“But no pressure,” I mumbled.

“Wait, this isn’t your first kiss in general, is it?”

“No, I’ve kissed a few guys.” Not any in the last year, but enough before a year ago that I wasn’t worried about my ability.

“Good. So is there a close place you can pull him away to? A quiet, romantic place, preferably?”

“The broom closet?”

She was adding more details to her drawing. “Not a broom closet.”

“I was kidding.”

She looked up to see my expression. “Right. I always forget how sarcastic you are.”

“It’s a gift.”

“You have a different place in mind then?”

I had a different place in mind. The sitting area overlooking the ocean. It was closed in by trees and shrubbery, and as long as it wasn’t occupied by other guests, it would be an amazing spot for a first kiss. “I have the place.”

“Then the rest should be easy.”

I let out a single forced breath. “So easy. He’ll be in love with me before the night is over.”

“Plus, you’ll have sold all five of your paintings that night. It will really just be the best night of your entire life.”

“This is starting to sound more and more like a play.”

“Exactly.” She held up her finished drawing, like this summarized everything we’d talked about. And for some reason it felt like it did. I smiled, a surge of confidence jolting through me. Cooper and I were going to be together. It was fate.

TWENTY-SEVEN

I was tired. I’d spent the last four days at the museum with inventory and clearing and storing art and everything else we had to do to prepare for the show. And I’d spent every night with Lacey going over our game plan.

She’d taken me to pick the perfect dress—red, sleeveless, just above my knee, high waistline, with pleats and pockets—and we’d researched hairstyles. And most importantly, I hadn’t seen Cooper since Lacey and I had come up with the plan. I had a headache, but I was pretty sure it was from worry and not from my detox.

It was Friday night. The show was in two days. We were in Lacey’s room going over the final details of how Sunday would play out. I was sitting on her bed, which had more pillows than existed in my entire house.

She was surveying a shoe rack that took up one entire wall of her walk-in closet.

“What size shoe do you wear?”

“Eight.”

She pursed her lips. “You think you can squeeze into a seven and a half for the night? Because these are perfect.” She held up the shoes in her right hand. They were black peep-toe heels with red bottoms.

“I’ll be on my feet for at least four hours.”

“So that’s a no?”

“That’s a big no.”

“Fine. But you need to pick out cute heels. None of your comfy flats.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll go tomorrow.”

“Good. I wish I could go with you. I wish I could see this all play out. Maybe I should skip my latest LA audition.”

“You’re kidding, right? You should not skip the audition. You need to go and you need to get that part like I know you are capable of doing.”

She gave me a salute. “Yes, ma’am.”

I smiled.

“You’re good at giving pep talks, not so good at taking them.”

“Hey, I’m about to kiss Cooper my-best-friend-in-the-whole-world Wells on Sunday. Pretty sure I’ve taken an innocent pep talk to the extreme.”

“Well, I wouldn’t call my scheming an innocent pep talk, but I know what you’re saying. And you will be great. I know you can do it, even if I can’t be there.”

“I can. I will.” I put my fist halfheartedly in the air. “Ouch. My shoulder is sore.”

“From what?”

“We’ve been moving a lot of paintings around at the museum.”

She tapped her lips with her fingers. “I’ve been thinking. Is it too late to paint a special painting for Cooper? Something that would mean something to him that you could include in your display?”

“The show is in two days!”

“So that’s a no?”

I laughed. “Do you normally say things and people just make them happen?”

She looked up in thought. “Not all the time. But enough to spoil me. We’re good for each other, I think. You bring me down to earth and I make you dream big.”

Maybe she was right. Because she did have me dreaming big. She had me thinking that in two nights, I could make Cooper mine. “I actually already have a painting for him. I revamped a painting of him on his quad. I haven’t shown him the new version yet. I think he’ll love it. I was going to gift it to him after the show if it didn’t sell.”

“Perfect. Look at that. I said something, and it happened.”

I picked up one of her hundred pillows and threw it at her.

She caught it and twirled around like it was her new dance partner. Then she plopped it on the floor and sat on top of it. “So what are you going to do about his girlfriend? If she shows up to the museum with him, I mean.”

My smile melted off my face. “They’re not together,” I said, repeating what he’d told me. “They’ve only been out a few times. I don’t think he’ll bring her.”

“Okay, but if he does, you must steal him away from her to your secret location.”

“That will be awkward.”

“Remember, Cooper should’ve been yours a year ago. She is stealing him away from you. Think about the first time she met him. He was with you, and she didn’t have any problem flirting with him.”

“True.”

“Say it like you believe it.”

“True!”

A knock sounded at Lacey’s closed door.

“Come in,” she called.

Her dad poked his head in.

“Hello, Bill,” Lacey said.

“Hey, your mother and I are going to run to the store. You brother and sister are watching television. Can you just keep an ear out for them?”

“Yes, I can.”

“Thanks.” He left, leaving the door open this time.

“You call him Bill. Is that an I treat my dad like my peer thing or is that a my dad and I are distant and therefore I must call him by his first name thing?”

“That’s a he’s my stepdad thing.”

“Oh. That makes sense. Not sure why I didn’t think of that one first.”

She laughed.

“Is that why your brother and sister are so much younger than you?”

“Yep. Half siblings.”

“Got it. And your not-stepdad?”

“You mean my actual dad?”

“Yes.”

She threw the pillow back at me and I caught it. “He’s around. Since I’m seventeen now, I kind of get to pick when I see him. It used to be they had fifty-fifty custody. But it’s so hard to pack up my life for half a week. So now we mostly do meals together once a week, or I’ll stay with him for three weeks here and there.”

“Does he live close?”

“About an hour. And he’s not super enthusiastic about my career choice.”