In fact, she was still nodding as she backed out of the room and pulled the door shut. Turning, she sagged against it, pleased for its solidity as she let out a breath. She heard laughter then—loud, lusty gales of it, both male and female—permeating through the door.

A bubble of laughter rose in Della’s throat, too, and she slapped her hand over her mouth to stifle it as she skulked away from the villa.

…

“You have a date tonight?”

Della nodded at her therapist. “I do. With Joel.” She leaned forward, passing her phone across the desk to show Selena.

“He’s a looker.” She read his bio. “And a humanitarian. Sounds ideal.”

“Yeah. We’ve been messaging. He seems nice. I’m looking forward to meeting him.”

“No food pics?”

Della laughed. She’d just finished telling Selena about Bailey. “No food pics. No pics at all. Just chat.”

“You’re going to the same place?”

“Yep.”

“Tucker waiting across the road?”

“Uh-huh.”

“How’s that working out?” Selena handed the phone back. “Him being your wingman?”

Della shifted her gaze to the phone as she took it from Selena. “It’s good.” She made a production out of putting the phone away in her bag. When she looked up again, Selena was eyeing her with that frank gaze.

“You’ve been spending a lot of time together in the last month.”

“That won’t be necessary anymore, now that I passed my test.”

Della was now the proud owner of a driver’s license. She still got an excited little squirm in her belly whenever she thought about it. No more lessons with Tucker. Not that she’d gone for another one since the kiss. In fact, driving to Denver today had been the first time she’d been in his truck since that night. She’d gone out with Arlo a couple of times instead—which had made him super happy—and had generally avoided Tucker altogether.

But she couldn’t avoid him today. Arlo was an option, as was taking the bus, but she wasn’t confident enough on dates yet to give him up as her wingman. He’d been excellent, and she certainly wasn’t substituting her brother for him. Molly or Marley would have probably done it—Winona for sure—but she felt so unsophisticated around her confident, take-charge friends.

She didn’t feel unsophisticated with Tucker. And she loved having the male perspective.

“You don’t want to spend time with him?”

“I…” Della paused for a moment, deciding how much to reveal. She felt like an idiot even saying it out loud, but she’d shared worse things in this office. “I kissed him. Last week.”

“I see,” Selena said in her usual unruffled tone. She leaned back in her chair. “You want to tell me about it?”