She met Janet’s eyes, realizing, then, that she liked this woman a lot. She didn’t have many close female friends, but Janet already seemed like one. This conversation, for example, was like something between friends, sisters even, not someone she’d just met. In fact, though she liked all Jai’s sisters, the two here today were her favorites. She could easily picture herself hanging out with them without their brother or Stuart. They’d met only a few times, but she wanted to continue seeing them regularly.

Then, of course, there was Maddie. Any time she allowed herself to think about leaving tomorrow—tomorrow!—her brain immediately revolted at the implications. She’d fallen for her, entirely. They made sense together. Anytime she was around Maddie, it was as if she’d come home. And after today, she’d be alone again.

When she answered, her voice was nearly a whisper. “I have to.”

Janet looked troubled, but she didn’t push her further. Ryann was grateful. Already, the effects of the mimosas and the massage were fading, her shoulders stiff with anxiety and dread. Janet kept talking, now about herself and her students, and she followed most of her comments, responding appropriately as needed, but by the time she was getting up to have her hair and makeup done, she still felt like crying.

“Oh my good God,” her stylist Zane said as she sat down.

“What?” she said, blinking away a few tears.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me!” he said, almost squealing.

“Tone down the flames a bit there, Zane,” Stuart said. His hair and beard had been trimmed and styled already, but he was still sitting at the station next to her finishing a glass of wine.

“Oh, you!” Zane said, waving a brush at him. “I’m just shocked. You didn’t tell me your friend’s hair is like the most gorgeous thing in the whole world. Or that I’d be doing makeup on a movie star.”

“Right?” Janet said on her right. “Can you frickin believe her?”

Ryann watched her face redden in the mirror, and everyone laughed.

“You must have the entire city of New York at your fingertips, honey,” Zane said.

“And Loveland,” Stuart added, winking at her.

“Your boyfriend going to be at this shindig today?” Zane asked her.

“My girlfriend is, yes.”

All three of them let out a long, wavering “Oooooh!”

“She hasn’t called her a girlfriend before,” Stuart explained.

Zane grinned. “Ah, I see. A new lady friend, huh? You’re so beautiful, this is going to be really easy, Ryann, but I’m still going to make you so hot, she won’t know what hit her.”

She smiled at him and sat up straighter, her earlier upset already waning. If what he said was accurate, this was going to be fun.

Chapter Twenty-Five