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“There are people coming in,” he said.

Great. Now I was going to have Ryan’s caginess in the back of my mind throughout this whole appointment.

“We’re not done with this conversation,” I hissed. “Meet me at my house at four.”

Jake wouldn’t be home yet and Grandma would be napping.

This was what my life had come to—talking to a dead guy in secret when my boyfriend was at work and my grandmother was sleeping.

Maybe I was a little dull.

Then again, I’d spent the morning hopping a fence.

ELEVEN

I spentthe entire day worrying over what Ryan was thinking or doing or not doing.

So much so that I showed the Fishers bespoke inlay cabinets that were out of their price range and of course they fell in love with them. It was a major screw up. It’s like showing a bride a wedding gown thousands of dollars over her budget and then nothing in her price range will ever make her happy ever again.

Claudia wasn’t exactly happy with me and I felt terrible.

It left me stressed and staring at Ryan with my hand on my hip. I was shocked that he actually showed up at the appointed time since I appointed it and he didn’t like to be told what to do.

“What is going on?” I asked Ryan, who had an indecipherable look on his face as we stood in my kitchen. “You need to tell me.”

“See, that’s where you’re wrong because if I tell you you’ll be mad at me for telling you.”

That was not improving my mood.

“I’m getting mad at you fornottelling me.”

“Then this is a lose-lose situation because I’m telling you, you’ll be mad if I tell you. More than if I don’t tell you.”

“Just tell me!”

Ryan sighed. “I saw Marner hiding an engagement ring.”

That brought my irritation to a screeching halt. “What?”

“And before you get all pissy about me hanging around when I’m not supposed to be, it wasn’t my fault. I was waiting for you to get home yesterday and he was supposed to be at work and…I saw the ring.”

“Oh my God,” I breathed, excited and thrilled and suddenly nervous. “You know what this means, right?”

“Uh…I think so? He’s going to ask you to marry him. That seems kind of obvious.”

“No! It means that I have to look cute every single minute from now until P Day.”

“What the hell is P Day?”

“Proposal Day. It could happen at any time so I have to be ready 24/7. Nails done, hair can’t be frizzy.” I glanced down at my outfit. “I can’t wear yoga pants or sweats ever again! I’m not the kind of girl who can handle getting proposed to while wearing workout clothes when I don’t even workout!”

“What the hell are you even talking about? You sound nuts. See, this is why I didn’t want to tell you.”

“Oh my God, he’s not going to propose on my birthday, is he? I don’t want that. That doesn’t feel special to me. It’s my birthday, not the day I got engaged. Get engaged. Did he say when he’s doing it?”

“Out loud to himself in an empty room? No. Of course not.”

My head was spinning. Another thought occurred to me. “Is it a good ring? Something I would like?”