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“He likes you.”
“I couldn’t tell.” She laughed as Anthony tugged on the leash to get Lucky off of her.
“Sorry about that.”
She gave Lucky a few more strokes as she stood, noticing the heart-shaped white spot on his head. “He’s great.”
“We should probably get going. Maybe we’ll see each other again.”
“Maybe.”
Anthony gave a wave as he started down the beach and tugged on the leash, but Lucky kept trying to get back to Adelia. They laughed, and then Anthony stopped.
“Hey, what’s your name?” he asked.
She thought about giving him her real name but gave her grandmother’s first name instead. “Coraline.”
He smiled at her. “Nice to meet you, Coraline.”
“Cora is fine,” she told him.
“Okay, Cora. You can call me Tony.”
She continued on her run back to the Schultz’s lake house, thinking about Tony and his blue eyes and hair as dark as night. She wondered what it would be like to date a regular guy like him. She’d had bad luck dating fellow actors in recent years, and she was over those kinds of guys. There were good guys in California, but she hadn’t encountered them. She always ended up with the ones who seemed great at first, but were ultimately full of themselves, obsessed with their careers and status, and didn’t treat her very well. Maybe it was time to find a guy who was in no way associated with Hollywood.
Back at the house, Adelia got cleaned up for the day and was about to call her dad when Skylar and Merritt—Gus’s wife and one of Adelia’s best friends—arrived with take-out bags from Sunset Grill, the lakeside restaurant owned by the Schultz family, which was only a hop, skip, and a jump from the cottage.
Merritt set her bags down, walked straight to Adelia, and wrapped her up in a hug. “How ya holding up?”
Adelia shrugged. “I could be better.”
One thing she knew without a doubt was that her friends would help her get through this.
“You guys didn’t have to do this,” Adelia said as they moved the food to the table. Her stomach growled loudly, and the girls laughed. She hadn’t realized she was so hungry, but she’d barely eaten anything since last night.
“We could’ve walked over to the restaurant, but we figured it was better this way since you’re hiding out and all,” Skylar replied.
Adelia wished she could just go freely wherever she wanted. “I hate having to deal with the paparazzi. They were all over at the airport.”
“That’s what we were hoping to avoid.”
“I’m done talking about all this drama,” Adelia said as Skylar removed the contents of the bags. “I want to talk weddings.”
The mention of weddings perked them up. Both Skylar and Merritt were on their way to the altar with the men of their dreams, and Adelia was ecstatic for them.
Merritt and Gus were technically already married from a fake marriage arrangement that became real. And Skylar had been engaged for all of two days, but Adelia was sure she already had plenty of ideas about her wedding to Franky. She’d only been dreaming of marrying him since she was thirteen years old.
“I think Franky and I are going to get married next fall,” Skylar said. “That gives us a year. I would get married tomorrow, actually, but I don’t want to rush the planning. I think we’re having the wedding at the winery.”
“Of course, you are. It’s your place,” Adelia said. “And you guys are having a Christmas wedding, right?”
Merritt nodded with a huge smile on her face. “The week before. Invitations are going out at the end of next week.”
“Are you excited?” Adelia asked.
“I know we’re already married, but I’m really excited to say those vows for real and mean them with all of our hearts. When I signed up for this, I never thought I would fall so hard or love him so deeply, but I did and I do. He’s everything, you guys.” She got a dreamy look in her eyes. “And he’s so sexy and so good at all the … well, you know.”
“No, Merritt,” Adelia teased. “All the what?”