On Monday night we took Izzy trick-or-treating. We did the neighborhood thing, stopped by my mom’s, and ended up at Diane and Wally’s. Chase took Izzy out to see the race car while Diane made me a cup of tea.

“So you really are domesticated now, aren’t you?” she said with a laugh as she poured the boiling water over my tea bag.

I yawned. “I don’t know about that. I would definitely say we are in a honeymoon phase.” I smiled, then yawned again.

“He must be keeping you up nights. It’s barely seven thirty.”

“A little, I guess. I think all the back-and-forth has got me kind of worn out. It’s nice, though.”

“Just nice?”

“More than nice. It’s great. It’s so good I’m almost scared.” I spooned sugar into my tea and stirred.

Waiting for it to cool, I twirled the string from the teabag around the mug handle.

“I found another note.”

“Are you kidding me?” she asked. “What the hell’s his problem?”

I wrapped my hands around the mug to warm them.

“Who knows?” Preston had left a note on my car on Thursday. He hadn’t come inside Blondie’s, but twice now I’d found notes tucked under my windshield wiper when I left work. And there had also been that one text message.

“Do you think he knows about Chase?”

“Maybe. For fuck’s sake! He’s engaged. Besides, I told him it was over, and I meant it. And honestly, the more I think about it, the more I believe it was over for me long before then, but I was too stubborn to admit that I had wasted all that time. Is that crazy or what?”

Her face puckered. “Why are you even asking me if I think you and Preston were crazy? You already know the answer to that. So what did Chase say?”

“Are you kidding? I can’t tell him. He’d blow a gasket. If he thought Preston was hanging around, he’d be furious.”

“I can’t blame him.”

“Yeah, but I think he needs to trust me to handle it. Right?”

Diane poured a splash of milk into her tea and stirred it slowly, staring into her cup as she did. I waited while she raised the cup and took a sip.

She set the cup down and cleared her throat. A lecture was coming my way.

“Don’t take this the wrong way. You know I love you, but you’re a big flirt, Rain. Shit, I’ve caught my own husband patting you on the ass, and if he does it again, I might break his hand. But most of the guys we know are like that. I’ve seen the way some of them leer at you, and I’m sure Chase sees it too. Guys are possessive, and you’re his now. He doesn’t want someone looking at you like that.”

Even my best friend had no faith in me. “Diane!”

“I’m serious. Think about it. How would you like it if women were making obscene remarks as he walked by or flirting with him down at the gas station while he worked on their engines?”

I set my cup down slowly, pulled in a deep breath, and pinned her with a look. “I trust him. I wouldn’t think anything of it. In fact, I’d think it was a testimony to my excellent taste.”

“Bullshit. And besides, even if that were true, guys don’t think like that. They think with their dicks, and they beat their chests, and they know that every other guy is thinking the same thing they are. That’s why they get all macho and want to start pounding on each other.”

The engine of the race car started up outside, and I pictured Chase in the driver’s seat with Izzy in his lap. Diane stood and closed the door to block out the noise.

“Did you tell him about the photo shoots with Antoine?”

“Not yet.”

“Are you kidding me? Preston may have been okay with that shit, but I have a feeling Chase isn’t going to be on board. At all.”

“To be honest, I was thinking of giving it up anyway. I’m spreading myself way too thin lately. The extra money was nice, but I’m worn out. I’ve been sick twice already this year, and I feel like I’m coming down with something again.”

“Good girl. I can’t see him being okay with it.”

“When did you get so smart about men?”

“Since I regularly have a crew of them in my garage. And because my husband is a blabbermouth and tells me what they say.”

I remembered about how miserable Chase had looked Saturday night when he’d dropped me off at work in my bunny outfit, and how he’d eye me up before I’d leave for work at the bar, never saying anything about the way I was dressed, but always looking like he wanted to. “You think maybe I should tone it down a bit? You know, at Blondie’s?”

“Wouldn’t hurt. So should I plan on another person for Thanksgiving?”

“Actually,” I said a bit sheepishly, “Chase says his sister-in-law usually cooks dinner, and his mother will be coming in from Allentown, and he wants me to meet her.”

“Oh, fuck. You have to have dinner with Lorraine the Pain?”

I laughed. “Shh! What if Chase heard you call her that? I told him I knew Lorraine from school. I never told him she detested me.”

“Well, that sucks. Maybe you can come for dessert, then.”

I nodded and stifled another yawn. “Speaking of dessert, you have any cookies or anything? I’m starving.”

“No cookies, but I have a bowl of Halloween candy.” She went to fetch the bowl from near the front door and set it down on the table between us. I helped myself to a peanut butter cup. “Just promise me that now that you’re in a relationship and you’re all happy and shit, you’re going to get fat.”

I popped the candy in my mouth. “I’ll see what I can do to help a girl out.”

She snatched up a fun-sized Milky Way. “That’s all I ask.”