Maddie immediately brightened and moved closer to her. She dropped her arms to her sides to give her more room, and Maddie stepped even closer, grabbing one of her hands. Maddie grabbed one of Stuart’s too, squeezing both of them.

“Okay, listen,” Maddie said. “I know you said you wanted to see a bunch of places, Stuart, but I also know how excited you were about this one. I mean, you spent half an hour talking about it the other day before even mentioning the others. I could tell you really wanted this space, so I called around. Basically, if you book today, Ryann and I can get everything else lined up tomorrow with a party-rental place. They do chairs and tables, linens, bars, the whole nine yards.” Maddie smiled at her. “So—to answer your question, yes, it can be done.”

Ryann gave Stuart her widest smile. “That settles it, then! Go pay the man and book it.”

Stuart whooped, jumping into the air before pulling her and Maddie into a crushing hug. He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and then dashed away, calling for the proprietor. He disappeared a moment later, and she and Maddie were left alone.

Maddie was smiling at her, and she had to look away, that tight, nervous heat rising in her chest again.

“Shall we?” Maddie asked, holding out a hand. “I have to try it out, too, you know.”

She took Maddie’s hand and let herself be pulled into Maddie’s circle. They started dancing, slowly, as she’d done with Stuart, but of course it was different with Maddie. It shouldn’t be, but it was. This closeness seemed intimate, and she was suddenly hot, awkward.

“You seem…happier now,” she said, forcing herself to peer up into Maddie’s eyes. “Why were you so upset earlier?”

Maddie lifted her shoulders, clearly at a loss for words. She opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again before speaking.

“I…I was pissed, actually.”

“Why?”

“Because you dismissed this place without seeing it. Because you seemed to have an idea of what Stuart wanted, like you knew better than either one of us.”

“How could I know what he wanted? You didn’t tell me anything before we got here.”

Maddie met her eyes, that blue troubled, stormy. “Exactly. And I should have told you how much this place meant to him. But I didn’t. Instead, I sort of let you flounder. No—that’s not even it. I made you flounder by not saying anything. I wanted to see what you would do without any influence. Almost like I was trying to…I don’t know, catch you out or something.”

She made herself pause before replying, as calmly as she could. “Why?”