I couldn’t. There was this feeling of inevitability. Now that we had crossed paths—and had done so over and over again—it almost felt like I was destined to have him in my life in some way. I shook my head. So many women would have killed for this chance. And maybe I was being naive in thinking that I could dictate how this was going to go.

Because it felt a little like being on a runaway freight train heading toward the side of a mountain. I couldn’t stop it or slow it down or jump off. I was on board for the full ride, wherever that was going to take me.

I woke up the next morning on the couch. My neck was stiff, and I groaned as I came to. I’d been waiting up for Shelby because we had so many Very Important Things to discuss. But I must have passed out, and instead of waking me up like I had wanted her to, she’d put a throw blanket over me and had gone to bed.

“Good morning!” She was in the kitchen turning on the coffee maker, way too cheery.

“How could you not tell me about the remodeling thing?”

She rushed over to the couch and sat next to me. “You have no idea how hard it was to not tell you. But isn’t it the best news ever?”

I still couldn’t believe that Shelby had sat on a secret that big. It was so unlike her. Not unlike me, but I wasn’t the one being questioned here.

“The best,” I echoed.

“This is going to be everything. His publicist put in a call to California Architectural, and they fell all over themselves to offer us the cover. The cover! I’m going to be launched into a different stratosphere.”

“That is going to be so great,” I said. I was happy for her, and it was selfish of me to be worried about how all this was going to affect me. Maybe it wouldn’t affect my life at all. I’d already told the guy we could be friends. What that was going to look like I wasn’t sure, but why would it be a bad thing if my best friend was fixing his atrocious house?

“And he is paying me so well. So. Well. He offered to double all of my fees and costs for doing rush work, and unlike you, I didn’t talk him out of it because I’ve found that I like making money instead of throwing it away.” She was teasing me, but it wasn’t the same thing. Him paying her versus him paying me. Although if I’d been pressed about it, I couldn’t have explained why.

I also hoped he’d pay her in actual dollars.