“We’re having dinner at this really nice restaurant on the river tonight. I’m going to have two of my friends ride down there on their boat, with the side of it lit up to say: ‘Xi, will you marry me?’ And then she’ll turn around, and I’ll be down on one knee.”

“That sounds perfect,” I said. “I may need to get some notes from you, then.”

She clapped her hands and rubbed them together, her rings clinking against each other. “So you are going to propose?”

“Not anytime soon, no,” I replied, moving on to another car. None of these were options, as the one I’d already decided to buy was getting washed and ready for me, but it was a decent way to kill time. “He’s got too much going on right now to think about a wedding.”

“What’s he going through?” She crossed her arms, brows inching together.

I sighed, rubbing at the bridge of my nose. “A lot. There’s been someone who’s fixated on fucking up his life. They left a severed chicken head on his doorstep wearing a rainbow necklace and tried getting into my house when he was sleeping over.”

“Holy tit balls, seriously? That’s some twisted shit. And he doesn’t know who’s doing it?”

“Has no idea. We confronted his ex-boyfriend, who might be connected, but he denied it all. And then we got into a fistfight.”

Surprise flashed across Ashley’s face. She knew how anti-confrontation I was. She reached for my forearm, eyes wide. “Jeez, Jake, were you and Noah alright?”

I nodded, waved a dismissive hand in the air. “The guy had it coming. It’s also been pretty quiet since we talked to him, so maybe he was the one behind the threats.”

“Maybe…” Ashley’s voice trailed off, but her eyes were pinned to me. “Be careful, Jake. If it’s an ex-boyfriend, someone that might still have feelings for Noah, then those threats could end up aimed at you.”

A chill crawled down my back. I’d thought of that possibility but didn’t allow it to carry much weight. What was I going to do? Tell Noah I didn’t want to be his boyfriend because I was scared I’d become a target? That just wasn’t even an option for me. I may not have been used to any of this, but I wasn’t walking away from one of the best things to ever happen to me because of a crazy ex. No way.

“I’ll be fine,” I assured Ashley. The firm set of my shoulders and the even tone in my words did a good job of hiding the nerves. “I just want him to be okay, that’s all. He’s seriously one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. You two need to hang out sometime.”