I reached for my sketchbook, opening it further back to find the sketches and measurements I’d done. The pages ripped with a crack of sound, and I leaned into the room with them extended, and he met me in the middle.

“Measurements for you and Tess.”

Flipping through them, he nodded. “This arbor is cool. Ask her if she wants to keep it—otherwise, I think Tess might want it. We’ll just charge them for a loan instead of the piece plus labor.”

“I’ll let her know.”

Luke shook his head. “How the hell did you become the point person for Lila Parker?”

“Ivy’s about to be gone, and none of you babies have the constitution for her.”

“You always were the better Bennet.”

“Better or dumber?”

“Maybe both.”

I huffed a laugh. “I can handle her. Don’t worry about me.”

“I never do.” He watched me for a second with that X-ray vision one obtained simply from knowing someone so well. “You like her.”

I made a face. “Now who’s dumber?”

But he didn’t falter. “You do. Look at that.”

“I don’t even know her. Plus, she’s not my type.”

“Oh? And what is your type? You’ve gone on twenty dates since we came home this summer. Twenty first dates.”

“Because they’re all with girls like Verdant. You know how that is.”

At that, he backed off a hair, nodding. “Fair enough. But what about somebody else? Somebody you choose?”

“When do I have time? Mom has me booked out until I’m forty or get married, whichever comes first.”

“And Lila is right up there with Verdant and Charity and all the rest of them,” he stated, understanding the dilemma.

“Girls like that don’t want second dates with gardeners who sleep in bunk beds in their mom’s house. Blue collar guys without degrees. Or pedigrees.”

“One superficial, privileged princess doing you dirty doesn’t really constitute the whole bunch.”

I shot him a warning glare. “Don’t talk about Ali like that.”

“After all these years, you still defend her? I don’t get it.”

“It’s not her fault it didn’t work out. It’s mine.”

“How so? For not being able to predict that she wouldn’t call you her boyfriend unless your trust fund was over five million?”

“Goddammit, Luke, I said—”

He held up his hands in surrender. “I know, I know. I’ll quit it. But listen, she might have set the gold standard for what you think women want from you—”

“I don’t think. I know what they want. Ali was just the only one I was dumb enough to care about.”

At that, he fell silent.