“They’ve got a realtor on-site, but you can get your own too,” she continued. “Someone else was just looking at it, but the guy said if you were interested and put a bid in soon, he’d consider it along with the other person’s.”

“Look,” piped in Roman. “Two bedrooms.”

“Maddie . . .” I swallowed. “You shouldn’t have done this.”

She gave me a quizzical look. “Why not?”

“It was too much work.”

“Whatever. Besides, after all the stuff you’ve done for me? Georgina, this is nothing. Are you going to go talk to them? I’ll go with you if you want.”

I sank down onto the couch, flipping through the pages without really comprehending them. I’d been angry when she and Seth hooked up. I had no right, however. She hadn’t known about our past. And if I hadn’t been so dead-set on keeping things secret, if she had known Seth and I had dated, I felt absolutely certain she would have never, ever gotten together with him. Because she was my friend.

I felt a burning in my eyes and willed myself not to cry. I didn’t entirely know what I’d done to deserve that kind of friendship. She was a good person. She believed the best in me—just as Seth did. In this dark phase, Seth had never given up on me. Both of them were so good, so kind. And at the end of the day, there really wasn’t much of that among humans.

Carter had said that if there were no other complications in the world, I would be the one Seth chose. But we did have complications. I still refused to hurt him because of sex, and that problem was now in full effect again. He’d thrown himself into danger for me on the beach. There would always be danger with the life I led—danger for him, not me. I wanted him badly, wanted to reestablish what we’d had, but if I did, I’d only be subjecting him to more of this rollercoaster existence. I’d deny him a normal life, a normal love. I couldn’t do that to him, no matter what he said about trying it again.

Just because things don’t work out, it doesn’t mean there aren’t other people you can’t love. Love is too big a thing for you to go without it in life. At least for humans it was. I wanted Seth and Maddie to have that. I wanted them to have the dream I couldn’t have.

Maddie’s expression softened as she peered at me. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

I swallowed and gave her a smile. “Just still amazed you did all this.”

“Will you go take a look?” she asked excitedly.

“Yeah. I will.”