Today was Valentine’s Day, and she and Maddie were doing their engagement photos at Erin’s brewery—exactly a year from the day they planned to get married. Her new office was in Denver, which was an awful commute, but workable in the short term. Ted was splitting his time between Denver and New York, but she was fairly certain he would be joining her here full time, soon. All in all, at least on the work front, she felt pretty set. She planned to open a branch of her new business in Fort Collins or Boulder and transition herself there in the next couple of years, but Denver was functioning for now.

Or at least it was until her car broke down this morning. Maddie couldn’t cancel her classes, so Stuart volunteered to pick her up.

“Hey,” he said, squeezing her hand again. “You really don’t have to be nervous. Try to have fun, okay? You look gorgeous, by the way. Only you could make that shirt look designer. I’m sure the camera will love you, as always. I honestly think you’re the most attractive person in our wedding album. You make the rest of us look like extras in a rom-com—cute, but a little uglier than the star.”

“Thanks,” she said, smiling down at her shirt. It was a red flannel, a match to what Maddie would be wearing. She hadn’t lasted long before the flannel bug caught her, too. Two months living here in Colorado, and she’d given away most of her old clothes.

“I’m so glad I set the two of you up,” he said. He said this only to get a rise out of her, and she swatted his arm. “Hey! It’s true, you know.”

“Sure, sure.” She rolled her eyes. “And you’ll never let it down.”

“I’m going to be telling your grandkids about setting up you two.”

“Asshole.”

They both laughed, the last of her nervousness lifting. The light changed, and he had to drive again, but as she watched the side of his face, she was struck once again by how much she loved him. Her own family hadn’t replied when she’d sent them the news about her engagement, but that hurt less than she’d feared. This man was the only family she needed. She and Maddie had already decided they would have only their two best friends—Stuart and Jai—as their wedding party next year. They were enough.

“So what did you get Maddie for Valentine’s Day?” he asked.

She flinched. It hadn’t even occurred to her to buy something. Stuart, evidently confused by her silence, looked her way and frowned.

“You didn’t get her anything?”

“I, no, I didn’t know I should—”