“Yes, she approached him about helping her with the housing development because she was getting squeezed on all sides from other developers, utility companies, and local government, and Nick agreed on the condition that she hire me to design all of the materials for the development, you know, the name, logo, brochures, etc. She was calling it Green Springs before I got involved.”

“Sounds like a place you go to die,” Soph said.

I laughed. “You’re not the first to say that. Anyway, Nick is bankrolling a lot of the project, including the gala, and I thought you should know.”

“Nick, huh?” she asked.

“Uh-huh. Also, we slept together,” I added.

Soph blinked at me, slowly, as if it was taking great effort to absorb my words.

“That is way more than one confession,” she said. She reached for her drink and finished it. Then she raised it in the air and signaled to our waiter to bring two more. “And now everything is ruined because he is going to break up with you after three months, then you’re going to leave me—oh my god—I told you to stay away from him. Why didn’t you listen to me? Why doesn’t anyone ever listen to me?”

“Breathe, Soph,” I said. “For what it’s worth, our fling is over and I’m not leaving.”

“You’re not?” She sounded doubtful.

“No, I need to see this project through the gala at the very least,” I said.

“That’s two weeks away.” She reached across the table. “If you need a new place to stay, we’ll find you one. Please don’t leave, Annabelle. I feel as if your life here has just begun. You can’t leave.”

My phone buzzed, and I picked it up with an apologetic smile. If it was Nick, I didn’t want to miss him. It wasn’t Nick. I stared at my phone in astonishment.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“Oh, sure, I’m fine,” I said. I wasn’t fine. “The BD just texted that he’s blowing through Phoenix and wants to see me.”

Greg DeVane, ex-husband number two. It had been a few years since I’d seen him, and we hadn’t parted on the best of terms. Meaning I’d hauled his stuff to his mother’s house and let her deal with his five bass guitars, two amps, and a fish who wouldn’t die.

In my defense, I had just discovered that he was cheating on me, and I didn’t handle it well. After that, it was a swift visit with our attorneys and our marriage of two years was—poof!—over.