Grace wasn’t supposed to be back for another two days. Her hectic international flight schedule was one of the many things that made her an ideal roommate.
The door handle turned, and Lacey tried to rearrange her face into something vaguely welcoming. At least she hadn’t been crying, so she didn’t have any bloodshot eyes to explain.
“Aha, it still works! Though you should talk to your co-op about changing the door code more than once a decade. Just to be safe.” Anna dragged a medium-sized suitcase into the room and let the door swing shut behind her.
Lacey blinked. Her expectations of the appearance of Grace’s navy and white pilot uniform was a distinct mismatch with the reality of Anna in a green tunic dress, tendrils of sweaty brown hair plastered to the side of her face.
Just Anna.
“Where’s Libby?”
“She’s having a girls’ weekend with Rachel.” Anna pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head. “Couldn’t get me into the Uber fast enough when she heard. I’m parched. Have you got some water?” Anna was at the fridge and opening the door before she’d even finished the question, pulling out a bottle and unscrewing it in one smooth twist. She gulped some back then held the bottle against one cheek. “Ah, that’s better. Nice robe, by the way. I’m starving. Can we have sushi for dinner? Or have you already eaten? I’m starved.”
Lacey squinted at her. Anna was in New York. By herself. “What are you doing here?”
“Well,” Anna stuck her head in the fridge, rummaged around, and emerged with a Diet Coke. “Given that I have spent the last nine months processing all the big feelings, it would seem I have developed quite the radar for them. So I’m here to help you with yours. Unless you have a therapist I don’t know about. Also, you didn’t call me back, and Emelia said you’d come home early. So here I am.”
She cracked open the soda can. “And, in case you hadn’t noticed, not only have I lost my favorite form of exercise, but I’ve also made an art of eating my emotions. So you’re going to need to stock this place with something a whole lot better than cottage cheese and petrified celery.” She opened a cupboard and stood on her tiptoes to peer inside. “Do you seriously not even have a chocolate stash? Oreos? Anything?” Her tunic lifted up to reveal a behind that was indeed more voluptuous than Lacey remembered.
“Tell me what you need, and I’ll get it delivered.” Anna’s grocery list was definitely a safe zone. “Or we could go out for dinner. There’s a great sushi place just a few blocks away that’s open til midnight.”
Anna closed the cupboard door, defeated. “Or we could get delivery and sit on your couch and talk about you. It is your turn, after all. And I would like to hear more about the man you love but haven’t kissed yet. Well, yet again. Unless you have now. In which case, I would like to hear about that.”
Just to give herself something to do Lacey picked up the belt to her robe and tied it around her waist. “I have spent, at most, a week with Victor. You can’t love someone you don’t even know.”
Anna kicked off her flats, leaving them where they landed before carrying her soda can to the couch. “You have a problem, Sherlock. You see, I spoke to Victor. Admittedly, it was for all of two minutes. But just from that, I could tell he knows you better than any other man has in the thirteen years I’ve known you.”
“That’s …” Lacey’s denial trailed off as Anna’s words registered. She’d constructed a wall when she left Small Harbor. Hadn’t let any man close since.
That was one of the reasons why the night she’d kissed Victor was so out of character. She wasn’t a woman who went around kissing random men at parties. No matter how attractive and charming they were.
Anna settled in on her couch, the very picture of a woman who wasn’t going anywhere without getting what she came for. “I’ve been meaning to ask. Does Emelia know about the first kiss?”
“No. I mean,” Lacey pivoted. It was easier to talk, get the words out, if she wasn’t looking at Anna for all of it. “I was going to tell her, but then the whole Sabine thing blew up. And there’s obviously no point now.”
Anna let out a low whistle. “I would’ve loved to be a