It was dumb to think. Even dumber to hope for. I didn’t know how to get over my terrified-of-kissing issue. If it was just mind over matter . . . but it wasn’t. I wished it was, but I couldn’t just force myself to be fine and not have a panic attack every time I got close to a man.

The problem was, as Shelby had so often bragged, she was usually right. And she’d been right about everything so far.

That was what had me concerned.

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER SEVEN

It turned out to be a lot of worry over nothing. I didn’t hear from Noah again. My life continued on as it always had. I spent a lot of time going into different veterinarian’s offices to leave a stack of business cards with them, hoping somebody would pick one up and call me. I also went out on the few appointments I had for the week and groomed some gorgeous pooches. I hung out with Shelby a lot more than normal because Allan was working on a case that was demanding a lot of overtime, and I chatted with my mom a couple of times about her upcoming play. Ran some errands, ate some chocolate, watched some TV. Normal.

There were no restricted incoming phone calls.

A week after I’d groomed Magnus, Shelby was hanging out with Allan, which meant that I had all the time in the world to watch Noah Douglas movies. It was strange watching them now, knowing that I’d had conversations with him and he wasn’t just this actor performing on my screen, but a real, interesting, and all-too-attractive person.

I woke up and decided to have belgian chocolate ice cream for breakfast. Why not? Nobody cared when you had yogurt for breakfast, and it was basically the same thing. I was halfway through the first Duel of the Fae movie when my phone rang. I glanced at the screen. It was Shelby.

Before I could even say hi, she cut me off with, “Don’t say no.”

I paused the movie. I’d heard that tone in her voice before. She was about to beg me for a big favor, and she knew I wouldn’t like it. “Why would I say no when you haven’t even asked me yet?”

“Just promise you won’t say no.”

“Fine. I won’t say no.”

“Perfect. I need you to be a seat filler at the Academy Awards tonight.”

“No,” I responded. What if I did that and I ran into Noah? What if he thought I’d changed my mind? That I was sending him mixed signals? I mean, it would be a fair accusation, given that all I felt were extremely conflicting signals all the time where he was concerned, but I wanted to put that little footnote of my life down at the bottom of the page where it belonged and move on.