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I hate how that little bit of intimacy rankles.My love.But it does. And it spurs the next words out of my mouth. “We’d love to. Right, Reese?”

Reese, who’d already been angling back into her office, freezes. Her eyes go wide, her jaw tight.

But Neil must take her silence for acquiescence because he beams. “Wonderful. It’s a date. What better way to celebrate our early green light!”

Reese’s still wide eyes snap to Neil. “I’m sorry, your early what?”

“We’re coming in next week!” Neil says. “Did I forget to mention? We’re already checked in!”

“You’re always so forgetful, darling,” Kelly says, dropping a finger on Neil’s nose.

“That’s great news!” I exclaim, pulling a reddening Reese in under my arm. I can sense she’s about to blow, and half of me hopes holding onto her might keep it tamped down for a moment longer. But the other half of me is still so bowled over by what she just did for me, I’m not even as worried as I should be. “Could you maybe give Reese and me a minute to talk logistics before we do this little walk-through?”

“Yes, of course,” Neil says. He takes Kelly’s hand and slips it into the crook of his arm, and I have to look away.

“We’ll try that sous vide the Scot was just telling us about.”

The moment their backs are turned, Reese practically shoves me into her office, slamming the door shut behind us. Any semblance of empathy is long gone.

“Eli.” She grips her fist between us, and for a moment, I think she’s going to hit me. But she just presses her fist against her forehead. “What the hell was that? Did you know they were starting early? And how could you call that great news?!” She turns as if she can’t stand to look at me, her hands on her forehead, elbows up.

But I don’t care about the show. Not right now. “You covered for me,” I say, unable to keep the grin off my face.

She whirls around. “No.”

“Yeah, you did.”

“No, I mean don’t do that…smilingthing.”

I grin wider.

“No! You don’t get to be happy right now. You should be thinking about how you’re going to turn this situation around, tell them that it’s all a big misunderstanding. We’re not together, and I’m sure as hell not going to dinner with all of you tonight as if we are.”

“Reese, why did you do that?” I ask, ignoring her protests.

She ignores me back. “When did you tell them we were together? Was it when Neil called you today? Or have you been talking to Kelly, telling her all about—”

“No,” I interrupt, my smile gone. “It hasn’t been an elaborate lie, Reese. It was an impulsive thing I said when I ran into her for the first time after not seeing her for years.”

“You told them six months ago,” she whispers. “You had six fucking months to correct something you shouldn’t have done in the first place, and you tell me—”

I lean back against the door. “You don’t have to tell me how badly I fucked up.” Any good feelings I had about her not throwing me under the bus out there are like vapor now.

“No. I don’t. But you need to tell me the truth. What happened? Why did you say it?”

“Because I was at our fucking storage locker, dealing with everything I hoped our life would be,” I bark.

She’s silent, waiting for me to continue.

I grit my teeth. “That locker was filled with the furniture from our house. And you know, I didn’t care about most of it. But there was some stuff—”

My throat goes fucking tight.

“There was a crib in there, Reese. A rocking chair. Baby furniture I’d collected and didn’t even tell Kelly about because I knew it’d freak her out. All I ever wanted was to be with her…to have a fucking family. I gave her everything, and she tossed it all out like it meant nothing. And when I had to go back and deal with the shit I knew I hadn’t let go of, she was fucking there. With Neil, who I want to fucking hate but can’t. I couldn’t tell her I hadn’t moved on, Reese, I just couldn’t. So I ran my mouth off. Told her I was happy. I’m sorry you were the person I thought of when I came up with that tall tale.”

She blinks. She wasn’t expecting any of that.

“You’re right. I should have told you ages ago,” I continue. “And yeah, I shouldn’t have told them in the first place. But there it is.”