“Can I borrow your car? Just until I can pick mine up later this afternoon?” I asked her.

Vivian nodded. “Cole can give me a lift to work, not a problem. We can meet up after you leave work to get your car.” She tossed me her keys and I gave her a grateful smile.

“Thanks, Viv, you’re the best.”

I left quickly, before I could talk myself out of the craziness I had planned.

I drove the entire way to Garrett’s house with knots in my stomach.

What was I doing?

Why was I driving out there first thing in the morning?

I pulled my car up beside Garrett’s van and got out. I didn’t see Mitch’s car.

Shit. He wasn’t home.

I stood there, feeling like a fool for a long time.

What would I have even said if he had been there?

“Hey you. What are you doing here at nine in the morning?”

I glanced up to the porch to see Garrett in a tattered pair of jeans and a T-Shirt, a duffel bag at his feet.

“Uh, well, I’m not really sure,” I told him honestly.

Garrett unlocked the front door and pushed it open. “Well, I just got here. I just got off a two-hour flight and I hate the airport. I need to de-funk, stat. Why don’t you come in and I’ll make some coffee. You’ve got that I-haven’t-mainlined-caffeine look on your face.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, okay. Sounds good.”

Garrett dropped his bag just inside the door turned up the thermostat. “Fuck me, it’s freezing in here. Mitch has a serious aversion to turning the heat up.”

We walked into the kitchen and Garrett went straight to the coffee maker and dumped the remains of an earlier pot into the sink. It looked like Mitch had been home this morning.

But where had he gone so early?

“Milk and sugar right?” Garrett asked and I nodded, sitting down at the table.

“How’s Riley?” I asked after he handed me a mug of steaming coffee. Garrett sat down across from me, stretching out his legs.

“She’s great. She was called into to cover a story at four this morning. Some fire over at the government offices. So I just got up and headed to the airport. I waited around for a few hours before my flight. She’ll be down this weekend for the show.” Garrett smiled at the mention of his girlfriend.

“So you won’t have to wait too long to see her again,” I said, drinking my coffee. Garrett could make one hell of a cup of java, that’s for sure.

“It gets harder and harder to leave her,” he said softly. He looked up at me, his blue eyes tired but happy. “I’m moving up there. To Boston,” he announced and I blinked in shock.

“To Boston. You’re moving to Boston,” I repeated, not sure that I heard him correctly.

Garrett downed the rest of his coffee and nodded. “Yeah. I can’t be away from her anymore. I just can’t do it. And neither can she. She’s got a good gig with the paper. I would never ask her to move back here. There’s nothing for her in Bakersville as far as her career goes.”

“But the band—” I started to say.

“I don’t think that’s in the equation anymore,” he said, sounding a mixture of sad and relieved.

“What are you talking about?” I asked aghast. No Generation Rejects? I couldn’t imagine them not playing together. “I know you guys are worried about the label dropping you, but Mitch’s cousin was getting you guys some gigs right? You don’t need a label to still play music,” I argued.

Garrett got up and refilled his mug. “You know, the band has been the biggest part of my life for so damn long. After my parents died, it’s what kept me from losing my fucking mind. Mitch, Cole, and Jordan are more than my friends, they’re my brothers. We’ve traveled down this road together and it’s been amazing. It really has. But things change. Life heads off into another direction and you have to go with it. Generation Rejects will always be a part of my life. But Riley Walker is my life, G. I want to build my life with her. I want to put down roots with her.”

He stopped for a minute and then he smiled and it made my breath catch in my throat. At one time I had thought myself in love with Garrett. It was easy to see why when he looked like that. When he was talking about the woman he adored above everything else.

“I don’t want to spend all my time on the road, thinking about her. I want to wake up in the morning beside her and I want to go to bed at night holding her. That’s all I want. I’m a simple guy like that. Everything else will fall into place.” He sat back down again and I didn’t quite know what to say.

“What will the guys think?” I had to ask.

“They’ve got their own stuff going on. Jordan’s going to be a dad—”

“You know!” I gasped and Garrett chuckled.

“Riley told me.”

“You’re right, he won’t want to leave Maysie and the baby now. I guess it’s the end of an era.” I said.

Garrett tapped his fingers on the table in a slow, steady rhythm. Much like his personality. Slow and steady. Unhurried. “It’s time though. Don’t you think we’re all ready for a change?”

I thought about that and yeah, we all were ready. More than ready.

“What are you going to do with the house when you move to Boston?” I asked.

Garrett looked around the tiny, yet homey kitchen. A hundred memories had been made in this room. Thousands for him. It would be strange for this house to stand without him living in it.