"Gabe? Gabe!?" I leap up, and he catches me in his embrace as I lunge at him. "Is it really, you?"

He's taller and much bigger in person than he is on the screen, and he's as handsome as ever with those sparkly green eyes of his and that dimpled grin.

"Look at you, Kinz! What are you doing here? Kels, what is going on?"

"She thought it was, Luna, babe," Kelsey says. "Climbed up here and found your tequila."

"This is..." I look at Kelsey and flush red. "Gabe is your... husband, isn't he? I am so sorry. I just jumped on him."

"Oh, it's fine!" She says with a natural ease. "We are both huggers, and Gabe has women throwing themselves into his arms a lot."

"That has to suck," I say.

"It doesn't bother me." She shrugs as she stands, and Gabe starts over towards her and then he kisses her softly, not caring at all about the audience of one. He then sits down in the chair she was in and pulls her into his lap as he wraps his arms around her. She is beaming, as is he, and I can see they are very much in love. 

"The key for us with his career is two things, trust and passion. We trust each other so much there is no room for doubt when we aren't together, and we have so much passion we never take our hands off each other when we are together."

"That's perfect," I say. I am so glad that Gabe found someone and is so happy.

"Wait, it's your birthday Gabe! Happy Birthday, big football star!" I say, and he grins bashfully.

"Eh, thanks," he shrugs it off.

"I should go so you two can have your time!"

"No, please don't go yet," Kelsey says. "An old friend of Gabe's is all the more reason to stay. So, hold on now. Would farmgirl be the girl from sophomore year, his first real girlfriend?"

"She broke my heart," Gabe says with a playful smile, and Kelsey makes an oh, face and then leans back to kiss his cheek, which makes him smile all big.

They are flipping adorable. I love this.

"You broke up with me, remember?" I remind Gabe. 

"For good reason, now tell me why you're here?"

"For those same two reasons," I say in a telling way.

"What?" Gabe makes a face. "Please do not tell me..."

"She's torn between two men," Kelsey says.

"No," Gabe says as she shakes his head. "Not the same two men."

"Yeah," I wince.

"Kinsey, what the– how are you in this now?" He is shaking his head. "Kels, baby I need. a shot too."

"The same two guys?" Kelsey asks as she pours one for him in a champagne flute, and then we all down them. 

"Yes, the same two that she was torn between in high school," Gabe says. "Neither of which were me, the guy she was with."

"Yeah, sorry about that," I offer.

"It's all good. I'm right where I need to be." He kisses Kelsey's head, and she smiles.

"You've really been in the same love triangle since high school?" Kelsey asks.

"It's a twenty-year triangle," Gabe jokes.

"I'll kill you," I shoot him a look. "I got divorced recently and moved home, and things started happening with Hunter. Then Oliver suddenly comes home, and it muddled everything."

"What it really comes down to is the why," Kelsey says. "Like I said before. Why is the ex an ex, can that be remedied? Then the other question, why was the never was, never? Is there some reason, and can that be fixed? 

This is all starting to make more and more sense and the cloud is slowly lifting despite the tequila buzz that's forming.

"I have a question," I look at Gabe. "That day you broke it off with me you said I can't keep ignoring the way you look at him. Who were you talking about? Which one?"

"You know this answer already you don't need me to tell you."

"I... "

He's right... I do know. 

"You had feelings for both of them obviously. But one of them would stop you in your tracks, every single time he walked into a room" Gabe says.

"And he still does," I whisper.

"I have a question for you, Kinz. Why do you keep finding excuses to hide from it?"

"Because I'm terrified," I admit.

"So, there's your why," Kelsey says. "For one of them."

"No, I think, it's actually the answer to both of them," I say softly.

"Kinsey? Are you out here?" I hear Oliver calling me from below and I stand up and make my way to the edge of the terrace.

"Oliver, I'm up here!"

He looks up and looks relieved to see me, "What are you doing up there?"

"I went to the wrong balcony."

"Or the right one," I hear Gabe from behind me.

Or the right one, I agree silently.

"I'll be right down, Oliver."

I turn back to Gabe and his wife.

"Thank you, both of you so much," I say.

"You figured it out, then?" Kelsey asks with a little smile.

"I think I always knew, but Gabe making it so obvious sort of lifted that last bit of confusion," I say with a grateful smile at Gabe.

Gabe stands and pulls me in for another tight hug, and then after that Kelsey wraps me up in one too, I really like her.

"It was really great to see you again," Gabe says. "Good luck, Farmgirl."

"Go get your man" Kelsey agrees with a giggle as she hugs me next. 

"I love her," I tell Gabe. "Now stop being too big to come home and some see us sometime." 

"I will try," he promises.

"The harvest is an open invitation," I tell him. 

I climb back down, slightly wobbly from the tequila, but more so from my nerves which are getting bigger by the second.

I walk towards Oliver with haste, and he laughs as I grow closer.

"How in the world did you end up on the wrong balco–" he cuts himself off as he takes in the look on my face. "Kinz?"

"Oliver, I–"

"It's okay," he says, stepping closer and clasping my hands in his.

"No, it's not, I hurt you and–"

"You're about to do it again," he fills in for me. "It's not me is it, Kinsey?"

"No. It's not. It's him. It's Hunter. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," the words all come tumbling out in a rush as my eyes well up with tears. 

"It's okay, Love. I know. I always knew," Oliver says.

"I realized I was in love with Hunter when I was fifteen," I say softly. "And I realized I loved you at sixteen. My love for him didn't diminish or negate my love for you, it was real Oliver, don't ever think it wasn't."

"I know it was real," he says as his eyes grow as wet as mine. 

"After you left, it took years, but I did move on from you," I continue. "And being here I see you moved on from me too. I kept feeling we got cut off abruptly and maybe we did but we did run our course, Oliver. We did have an ending. We got over each other, but... I never got over him."

"I loved you, and I loved Julian, but despite that, a part of my heart, a big part of it belonged to Hunter. It was not fair to you...I was wrong for loving Hunter while I was with you. You deserved better than that and I'm sorry, but you were right. I did love him, and I still love him, and..."

"You don't love me," Oliver finishes.

"No, no that's not true. I do love you. I have known you my whole life. You're my best friend and oldest friend. I will always love you," I say. "Just not in the way I did when we were lovers but in the way I did when we were best friends. I don't want that to stop. I don't want to lose you again as my friend. I think that's part of why I have been clinging on to this choice. A part of me is scared you'll leave again."

I pause and then add, "but I get it, if you need to, I see how happy you are here though, and I know you'll be okay." 

"You aren't going to lose me," Oliver promises. "I came to Sweet Haven hoping to reconcile our old friendship. I didn't go there wanting to get you back, in that way," Oliver says. "Then I saw you and those old feelings came tugging at my heart, and I started getting my hopes up.

"But... I saw it, the connection with Hunter, stronger than it ever was and I was so confused, how in the world did you two never get together all these years?" he questions as he releases my hands. "I took the answer to mean there was hope for me, but that wasn't why."

He starts pacing in the alley and I stand there watching him with teary eyes as he works these thoughts out. "I let myself think maybe it could be me, but deep down I knew it wasn't. That's why I've been so hesitant about getting too close."

"That's why you didn't want to kiss me again," I whisper.

"I was careful of how much to put my heart in, guarded, because I knew, it was going to end up being him." 

He stops and looks at me with such a sad smile it brings on a fresh sob as tears start to rain down my face.

"It's okay, it is. it will be," Oliver assures me as he pulls me into his arms and we stand there in the middle of the alley crying for who knows how long before he finally releases me.

"I'm so sorry," I whisper as we part.

"No. I am," Oliver says. "I get it now too. It took some time, because I can be stubborn when I set my head on something, but being back home, it all started to hit me. I manipulated him into that pact. Then I went and got myself ahead of your confession to him."

"We were kids and–"

"Let me finish saying this. I need to say this," Oliver pleads.

"Okay," I agree as I let out a huff of air, and wipe at my wet cheeks and sniffle back more tears. 

"Like I told you in the barn growing up I always just assumed it would be you and me. Then we met Hunter, and it turned out I was wrong. The choices I made were wrong, I told myself the end justified the means, but it didn't, Kinsey. I was the villain in your life."

"No....no you weren't," I argue.

"Yes, I was," Oliver says. "I didn't mean to be, but I was because all I thought about was myself and what I wanted. If I loved you like he did, I would have let you be happy with him, but I didn't get that back then. The things I did to keep you away from him, were wrong. That wasn't how a best friend acts.

"And despite everything I did, you never got over him anyway. it was all for not," Oliver says. "I blamed you for your feelings and punished you for them by leaving you, like I did. I told you before I wouldn't apologize for that, but I am now because I see what that did to you. 

"My extreme jealousy made you want to prove me wrong and caused you to further shove your feelings down, and then me leaving like I did, caused you trauma. You're scared now, to face your feelings for Hunter, right? You're scared that it'll all fall apart like we did, and he'll leave like I did."

"Yes, that's what I'm terrified of. That's what I always have been scared of," I admit in a shaky voice. "And I think when you came home... it was the perfect excuse to derail what was already happening with Hunter, because I was so scared. I still am, Oliver. I can't lose him like I did you. I wouldn't survive that."

"He's not me," Oliver says. "He has been in love with you forever and there's no way he'd screw it up if he got his chance, with you, and neither will you. I am stepping out of the way of you two. So now you need to get out of your own way."

"Get out of their way." 

"You know, I thought our story was unfinished because it got cut off like it did, but I realize now that was our ending," I say slowly. "I think we finally have closure."

"Yeah, we do," he agrees.

"But... you never got closure with Brandi," I say. "Your story with her was interrupted and I think it's unfinished. I think maybe... if something is still there with her, don't ignore it, because if anyone deserves the kind of love you have to give it's her."

His mouth drops open and his eyes flicker with a mix of emotion and confusion.

"Just think about it," I offer.

"I will."

He holds his arms out, and I step into them, our crying has subsided, and we stand there, in a tight embrace for a long time before we part again, he kisses my forehead, and I close my eyes and savor the quiet, and serene moment of closure between us.

"I had a feeling bringing you here would clear your head. Something about a change of scenery can do that," Oliver comments.

Or a few words of advice... but yeah, he's right coming here was exactly what I needed.

But...

"Hunter," I say out loud as my anxiety starts to rise. "He's upset... earlier he sounded so pissed. I can't stay here any longer. I have to go... I have to tell him. I told him I loved him, then took off to another state with you. He thinks you're making some grand gesture out here. He's probably worrying about what's happening and–"

"Shh, hey, it's okay," Oliver places his hands on my shoulders. "Calm down, alright? I'll book you a flight right now and we'll get you home to him, okay?"

"Okay..." I say shakily. "Thank you, Oliver."

"Kinz?"

"What?"

"We're best friends again, right?"

"Yes of course we are."

"Then call me Olly."

And with that, I start sobbing once again. 

The wait is over she made her choice and I know it may not be what everyone wanted, but team Olly I hope you understand her decision and also can see that Oliver is and will be okay. The biggest take-way is they are best friends again and that's what they both actually wanted. 

2-3 chaps left depending on how long the next one is, and the next one is the most important chapters of the entire story so give me some time to make sure it's right! But I will be working hard on it and hope to post soon! 

Then a short epilogue!  EEK!!