Not to mention Carrigan.

But there was also Lou in the morning sunshine, so still and calm and smiling at me, not moving even when a plane roared overheard. Her eyes trained on me like I held the key to every problem she’d ever had, like there was no one else she wanted to see.

“Where should we go?”

Lou dimpled. “Leave it to me.”

Halfway there, I realized. We were headed for Santa Monica. In the direction of Sole del Mare, in fact, or, at the very least, of my abandoned car. If we passed it on the street, Lou might recognize it. Then there would be questions I didn’t know how to answer.

“Where are you taking me?”

“It’s a surprise,” Lou hollered over the sound of the air rushing by, the radio cranked all the way up. She wouldn’t answer me when I asked again, kept singing along to the radio. Every so often she’d pause and turn to me and smile, a big one, showing all her teeth. Whatever feelings she’d had outside Tarantula Gardens, she was good at setting them aside. A new thing to marvel at, her ability to compartmentalize.

For once, I wished that we were stuck in our city’s most well-known natural disaster, gridlock traffic, so I’d have more time to work on my cover story. I hoped I was wrong, but I knew I wasn’t—Lou hated Santa Monica. There was only one reason she’d willingly brave the well-intentioned yogis and tourists.

“The Sole del Mare,” I said, pretending surprise. I watched Lou from the corner of my eye as she pulled the car into the lot. It couldn’t be pure coincidence that she’d brought me here, today of all days. But I couldn’t figure out the angle, either.

“They have a brunch menu,” Lou said happily, throwing the car into park in front of the valet stand.

“Since when do you brunch? Since when do you pay for valet parking?”

“Since”—Lou willowed her body into the back seat for her purse, brushing against me—“today, my friend. Since today.”

My feet were lead, and I didn’t bother trying to catch up to her. She was practically skipping into the restaurant ahead of me. At the door, she turned and held it for me, and I smiled at her weakly. She grinned at me and ushered me through, trying to get me to move faster.