“I know,” said Annie, ushering me into the apartment. “Ronan has a photo shoot with Adidas this week, so I thought I’d come along. We’re only back for a few nights. There’s so much to be done for the wedding so we can’t be gone long. A flying visit, really.”

“Oh well, I’m happy you’re here, even if it’s only for a little while,” I said.

I heard a cupboard slam and then my brother emerged from the kitchen. “There’s nothing to eat,” he grumbled before he saw me.

“Lucy, when did you get back from New Hampshire?” he asked as he came to give me a hug. I was stiff and awkward considering the fact I’d almost tumbled into the apartment, ready to do very naughty things with his archnemesis.

“Just yesterday morning,” I answered. “Broderick drove us back.”

My brother’s attention was quickly drawn to other matters. “What’s that smell? Did you bring food home? Please say yes.”

“Oh, yes, I did actually,” I answered and fumbled in my bag for the hot dog. Ronan yanked it straight out of my hand and dug right in.

“I shouldn’t be eating this.”

“It’s the offseason. You can have one hot dog.” Annie laughed, shaking her head at my brother.

“Man, why does fast food always taste so good?” he groaned.

“Because we all love the things that are bad for us,” Annie chimed in as she sorted through a folder full of travel documents.

Ronan winked and gave her a simmering look that I tried wholeheartedly to ignore. I loved my brother and all, but I didn’t want to know about his sex life, thank you very much.

“Where’ve you been, Lucy?” Annie asked as I went to sit down on the couch. “You look a little flushed.”

“I just came from Le Cirque,” I hurried to answer, wishing my pulse would slow down already. “I only had my phone with me, but I managed to get some decent pictures of Carly Stevens and Dean Newman heading inside for dinner.”

“Oh great, let me see,” she said, coming to plop down beside me.

I handed her the phone, pulling up the photo gallery and she began to scroll through. “These are good. We can definitely use them,” she said enthusiastically.

I was glad she hadn’t noticed the unusually high angle, but was prepared to tell her I’d stepped up onto a wall or something if she did. Yes, that was right, a big, manly wall made from pure muscle.

Glancing back down, I saw that she was almost to the end of the pictures I’d taken today, and if she scrolled any farther she’d come to the ones of Sean. The ones I couldn’t bring myself to delete for some strange reason. I swiped the phone from her hand more forcefully than necessary and jumped up from the couch.

“Well, I think I’ll go lie down in my room for a while,” I said, my voice jittery. “I’ll send these to your email if you want to write an article to go with them tonight.”

Annie frowned. “Are you feeling okay? You seem a bit off.”

I mustered a weak smile and joked. “Is that your way of telling me I look tired? I’m okay, just a little exhausted from all the traveling yesterday. We’ll hang out tomorrow.”

“I’ve got a stupid bloody strategy session with my publicity team early tomorrow, bunch of fuckwits. And then meetings with the Union managers for the rest of the day,” Ronan grumped.

Addressing me, Annie gestured to her laptop. “If you don’t have plans, I was thinking we could go over the schedule for the blog tomorrow? Readers responded well to your last article and if you’re interested, you could take on more of the posts.”

“Oh! Really?” This was huge, as Annie’s blog had thousands of followers, and it meant more responsibility. I was suddenly very glad I’d nixed sex with Sean-Adonis earlier in favor of following up on the Carl-D tip.

Jobs before Bobs!

“Yes, really. But you’ll have to develop your own pseudonym, online personality, the works. I have a meeting at my old offices, but we can start after lunch. It’ll take all day.”

“That works. I have to be at the animal shelter early tomorrow to help out for my shift, but I’m completely yours after that.” I nodded vigorously, then tried to play it cool by adding, “I mean, sounds good. Whatever you think is best.”

Annie was laughing again. “You Fitzpatricks are too cute.”

“Soon you’ll be a Fitzpatrick, too.” Ronan stepped behind Annie, sliding his arms around her waist.

“That’s my cue to exit.” I tossed my thumb over my shoulder and began walking backward toward my room.

“Okay, go hide.” Ronan waved me off. “But after the photo shoot on Friday, we’re going for dinner at Tom’s if you want to join us.”

“Yeah sure, sounds great,” I called back and closed my door.

Once I was alone inside my room, I exhaled heavily. I was still clutching my phone so tightly I was in danger of cracking the screen. That had been such a close call.

Unable to resist, I flopped down onto my bed and pulled up the pictures of Sean and me, admiring them like a twelve-year-old pulling petals off a flower and chanting, he loves me, he loves me not.

This wasn’t good. Not good at all.

Chapter Eleven

@SeanCassinova I much prefer the company of dogs to people. Dogs don’t get mad when you forget to do the dishes. Dogs > Humans

@EilishCassidy to @SeanCassinova Nope. They just lick your face and love you anyway. Remember Wolfie? I miss him.