This was something she’d decided when we were eleven, and she’d never gotten over it. “You saying something is a plan doesn’t actually make it a plan. I love you, but I’m under no obligation to humor you.”

“But I’ve had to let go of so many dreams,” she said in a small voice, and it made me feel unbelievably guilty and sad for everything she’d been put through. I turned around to hug her.

“I know. And it’s also okay to get some new dreams.”

“But if I can’t even get you interested in going out with a movie star, our double wedding is definitely never going to happen.” She mumbled the words into my shoulder.

I stepped back and just shook my head. “Noah and I are going to have a strictly professional interaction. You know me—I don’t like to mix business with disdain.”

“You may feel certain things about Noah Douglas, but disdain is not one of them.”

She hadn’t been the one sitting next to him. She didn’t know what she was talking about. “It doesn’t matter. Don’t you remember when that palm reader warned us about dating a guy with two first names?”

“That was my reading, not yours. You’re free to date him.”

“You know that’s not going to happen. Tell me you know that I’m not actually going to date Noah Douglas.”

“Probably not,” she agreed. “But isn’t it fun to daydream?”

Personally, I’d found daydreaming to be overrated and a waste of energy. Real life demanded too much of my focus. I had gone into the kitchen to search for my keys. I had a bad habit of dropping them places and forgetting where. “Have you seen my keys?”

“They’re on the table. But before you go, take these.” She handed me some business cards, both hers and mine. “Just in case.”

It wasn’t worth arguing about. “Thanks. I need to get on the road. Wish me luck!”

“I wish you kisses and a new boyfriend!” she said as I walked out our door.

Ha. Fat chance of either one of those things happening.

It took me a bit longer to get to Noah’s house than I’d anticipated. He lived in a gated community, but the guard was expecting me and just waved me through. Then it was dark and the roads were winding and Google Maps was being strangely coy about where I should be going.

I eventually found it, and he had a long driveway with no lights. I turned on my brights and inched my way up the incline. I was surprised when I reached the top and found a tiny little bungalow that was well lit both inside and out. I’d expected a mansion, to be honest.