“Oh, Ben. She won’t be disappointed in you. Life is a constant work in progress, you know that. There’s no being ‘done’ with any of this stuff.”

He looked at the ceiling.

“I guess I wanted to be done. For her to be proud of me. It feels like something is wrong with me that I’m not ready for this.”

He hadn’t planned to tell Anna this, not any of it, but now that he’d started, everything was pouring out.

“I think this would be hard for anybody, no matter how well adjusted they were, or how many years of therapy they’d done,” Anna said. “It’s a big deal!”

That made him feel better, that she thought it was a big deal, too.

“But . . .” Oh no. He didn’t want her to say “but.” “You said you think she’s trying to take Theo away from you.” Her voice was very gentle. “Why do you think that?”

He took a long breath.

“It’s been just me and Theo. Forever, it’s been just me and Theo. We watch over each other, we take care of each other—well, mostly he takes care of me, but I’ve had my moments—we take care of our mom. We always have. We irritate the hell out of each other constantly, but we’re always there for each other. A girlfriend is one thing, especially Maddie, because she’s great. A wife, fine, I can live with that, since I’m pretty sure that’s where they’re heading. That’s not a sibling. There is one person who has Theo as a brother; I am the brother to one person. I don’t want him . . . or us . . . to change.”

Oh God. Now Anna was going to think he was an asshole.

But her hand was still in his.

“Oh, Ben. Love isn’t a zero-sum game, you know. You don’t have to meet this woman if you don’t want to; you don’t have to invite her into your life. But one thing that I’ve known about you from the very beginning is that”—she slid her hand up to his chest—“you have a very big heart. And I know your heart could expand to embrace Dawn, and you would lose none of your love for your brother. And I saw him with you, I could tell how much he loves you—there’s no way that anything would make him love you any less. I’m certain of it.”

He took her face in his hands and kissed her softly on the lips.

“Thank you. That’s . . . I have a lot to think about, but thank you.”

She curled her body back against his.

“You’re welcome. And thank you for telling me.”

After a little while, he could tell by her regular breathing that she’d fallen asleep. But he lay awake for a long time.

Eighteen

“They’re all up in the dressing room,” Florence said to Ben when she let him into Anna’s house the following Friday morning.

“The dressing room?” Was that some sort of code that he didn’t know?

“I’ll show you,” she said.

They stopped at the door of what he’d just assumed was a guest room next to Anna’s bedroom.

“Oh. The dressing room,” he said.

Some people might call this room an enormous closet, but that would understate it. Clothes lined the room on all four sides, with breaks for floor-to-ceiling mirrors. One big corner had shelves just for shoes, and then another was full of purses. There were more racks and bins for things like sweaters and . . . ahh, that’s why Anna seemed to have on a different bra every time; it was like a whole lingerie shop over there. Damn, he thought he treated his sneakers well.

“Hi, Ben!” Anna said from a platform in the middle of the floor. She was wearing a black, very slinky dress that emphasized her curves and barely covered her breasts. One woman was kneeling at her feet, and her stylist was a few feet away, looking at her with a frown on her face. And, oh, excellent, there was Simon, scowling away in the corner.

Anna had told him that she’d be in the midst of a fitting for her premiere dress when he arrived, but he hadn’t realized just what a fitting like that would entail.

Ben cleared his throat.

“Hi. Is it my job to take off my jacket and sweep it over you if some of that fabric slips a little too far when we’re on the red carpet?”

Everyone in the room laughed. Well, everyone except Simon.

“That’s what the fitting is for,” Anna’s stylist said. “Don’t worry, she’ll be more covered up at the premiere.”

He hadn’t been . . . worried exactly, but he was relieved he wouldn’t have to live in fear of a wardrobe malfunction. And very pleased he’d gotten to see Anna in this version of the dress.

“That is, if I even wear this one,” Anna said.

“You should wear this one,” Simon said.

Anna ignored him and pointed to the corner.

“There are a few other options I haven’t gotten to try on yet; we’re figuring this out now. They have your tux, by the way, if you want to try it on.”

Ben dropped his bag by the door.

“Sure, why not?”

“Why not” was that he had a feeling that if he tried on his tux, the fitting would take even longer, and he was already frustrated that the first time he saw Anna after a week apart was in the presence of Florence, Anna’s stylist, whoever that other person was, and of course, Simon.

He hadn’t seen her since Sunday night, and while they’d texted all week, it wasn’t the same. He wanted to be able to kiss her hello, tell her how incredible she looked in that dress, ask her how her meeting with Varon had gone, and so many other things. That was partly why he’d come this morning instead of tonight after work, so he could spend more time with her. But he’d forgotten—or maybe hadn’t realized—how much went into being Anna Gardiner.

He should probably go over there and kiss her hello in front of all of those people so they could ooh and aah and then tell people about how cute Anna and her boyfriend Ben Something were, right? But it felt . . . wrong to do that. As much as he was fine with holding hands with Anna in public and acting just like she wanted him to, he appreciated that they still had their private whispers, so it felt like it was a big inside joke for the two of them. But he didn’t want to kiss her for public consumption, even just “public” for the people on her team.

Ben picked up the hanger with the tux on it and went into the bathroom to change. He felt sort of silly doing that, he was sure Anna was changing in the middle of the room, and all of those people probably saw men in various stages of undress all day. When he’d been a dancer, he’d gotten used to changing in front of a million people. But that was a long time ago.

When he came back into the room, Anna was in a different dress. Everyone turned to whistle at him. Even—he was shocked to see—Simon.