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“I have no idea what the hell you just said. But if that’s what’s going on, that’s not good.”

Maybe Ryan wasn’t even Ryan. Maybe James Kwaitkowski was right and Ryan was a demon. Did I believe in demons?

I wasn’t sure. I was sure that something was rotten in Denmark and its name was Ryan Conroy.

“It’s not. I’m not sure what to do about it. But if Jake does say anything to you about a birthday party, please let me know.”

“I’ve got you.”

“I’m going to go on the assumption the engagement is not a thing.”

“Are you okay with that?”

“I’m fine with that for now. We’re together and we have plenty of work to do on the house. Planning a wedding sounds exciting but also overwhelming right now. I’m brand new at this job and I already screwed up with a client. I need to focus on doing well and moving up the ladder.”

“Very mature. Very rational.”

“That’s me.” I grinned.

“Hey, can we go get ice cream?” Alyssa waved her hand in front of her face. “These bugs are driving me insane.”

“It’s almost full blown mayfly season.” Because spring couldn’t just arrive in all its pleasantries it also came with mayflies clinging to every screen and door on your house. “And yes, we can get ice cream. Do you want to walk to Mason’s? They have unique flavors.”

“That seems kind of far.”

“It’s like two blocks.”

“How do you define a block?” she asked, sounding outraged. “That’s like a mile, seriously.”

“Isn’t a block the distance from one major street to the next?”

“No. A block is a block. One street.”

“Fine. We can drive.” I was tired anyway. I glanced at my watch. “We did seven hundred steps.”

“That’s it?” Alyssa moaned. “I bet people a thousand years ago didn’t have to just walk around in circles to stay healthy.”

“No, they were moving from sunup to sundown just to survive, had poor dental hygiene, no understanding of medical science, and no antibiotics.”

“You should have been a lawyer.”

“That’s what my mother always said. She was wrong and so are you.”

“You wantme to stay at my dad’s for the entire weekend?” I stared at Jake, questioning any and everything I’d ever known about him.

“Or a hotel if you don’t want to stay there.”

“We don’t have the money for a hotel. Where is Grandma supposed to stay?”

Jake rubbed my upper arms and gave me a reassuring smile. “Your mom already said she could stay there.”

Now I was immediately suspicious. “You already talked to my mother about this? What is going on?”

“I told you. We need to have the asbestos tiles in the basement remediated. The minute we start doing work on my man cave we’re going to disrupt it and that’s super dangerous.”

“Why this week? We’re not working on the man cave yet. I thought you wanted to do that next winter.”

I was all for a man cave. It kept the leg lamp and the sports blankets in their appropriate place—away from me. I fully supported his plans to clean up the paneling, restore the built-in bar and decorate with banners and memorabilia. Plus, he wanted to add a workout room, because unlike me and Alyssa, he did actually exercise regularly.