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“And that’s the only reason they bother you?”

I keep going before she can make anything out of it, explaining how I eventually found out the obnoxious neighbor was Zander Hale from Hollow North and how he somehow ended up in my chair at Black Fern for a custom tattoo.

Dani narrows her eyes. “Wait. Is this the same Zander whose band you made me listen to?”

“I didn’t make you listen to anything.”

“You sent me songs.”

“I sent you links. What you did with them was your choice.”

Paige laughs into her wineglass. “Ruby, that is absolutely the same thing.”

“This is exactly why I didn’t tell either of you.”

“No,” Dani says, pointing her fork at me. “This is exactly why you should’ve told us. You move north, acquire a hot musician neighbor, start sending us his music, and somehow decide none of that is worth mentioning?”

I take a drink of wine instead of answering. Both of them go quiet and just look at me, which is worse than the questions because they know I hate being waited out.

“Fine. We slept together.”

Paige nearly chokes on her wine while Dani slowly lowers her fork. “You buried that pretty damn deep in the story.”

“It happened once.”

Paige wipes the corner of her mouth with her napkin. “With the loud musician neighbor you supposedly can’t stand?”

“I don’t hate him anymore.”

“That is a very different sentence from he’s annoying,” Dani says.

“It still isn’t serious.”

Paige studies me. “Have you slept with him more than once?”

“No.”

“Do you want to?”

I look at her instead of answering.

She smiles. “That’s what I thought.”

I shake my head and reach for a piece of bread. “We decided it was a mistake.”

Dani leans back in her chair. “You both decided that?”

“Yes.”

“And since this mutual mistake?”

“We’ve mostly been getting along.”

Dani and Paige exchange a look.

“Getting along how?” Dani asks.

I tell them about dinner with his family. How I got dragged into the Hale house after giving Zander a ride to his dad’s shop. How his mother fed me, his brothers gave him grief, and Zander spent part of the evening walking around with his newborn nephew tucked against his chest.