Noah held her a moment longer and then pulled back. “Call me if you need me.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “I will.”

“I mean it.”

“I know.”

He studied her silently for a beat, searching her face. “I’ll pick you up at six.”

They were silent as he gathered his things. She watched, frozen in place, as he slid his laptop into his backpack. As he swiped his car keys from the counter.

He was reaching for the door when she finally found her voice. “Noah.”

He turned.

“I mean it. Thank you.”

His smile was as reassuring as his words. “What’re friends for?”

Alexis waited until she heard his car back out of her driveway before heading upstairs to shower and get ready for work. A half hour later, she lured Beefcake into his cat carrier. It was just after seven when she pulled into the alley behind ToeBeans. This was late for her, even for a day when she didn’t open the shop. But Jessica and Beth had things well in hand when Alexis walked in. A line stretched from the counter to the door. Alexis quickly donned an apron and joined Jessica at the counter while Beth filled a customer’s latte order.

Jessica looked over from the cash register and did a double take. “Whoa. You okay?”

“Fine,” Alexis lied. She turned to the woman who’d just moved to the front of the line. “Good morning, Mrs. Bashar. How’s little Max doing?”

Max was a calico kitten that Mrs. Bashar had adopted just a couple of weeks ago during one of ToeBeans’ adoption events. The woman grinned and dug out her phone. “Oh, he is just the sweetest little thing.”

She turned around her phone to show off a photo of the kitten sleeping on her husband’s chest.

Alexis laughed. “And to think your husband didn’t want another cat.”

“The tough guys always have the softest hearts,” Mrs. Bashar said, returning the phone to her purse.

Alexis quickly filled the woman’s normal order, promised to stop by her yarn shop up the street soon, and then fell into the wonderful routine of the morning rush hour. It would last until at least eight o’clock, when it would finally slow down just long enough to restock the pastry display before the next wave hit.

At precisely eight fifteen, Alexis served the last customer in line and then went into the kitchen to load up on more muffins, scones, and apple turnovers.

The swinging door flip-flapped behind her, and before she had time to turn around, Jessica’s voice echoed against the stainless-steel appliances. “What’s going on?”

Alexis pulled a tray of muffins from the tiered cart against the wall. “Nothing. Why?”

“First you ran out of here last night like you’d just seen a ghost. Now you come back in looking like, well . . . like shit.”

Alexis set the tray on the counter. “Gee, thanks.”

“What’s going on? And don’t even think about pretending you’re fine. I know you better than that.”

Alexis paused, her hands hovering over the muffins. Jessica did know her. They’d been through hell and back together. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“Try the beginning.”

Alexis planted her hands on the edge of the counter and let out a long breath. Words tumbled out with it. “Noah spent the night at my house last night, and I think I found my father.”

Alexis might’ve laughed at Jessica’s openmouthed expression if the entire situation weren’t causing actual heart palpitations. Jessica closed her mouth, swallowed, and blinked several times.

“So, okay,” she said. “We’re going to get back to the Noah thing, but first things first. What do you mean about your father?”

Alexis returned to the task of transferring muffins from the tray to a bakery display platter. “That girl last night. She says she’s my sister and that my long-lost father is apparently dying and needs a kidney transplant.”

“And you believe her, this girl?”

“I don’t have any reason not to, at this point. We have the same eyes, and someone named Elliott sent flowers to my mom’s funeral. It all adds up so far.”

The pinch of Jessica’s eyes forecasted an incoming storm. “Where the hell has he been all your life?”

“I don’t know.” Alexis tasted the sour tang of betrayal at the back of her throat. “I don’t know if he knew about me.”

The words stung. Was it possible her mom hadn’t even told Elliott that she was pregnant back then? Would her mother have done something like that? Would she have purposely denied Alexis her own father?

Alexis shook her head to clear away the thought. No. Her mother would never have done that. The only thing that made sense was that Elliott had simply told her that he wanted no part in Alexis’s life because he was about to marry someone else.

Jessica moved closer and softened her voice. “This all feels a little too coincidental, though. This girl just happens to find you through some ancestry DNA test when he needs a kidney?”

Alexis’s stomach fired a warning shot. “What are you suggesting?”

“Your face was all over the news last year. Maybe . . .” Jessica shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe this is just some twisted joke or something.”

“No one is that cruel, Jessica.”

“I don’t even know how it’s possible that you of all people can still believe that.”

Alexis shrugged. “I try to assume the best about people until they give me a reason not to.”

“Which is why you are a way better person than I will ever be.”

Alexis shook her head and shoved the platter aside to make room for another. “Anyway, Candi said she took the DNA test three years ago.”

Tiny bolts of lightning flashed in Jessica’s eyes. “Are you kidding me? And she just came to find you now that he needs a kidney? You’re not a farm for harvesting.”

Alexis winced and looked away.

Jessica immediately softened her tone. “I’m sorry. That was . . . I shouldn’t have said that.”

“It’s true, though, isn’t it?”

Jessica chewed on the corner of her lip, a sure sign that she wanted to ask an impertinent question but wasn’t sure if she should. A moment later, she let out a breath and blurted it out. “What if you’re not a match?”

“I don’t know.”

“What does Noah think?”

Alexis’s cheeks burst into flames.

Jessica tilted her head. “Maybe we should talk about the spending-the-night thing now.”

Alexis walked back to the tiered cart to get another tray of muffins. “I was upset last night, and he said he didn’t want to leave me alone. It wasn’t really that big of a deal.”

“Then why are you blushing?”

“I’m not.”

“So he spent the night and just left this morning and nothing happened?”

You matter, too, Alexis. The sound of his voice came back, and with it, the tingling in her knuckles where his thumb had caressed her.

“I don’t know,” she said quietly. “I think . . . he looked at me, and I—” Alexis groaned and covered her face with her hands.

“And what?” Jessica prompted.

“I think maybe he was looking at me. Like looking looking at me. But what if I was wrong?”

Jessica laughed. “I guarantee that you were not wrong. He’s been looking at you for a long time. You’re the only one who doesn’t seem to notice.”

Alexis lowered her hands and focused on the muffins. “It doesn’t matter. It can’t happen.”

“Why not?”

“It could ruin our friendship forever.”

“Not possible.”

“Noah is one of the best things in my life. I can’t lose that.”

“The best love affairs start as friendships.”

“But that friendship is way too important to risk.”

Jessica rested her hand on Alexis’s arm. “Maybe he wants to take the risk too.” At her silence, Jessica backed up. “You deserve to be happy, you know.”

“I am happy.”

Jessica tilted her head like she didn’t believe it. “Can I ask you something else?”

Alexis managed to nod.

“What if you are a match?”

Alexis didn’t answer and probably didn’t need to.

There was no point in trying to pretend that she hadn’t already made up her mind.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Lexa’s house was the physical manifestation of her. The sunny yellow siding and white shutters reminded Noah of a cottage on Cape Cod. She’d decorated the wraparound porch with wicker chairs and bright pillows, and, at one end, a swing that he’d helped her put up at the beginning of the summer. Afterward, they’d sat on it side by side and shared a Summer Shandy until the fireflies began to light up the willow tree that draped lazily in the front yard.

She had recently swapped the summery pillows for deep fall colors and fluffy blankets. Pumpkins, gourds, and pots of mums descended the porch steps in an artfully casual way that was probably unplanned. That was the magic of Alexis. Without even trying, everything she touched was beautiful.

Except for the demon staring out the window beneath a sign that read BEWARE OF CAT.

Beefcake followed with his eyes from the window as Noah walked up the porch steps shortly before six and knocked on the front door. The cat slowly lifted one leg and started licking his nonexistent balls. Noah had never been so summarily dismissed yet threatened in his entire life.

“It’s open,” Alexis called faintly from inside.

Noah walked in slowly, cautiously, eyes darting left and right for an ambush.

“I’m in the kitchen,” she said.

As he passed the living room on the left, Noah glanced at the couch. Beefcake was nowhere to be seen. Noah gulped and did a fast sweep of the room and the hallway with his eyes.