“My cousin Lilah will be there. She’s the youngest of all the Pleasants. Well, the grandkids. There are four great-grandkids now.”

“Oh wow, how many grandkids are there?”

“Fifteen. Lilah’s the youngest of eight.”

“Double wow.”

“Did you just say double wow?”

“Sure did. So your brother and your cousin.”

“And my play cousin Corie, she’s Miss Leona’s personal assistant, but we’ve known her her whole life so she’s family.”

“Okay. Got it.”

“And Corie’s kinda girlfriend, Vega.”

“What’s the kinda about?”

“They’ve been doing the will-they won’t-they dance for a minute, but they’re clearly feeling each other.”

“Okay. So siblings, cousins, maybe girlfriend doing the delicate dance.” They came to another high fenced property. Amanda could see the lights from some houses off in the distance, but not much else. Sam slowed the car, then flipped his turn signal even though the long desert road was empty. She did love a responsible driver. She glanced up and saw the lone street sign that looked out of place in this very particular way.

Pleasant Lane. Sam turned toward a set of massive gates, then pushed a button up in his visor. The gate slowly opened.

“Oh. So you have your own street. That’s cool.”

Sam responded with a slight smile as he maneuvered the car up the driveway that seemed a whole mile long. Amanda used Poppy to ground herself in reality as they pulled up to a sprawling cul-de-sac with three large Spanish-style ranch houses. The small dog betrayed her though as soon as they pulled to a stop in the wide driveway of the first house. It started wiggling in her arms, eager to hop out.

“This is where you grew up?” she said. There was no reason for her to be surprised. His grandmother was Hollywood royalty and clearly his brothers weren’t doing too bad for themselves either. A beautiful private estate in the middle of nowhere was the least they could do for themselves.

“No,” Sam said as they parked next to a shiny black pickup truck. “ We moved here after my grandfather passed away. My dad wanted us to be close together so he had Pleasant Lane built.” He cut off the car, then turned to her.

“Ready.”

“Should I not be?”

“I was saying that more to myself.”

“Why’s that?”

“I’ve never brought a girl home after she dumped me.”

Amanda leaned back, glaring at him as a smooth, punch-me-in-the-face smile spread out over his mouth. “You know I thought you would be cool about this, but I’ll give you that. You get one.”