Maddie talked to her mom about almost everything, but she hadn’t told her about Theo. She’d told her mom about a number of guys in the past, and even introduced her to a few when they got serious enough. But it seemed pointless to tell her about Theo. This wasn’t that kind of relationship. They didn’t even like each other!

Granted, she’d thought about telling her, almost every time she’d talked to her mom in the last month, especially since she couldn’t tell Alexa, the person she did tell everything to. Sometimes she felt like she’d burst if she couldn’t share this joke—that she was sleeping with Theo Stephens, of all people!—with someone. Or tell someone how nice it was to be sleeping with a guy who didn’t seem to want or need all of the other bullshit men always wanted from her—parties, meeting their friends, all the big showy stuff she always dreaded. All she and Theo did was eat takeout on his couch, watch TV, and have great sex. It was heaven.

It was too good. There was no way they could keep going on like this. Hell, she was certain their thing wouldn’t even last until the wedding, but she’d ride it out as long as she could. She just had to pray she could trust Theo not to tell Alexa.

So, therefore, she absolutely couldn’t tell her mom.

“No, Mom. There’s no one you need to know about.”

Would her mom give up? She was betting no.

“What about that Theo, Alexa’s friend? You’ve mentioned him a few times recently. Is there anything . . .”

Shit. This is what happened when you talked to your mom too much. You accidentally kept mentioning the guy you were keeping a secret from everyone.

“Oh God no, Theo and I have nothing in common. We’re just both in Alexa’s wedding party, and you know Alexa. There’s all sorts of planning that needs to be done already.”

Maddie mentally apologized to Alexa for maligning her that way. So far, they’d barely discussed the wedding, other than a few conversations about location.

Her mom sighed.

“You haven’t met anyone else interesting, huh?”

“Where would I find the time to meet a boy?” Maddie asked her. “Plus, I’ve given up on men—they all think I’m going to be some party girl when they start dating me, because of how I look and dress, but then they get to know me and discover I have a personality and ambitions and am actually kind of a homebody, and they freak out. I thought about changing the way I look and dress to make it clear who I am, but fuck that. I like the way I look and I like my clothes. I don’t want to change that for a man.”

Her mom laughed.

“I’m with you there.”

Maddie grinned.

“Speaking of, mom, how’s your love life going?”

Her mom huffed.

“Madeleine. We are talking about you right now, not me!”

Maddie laughed. Her mom hated when she tried to get information about her dating life out of her, even though she pried into Maddie’s constantly.

Watch, she’d change the subject back to Maddie now.

“Anyway. Maybe you’ll meet someone good at Alexa’s wedding. Drew must have some smart doctor friends.”

Maddie smiled to herself. Alexa certainly had some smart—and talented—friends herself.

“The wedding’s not for a long time,” she said.

Chapter Nine

“I’M SO GLAD I TALKED YOU INTO THESE CHAIRS.” MADDIE LAY BACK IN one of Alexa’s backyard lounge chairs and sighed in contentment. Alexa was in the chair next to her, separated by a table just big enough for their bowls of chips and salsa and cans of fizzy water. Their original plan had been to go shopping that day, but the Bay Area was experiencing one of its rare spells of over-eighty-degree weather, so Alexa had called an audible and they’d changed their plans to a day of sun and relaxation. Maddie had come over with chips and salsa in her bag, and her bikini on underneath a caftan, to find Alexa filling up the kiddie pool in her backyard. They’d been in the lounge chairs ever since.

Maddie looked at their cans of fizzy water and frowned. They were missing something.

“You know what we need,” Alexa said. “Margaritas. That’s what we need.”

It was useful to have a best friend who could read your mind at times like this.

“Hard agree,” Maddie said. “Isn’t this why you have a man around now? So he can make us fruity cocktails on short notice?”

Alexa nodded.

“That is certainly one of the reasons, but unfortunately, the man I keep around is working all afternoon. Do you think I can call him at the hospital and tell him it’s a margarita emergency and he’ll come running? Should I try it?”

Maddie shook her head.

“I’m guessing it won’t work, unfortunately. Though if I know Drew well enough by now, you should do it, just to make him laugh.”

Maddie looked over at their quickly depleting supply of chips and salsa. Come to think of it, they could also use some guacamole, and maybe even some queso if they were going to keep up their strength.

“I don’t know how we’re going to make it, Lex,” she said. “Sunshine and snacks and even a kiddie pool, but no margaritas?”

“I have rosé,” Alexa said half-heartedly.

Maddie shrugged.

“We can live with rosé, I guess. Is it cold?”

Alexa shook her head.

“No, I’m sorry. I’m a failure. Why didn’t I think to put rosé in the fridge last night?”

Maddie gasped dramatically.

“I can’t even believe you. Not to mention that these are the last two cans of fizzy water. Does someone have to go to the store?”

Alexa sat up and reached for her phone.

“I have an idea.” She fired off a text. God only knew who she was texting, but Alexa had connections everywhere, so Maddie didn’t even ask.

A few minutes later, Alexa’s phone buzzed.

“Excellent,” she said. “Theo’s on his way. He’s going to make us margaritas.”

Maddie snapped her head around.

“Theo? He’s coming here?”

Alexa lay back in her lounge chair and nodded.

“Yes! He makes amazing cocktails—you have no idea.”

Oh, she had an idea, all right.

Alexa sat up and turned to her.

“It’s okay that he comes over, right? I know you two have had your differences, but I figured you’d be a fan of delicious margaritas that come straight to this backyard.”

Maddie had never told Alexa exactly what Theo had said to her that first time they’d met, other than to say she thought he was a pompous jerk. It wasn’t so much that she’d wanted to protect Theo; to the contrary, she just hadn’t wanted Alexa to get furious at a coworker on her behalf. She knew how much Alexa loved her job, and she hadn’t wanted to get in the way of that.

And now, well, there were so many more layers to her relationship with Theo that would make this awkward.

“Sure, it’s no problem,” she said. “The margaritas had better be as good as you say, though.”

Plus, she very well might enjoy seeing Theo see her in this bikini.

“Tell him to stop at the store and get us some guacamole while he’s at it.”

Alexa laughed and grabbed another chip.

“Theo would never stop at the store to buy us guacamole. He would go there to get avocados and then painstakingly make the guacamole in my kitchen. I adore him, but he’s a bit of a perfectionist that way.”

Hmm, Theo certainly was a perfectionist in other ways that mattered, too . . .

Maddie hid her smile from her friend.

When Alexa went inside to the bathroom, Maddie took the opportunity to pull out her phone. She was pretty sure she’d have a text.

Yep, she was right.

Playing with fire, are we?

She laughed at Theo’s text and texted him back.

It was Alexa’s idea! She said I had no idea what amazing cocktails you make. I almost died

She and Theo hadn’t been together around Alexa since the engagement party. Well, it would be good practice for whenever all the wedding stuff happened.

I guess that’s a challenge—get ready for the best margaritas you’ve ever had. Do you need me to get more fizzy water, too?

Maddie suppressed her grin at her phone as Alexa walked back outside.

“But speaking of guacamole, let me see if Theo can pick up some more snacks. You’d better prepare yourself for some shop talk; Theo’s pretty consumed right now by this campaign he’s working on. I’m going to try to get him to relax, though; I told him to bring a book. It’ll probably be something about history or basketball.”

Maddie lay back in her lounge chair and smiled as the sun hit her face. She was outside in the sun with a good book and her best friend, the guy she was secretly sleeping with was on his way over with snacks and margarita fixings, and she was at least eighty percent sure this meant she was going to have sex later tonight.

She looked down at her bikini.

Maybe ninety percent.