“Is that a . . . dog?” Jules frowned at my furry friend and ran a hand over her hair. The long blond strands were tied back in a messy bun, but despite the early hour and the haste with which she responded to my text she looked anything but messy. Even with a simple T-shirt on declaring I’m wearing my sassy pants.

“He has a name, you know.” I gave him a scratch behind the ears and put the brakes on my shopping cart until she could catch up with me. “Say hello to Elvis.”

She arched an eyebrow. “He’s not a hound dog.”

“Ha.” God only knew what he really was, though hound dog likely wasn’t it. A mix of brown curly fur, light blue eyes, oversized ears, and a Schnauzer-style mustache made up my new K9 BFF. I made a right down the next aisle, cart wheels thudding rhythmically over the grooves in the floor.

“Not that I mind the SOS, though I’ve gotta tell you Felix gave me a bit of side-eye about it, but I’m kind of missing the emergency.” She gestured around the pet store and to the growing pile of supplies already in my cart. “You seem to have this pretty well in hand.”

“Oh, this? This is not the SOS.”

We both ducked a little as another customer breezed by us, glancing anywhere but at them. I never really minded posing for a selfie or scribbling a signature for a fan, but right now I could use a few moments of peace to get my thoughts together. Between Elvis’s three baths last night to get rid of the dirt matted in his fur, subsequently cleaning the bathroom of that wet mess, and taking him out for frequent pee breaks, I’d gotten about zero sleep last night. Not that my mind would’ve really let me anyway. The Dani of the whole situation was making my brain feel permanently hung over.

Her eyes narrowed as her gaze swept over me. “Hair emergency?”

My hand immediately drifted to my messy locks. I was about a month overdue for a haircut, but I’d been enjoying the tousled look. “You wish you could pull off this effortless bedhead style.”

“Totally.” Absentmindedly, she gave Elvis a scratch under his chin, and I swear the little fool smiled at her, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. “Is this about the cater waiter from the gala?”

“Former cater waiter.” I shifted my shoulders, trying to shrug off the uncomfortable feeling that had settled on them. Dani wasn’t a subject I ever talked about. “Current bartender at The Blackbird.”

She immediately stopped scratching. “That seems like a bit more than a coincidence.” Her hand curled against her leggings, tucking into a fist. “You think she’s stalking you?”

“What? No.” Jules’s leap to the stalker angle wasn’t surprising given her recent encounter with her own, but luckily that wasn’t the issue here. I stopped, parking the cart between the dog food and kitty litter. “I’m just having a bit of a”—I waved my hand through the air, trying to find the right words—“hard time dealing with her reappearance.”

Another frown. “This seems like a conversation you’d normally have with Felix.”

“Yes, the two of us sit around talking about our feelings all the time.”

“I knew it.” Her grin dimmed a bit as she shoved my shoulder. “Seriously though, why me?”

I sighed and mumbled, “You’re the only one who knows about what happened with her.”

Her eye roll was emphatic. “Maybe the lot of you should sit around and have a chat about your feelings. Between what I’ve heard about Ian’s drama, Felix’s hermit issues, this, and don’t even get me started on Ben, you guys could probably put a therapist’s four children through college.”

I wagged a finger at her, from her feet back up. “I’m not sure I’m a fan of these sassy pants.”

“Please, you’re always wearing a pair of your own.”

An easy smile swept across my face. This is what I loved about Jules, she was always up for a good bit of verbal sparring. “So, let’s say your ex suddenly reappeared in your life.”

“That wouldn’t be much of a shocker since Erik and I are still friends.”

“Hypothetically, let’s say your ex mysteriously vanished without a word. Maybe he just disappeared and left you a fucking note that was like, Peace out, sorry I didn’t stay to say goodbye, and disconnected his phone and essentially dropped off the face of the planet. And then out of nowhere he just reappears in your life.” I blindly reached for the shelves. “Do you keep going and pretend like it doesn’t feel like there’s a goddamn bomb strapped to your chest every time he looks at you or do you avoid the place like it’s ground zero for the zombie apocalypse?”

We all, Elvis included, glanced at the back of the cart which was now overflowing with cat toys. His concerned stare rivaled Jules’s. Carefully, she picked them up and reshelved them. Even the one I was somehow still holding on to.

“You shouldn’t beat yourself up for still loving her.”

“I didn’t—” I shook my head and held up a hand. “No, I don’t. I definitely do not love her.”

She continued like I hadn’t even spoken. “It’s probably not all that different for her.”

“No.” My voice hardened as I bit out the word. “That’s where you’re really wrong. It was never the same for her. Ever.” A laugh popped out, sadder than I wanted it to be. “She never loved me.”

“How can you—”

“Because she never said it. Not when I said it to her. Not when she left. Never.” That time my laugh was nothing but bitterness. “I was such a stupid, naïve kid. You’d think I would have gotten the message, but no. I thought we were fucking soulmates. Soulmates. Like such a thing even exists.”

For a second she didn’t do anything but look at me, gaze roaming my face like she was looking for something specific. With a breath, she turned back to the other side of the aisle. “Did you pick out a collar yet?”

My mind tried to gain traction at the swift change of topic. “Uh . . . no, not yet.”

“I like this one.” She held up a thin leather one, then tossed it in the cart. “I think what you really need to ask yourself is, what is it that you want from her?”

I was getting whiplash from this conversation. Christ. I opened my mouth and closed it again, unsure what my answer really was.

“Do you want answers from her? Closure? Something more than that?”

What did I want? Did I really want to know why she walked away without a word all those years ago? Would the answer help me finally close that door on that part of my life or would it blow it wide open? It was hard to not want the more Jules was hinting at. Things between us had always been explosive, hotter than the finale of a Fourth of July fireworks show. But I didn’t need to see a therapist to know how epically bad of an idea that’d be.

Jules nudged me with her shoulder. “Until you figure that out, I think all you can do is what feels right. Go with your gut.”

I smirked at her. “Not follow my heart?”

She smirked right back at me. “Hearts are rarely reliable.”