friendship, but he guessed it wasn’t a lot. The one thing he was certain that he was seeing was shock. Her eyebrows were sitting abnormally high, like she was fighting not to raise them. She didn’t look disapproving, exactly, but was that wariness in her eyes? That seemed strange, because he knew that Lynn loved Reese. All three of their mothers were fond of them as a trio (even if frequently exasperated by their exploits) and from a young age they’d treated the other two points of the triangle as extended family. More than once he’d heard her smugly joking about never having daughter in law issues with her son’s choice of bride. It never occurred to him that she might be wary precisely because she adored her.

“Somehow we always manage,” he joked.

“So long as it doesn’t involve you starting another gambling ring in my house that’s fine,” she replied. Her tone was wry but affectionate. “I’ll be finishing up out back if you need me.”

Lynn gave Reese’s arm a quick rub and then disappeared. Reese for her part had a guilty smirk on her face after hearing that comment.

“You know, I really don’t understand how I always wind up getting blamed for your evil schemes,” Trace said with a shake of his head. “Is it just because you’re the girl? She still looks at me funny every time she sees me with a deck of cards.”

“What can I tell you?” She grinned, choosing to occupy a seat on the couch next to him. The awkwardness of ringing the doorbell and asking for admittance had dissipated with merciful speed. Another ten minutes at that rate and she’d be back to treating the place like she belonged there. “You got a criminal looking face.”

“What, and you’re supposed to be sugar and spice? Clearly these people don’t know what a deviant you really are.” He laughed as she picked up a throw pillow and playfully wacked him with it. “Gender stereotyping is an ugly thing.”

“It is. People really ought to know how much harder I can hit than you.”

“Hey, you’re not the only one Sam taught the left hook to.” It had been embarrassing at the time to ask a younger kid for tips, but that had paled in contrast to the embarrassment of being picked on by the school jackasses. One good punch and they’d never bothered him again. Sam had been paid in comics. “But we probably ought to just agree to disagree now because I doubt Lynn wants us having a boxing match in her front room either.”

“Yeah, yeah. Put it on Lynn. I know you’re just afraid of defeat.”

“Not that I’m not thrilled to have you here abusing me as usual,” he said, “but why are you here? I know you two called truce but I didn’t realise you were already having play dates.”

She glared at him for his use of the word ‘dates.’ “What, I can’t come say bye before he goes home?”

“Course you can. But you wouldn’t.”

“And yet here I am.”

“But you’re not here to simply say bye.” There was more glaring but he remained unperturbed. “Don’t give me that look, you know I’m right. You always did make the mistake of thinking that because I wasn’t the one dating you I can’t know just as much of your shit as he does.”

Reese folded her arms across her chest and propped her feet up on the coffee table, crossing one ankle over another. There was no way she was admitting it out loud but he was right. After the break up she had cut contact with him knowing that he would never cut contact with the dreaded ex - she hadn’t wanted to keep even that indirect connection - but the truth was he was as much her best friend as Nadine or Justin. It was indeed easy to forget that the romantic intimacy didn’t occupy as much separate ground as you might think. If Justin had known one hundred percent of her as her partner Trace had still known a good ninety and change as her friend.

The other reason she didn’t like to admit it was that she still felt she’d been wrong in her prior attitude to Trace. In order to justify herself to herself she had seriously minimised his role in her life. Cutting such a long standing companion loose was much easier if you acted like you’d never been that close anyway. She’d behaved like he was some hanger on of Justin’s and not a friend in his own right. Sometimes she’d acted like he was barely even a person in his own right, though he hadn’t been present to witness it. Shame plagued her but she couldn’t open her mouth to say so to him. She suspected he knew, but Trace was the kind of guy who would let you gloss over it so long as it meant things getting back to normal.

“Yeah. Have I mentioned I hate that about you?”

“I love you too. Seriously, what gives?”

“I, umm…” She dragged her teeth across her lower lip. “If I tell you something will you promise that you will not breathe a word of it to anybody at all? And I mean anybody?”

“Sure, I’ll pinky swear. What’s up?” The ominous tone was worrying him a little bit.

“Going back to LA kind of made me rethink my plans to stay here.”

“Oh?”

That didn’t shock him. He’d always thought the only reason Reese had run home was to avoid Justin. The ongoing animosity had prevented him ever saying so, but he thought the entire thing was one massive and ill thought out avoidance tactic.

“Yeah. So I called Sarah and asked her to put out some feelers for me - just to start information gathering, you know. I figured by the time anything came back it would be after the wedding and I’d have had some time to think about it and talk to Drake and make a more concrete plan.”

“Let me guess, something already came back.”

His brow was furrowed in a contemplative look. Two burning questions were pricking at the back of his head, though he wanted to hear the whole story before asking. Why was it a big secret and why was she here to talk to her ex-fiancé about it? He also had some thoughts about why she would be focused on this with a wedding next week, but they were mere background noise in comparison.

“When I spoke to her Sarah predicted that they’d have an opening in about a month’s time. Turns out the girl left way sooner than she thought and she mentioned me for the opening, so they called to invite me for interview. They’ve said if I can get there Monday they’ll consider me.”

“Ahh.” That answered one of his queries. “Well gee, who do I know with a charter plane that so happens to be going back to LA on Sunday…”

She was a little too tense to give him a real smile, but still the lips curled upwards as she gave him another gentle thump with the throw pillow.

“So you figured you’d ask JT if he’d mind extending his hospitality again and then fly back after the interview?”

“Yeah.”

Mulling over his next words, he rolled them around his brain before opening his mouth. Justin liked to joke he was incapable of thinking before speaking but he found it necessary when tackling touchy subjects with Reese. Justin had a way of managing to pull Reese back around to his perspective even if he’d pissed her off; Trace didn’t possess the same knack. As a result he found it best to take in depth chats with her slowly. He couldn’t afford to let his mouth run ahead of him; she was quite stubborn when it came to it and he found it easier to keep her on side than to win her back round.  If he said the wrong thing he got flustered and then didn’t know how to soothe the ruffled feathers.

“That’s quite somethin’, hon,” he said. “I had no idea you were even thinking of coming back, but you’re really all set to go and do this? And to stay with J again so soon after you made it up? I mean, don’t get me wrong, you know how frickin’ relieved I am that you two are working it out, but I didn’t think you’d be up for spending so much time together yet. Seems like a big ask.”

“A big ask?” Doubt clouded her face. “You think he’ll say no?”

“That’s not how I meant; I mean a big ask out of yourself.”

“Oh, I get you.” Her mouth twisted to one side, and she pulled at a strand of loose hair. “Not going to lie, I did wonder if it was a good idea, but if I want to go then I need to keep costs down and do it quietly.”

“And you do?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “I mean, for all I know nothing will come of it or I might get there and decide that actually the reality isn’t what I pictured, but I feel like I need to try it.”

He nodded in understanding. Some people felt like they needed to have one last fling or a crazy blow out before they got married. Reese apparently needed to try a different life back on to make sure she really wanted the one she was about to buy. That seemed like a natural thing for anybody to feel right before they got married, even if most people wouldn’t take it quite so far.

“So why the secrecy?”

An involuntary shudder ran down her back. “Too many people to get their panties in a twist, either because of the job or because I’m asking Justin.” She was thinking specifically of Nadine when she added the last part.

“What does Drake think?”

“Drake…” She winced. “He’s in the former category.”

“You mean you’re not telling him? Babe.” He didn’t need to say anything else. One four letter word and its implied chastisement were enough.

“I know, I know.”

“Do you really think that’s a good idea? You are marrying the guy; he should know that you’re considering moving across the country. Isn’t he going to flip when he finds out you went so long before you discussed it with him?”

“If he finds out.”

Trace vehemently disagreed with the category change – he definitely considered it a ‘when.’ How was she planning to disappear for a day unnoticed at this stage in proceedings? Brides tended to be major features.

“This whole paparazzi thing has him really down on LA. Plus he’s got this irrational thing where he associates the bad shit that happened when he was younger with the city as opposed to how much better things are for him since he moved… I am going to talk to him about it, but now is not the moment. I need to let him forget the dumb press stuff for a minute first.”

“Please don’t bite my head off, but I think now is exactly the moment,” he argued. “There’s every chance they’ll want you – you won’t have time to lay groundwork or whatever you think you’re gonna do. They’ll want a decision and he’s not going to thank you for springing it on him.” Then he put on a mockingly chirpy tone. “And that’s before I factor in the part where the guy you’re using to facilitate this is your ex.”

“Believe it or not, I have considered all of that.”

The response that leapt to mind was ‘and yet you’re still going ahead with it,’ but he didn’t think sarcasm would be well received.

“Well, you got to do what you think is best for yourself, but just go careful alright?”

“Always.”

Reese tweaked his arm, giving him the ‘you know I love you’ face. She could tell that he still disapproved but she appreciated that it was out of concern. He wasn’t wrong, either, but she couldn’t put it into words to explain it to him. Her gut was overwhelmingly telling her that she needed to do this. Selfishly she wasn’t going to do anything that might potentially derail it, and she knew telling Drake might do so. Telling Nadine would definitely do so. As supportive as Nadine was of her wish to look into career options, any new ventures being tied back to a resurrected friendship with Justin would go down badly.

“Hey y’all!”

The familiar call came from the front room, signalling the return of the gentleman in question.

“That lazy ass awake yet?” Justin yelled. The volume was clearly designed to ensure that if he wasn’t he would be now.

Reese chuckled while Trace pulled a face of martyred suffering. “This is the gratitude I get for entertaining your guests.”

“Guests? Who…” He entered the room and the question became redundant before he’d finished it. “Oh, hey Reese.”

Justin’s face was almost an exact mirror of his mother’s. Trace had to work hard not to grin. “You need a hand with the bags?”

“Nah, I got it.”

It couldn’t have taken more than sixty seconds for him to disappear and reappear from the room. Reese assumed he’d dropped the bags in the kitchen.

“Hope there was nothing frozen in those,” she said. “You need to put stuff away?”

“Nah.”  Lazily he eased himself into the spare armchair. “So to what do I owe the visit?”

“If she tells you it’s just to say bye before you go, she’s lying. Hey!” The red pillow had been to the face that time, wielded with far more force. “Actually, she’s here to take extreme liberties with your fledgling new friendship. OWW!”

“Hey, I wouldn’t have hit him for that,” Justin said mildly. “Not with the mental strain it must have taken - didn’t think he knew words like fledgling.”

Trace glared at Justin and jabbed his middle finger in the air. “Blow me.”

“That’s more the usual standard.”

As amusing as this all was (it was a pretty typical exchange for the three of them), Reese was too jittery about asking for said liberties to laugh like she normally would. “Excusing Trace being a dumb ass as usual, he is actually right. I do have a big favour to ask.”

“Ah.” Justin smiled, both a little wary and a little triumphant. She was already asking for big favours out of him? This was distinct progress. “Well, you know me. Always ready to let you take all the liberties you want with me.”

Reese tried very hard not to take that as an intentional double entendre. Making sexual jokes was much too forward at the present time.

“Oh, so you noticed too that she always winds up getting her own way when she asks us for favours?”

He guffawed in response as Trace snatched away the pillow before Reese could swing it again. “Man, are you trying to get punched?”

“Actually we were discussing that earlier.”

“Ayala, if you value your limbs you’re going to stop being such a God damn smart ass and let me talk,” she threatened.

Justin settled back in his seat, continuing to grin. Any fear he had about what she might ask was vastly outweighed by the sheer glee at watching this little scene unfold. This was so normal and natural and exactly how things ought to be that he felt sure he must be glowing with self-satisfaction. He’d missed this, a lot.

So as it turned out it was a good time for her to ask, because in this state of mind he’d probably give her anything she wanted.