“You slept with Thaddeus and didn’t tell me?” she asked with a shriek. “How could you not tell me? I thought we were friends.” Shock battled with hurt and hurt won. “I told you about my sex.”

Unity held up both hands. “I didn’t sleep with him. I spent the night at his condo, in the guest bedroom. But we did kiss. A lot.”

Ellen’s emotions died down. “Sexy kissing?”

Unity grinned. “Very sexy kissing.”

“That’s huge. So huge. Are you okay?”

“I honestly have no idea. I’m scared and upset and confused. I don’t feel guilty, but I don’t feel right, either. Thaddeus is great and I like his company but I always feel like I’m not sure about anything. Except he makes me feel safe and when we’re not together I miss him, so it’s complicated.”

“Of course it would be. You’ve only ever been with Stuart and now you’re dating some hunky guy.” She paused. “He is hunky, right? Because you deserve that.”

Unity pulled her phone out of her pocket and showed Ellen a picture. The man looking back at her was lean, with dark hair and eyes, and a penetrating stare. All of which were really interesting, but not as much as the fact that he was gorgeous.

She stared at her friend. “You never said he was that good-looking.”

Unity’s expression turned sheepish. “Yes, well, I didn’t know how to work it into our conversation.”

“I told you Keith and I did it doggy style and you couldn’t cough up the fact that your boyfriend is prettier than Liam Hemsworth?”

“Oh, that’s a really good point. Sorry.” Unity glanced at the table, then back at Ellen. “Do you think it’s possible that because I came to live with you and your folks after my parents were killed in that car accident that I started integrating their rules into my life, the way you integrated them into yours?”

“If you’re trying to distract me from how incredibly good-looking the man in your life is, that’s a really good way to do it.”

Ellen got up and collected the second bottle of wine. They were obviously going to need it.

“Yes,” she said after a few seconds. “I think you have a lot of rules that don’t make sense. Your folks didn’t have rules at all, so obviously they came from mine. Figuring that out is really insightful.”

“I can’t take credit,” Unity admitted. “Dagmar’s the one who thought it up.”

“Do you know what the rules are? It’s not always easy to define them, but if you can name them, you can decide if you want to follow them or not.”

“That’s what I’ve been thinking.” Unity seemed to brace herself. “I lied about the challenge.”

“What does that even mean?”

She writhed in her seat. “I was lying when I first brought it up. I hated that we were fighting and I wanted to show I cared, so I pretended I wanted to change, too. That way we were doing it together. Only I didn’t want to change before. I thought my life was fine.”