He raised his eyebrows. “Right. Okay.” He paused, and I ignored Shelby, who was currently pressing down on my right foot and I didn’t know why.

“Oh, that Juliet!” Shelby said, slapping me on the arm. Hard enough that I flinched. “She likes parties! Who doesn’t like a party? She’s the perfect girl to take to a party. You’ve obviously already met her, so you know that she’s tall and gorgeous and fun and so, so sweet and kind.” Was it my imagination or did mention of my sweetness and kindness make a smile ghost across his lips? “And she’s an entrepreneur. She just started up her own mobile dog-grooming business.”

“Yes, she might have mentioned that already,” he said.

“Do you have a dog?” Shelby asked, her voice still too bright and perky. “Because you definitely want to hire Juliet. She will come to you and clean your pup. Anytime, day or night.” She opened her purse. “Here’s her card.”

That made me blink rapidly. Why did she have my business cards in her purse? And why was she talking about me like I wasn’t even in the room?

He studied it for a moment. “Thanks. I’ll give you a call sometime, Juliet Nolan.” He said my name like he was caressing it with his voice, and I almost passed out. “Have a good evening.” He slid my card into his breast pocket, nodded his head, and then he was gone. Vanished as quickly as he’d appeared.

I would have wondered if I’d hallucinated the whole thing if not for Shelby jumping up and down and shrieking, “I can’t believe we met Noah Douglas! What? How did that happen? Best day ever! And how deliciously awkward were the two of you? I loved it!”

“What was that?” I demanded.

Her jumping stopped. “What?”

“That . . . that word vomit just now? About me and my business?”

She tilted her chin defiantly. “I was helping you.”

“I don’t think so.” That had been awful. If I hadn’t scared him away before, well, Shelby had just made sure that I’d definitely never see him again. He probably thought we were psychos. “And why do you have my business card?”

“Duh, in case we need them. Which we obviously just did. Don’t you have some of mine?”

“I don’t even have mine in here.”

Shelby took my clutch and put both my cards and some of her cards for her interior design business into it. “There. Now you do. Just in case one of the Hemsworths wants me to redo their bedroom.”

“Do you think Harmony will get mad about you trying to drum up business?”

A look of dismay crumpled up Shelby’s face. “Well, I do now!”