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“Already did. Didn’t work out so well for me.”

Their server glanced between them, clearly unsure whether to laugh or back away slowly. Amanda took pity on her and gestured toward Grady. “Ignore him. He has issues.”

The young woman’s lips curved upward. “I’m beginning to see that.”

He looked offended as he gave his order, earning another grin from the server before she collected their menus and headed toward the kitchen.

Amanda watched her go, then turned back to find him studying her. “What?”

“You’re having fun.”

“I am not.”

“Liar.”

She opened her mouth to argue and stopped. The annoying man was right. Somewhere between leaving Aunt Edith’s house and assaulting the sheriff of Rockland County beneath a restaurant table, she’d forgotten that tonight was supposed to be about teaching him a lesson.

Worse, she’d forgotten about the people staring at her.

Amanda wrapped both hands around her glass and gave him a grudging smile. “Maybe a little.”

“I’ll take it.”

Thankfully, he said nothing more. He took another drink of his beer and glanced toward the bar when the band finished one song and started another. Several couples had migrated toward the small dance floor, and conversations and laughter blended with the music into a pleasant background hum.

When he turned back to her, his gaze dropped briefly to the rings on her fingers before meeting hers. “So, how did you end up in Los Angeles with books, a television show, and millions of people following everything you do?”

The question surprised her. Most people who knew who she was asked about the show first or wanted to know about celebrities she’d met, places she’d traveled, or how much money she made. He sounded more interested in how she’d gotten there.

“It didn’t happen all at once. I started a YouTube channel—Inspired by Amanda. Mostly decorating projects, crafts, recipes, organization tips, things like that. I wasn’t expecting much from it at first, but people started watching. Then one of my videos took off, and before I knew it, I had over a million subscribers.”

Grady froze, beer halfway to his mouth. “A million?”

“Wild, right?”

“Jesus.” He lowered the bottle. “More than a million people signed up to watch you decorate and cook?”

“And make things, organize things, turn ugly things into less ugly things...” She grinned. “But, yeah, basically.”

He gaped at her. “And here I thought getting half of Antelope Rock to agree on anything was an accomplishment.”

She laughed. “Trust me, getting a million people on the internet to agree on anything might be harder.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” He took a drink of his beer. “And then you branched out?”

“Yeah. I expanded to other social media platforms, and eventually, publishers started paying attention.” She paused when their salads arrived, thanked the server, and picked up her fork. “My agent thought I could turn what I was doing online into books. She shopped the idea around, we got an offer, and suddenly I was an author.”

“Suddenly?”

She snorted. “Okay, there were contracts, proposals, deadlines, editing, photography, and about a million other things in between. But compared to how long it took to build the YouTube channel, it felt sudden.”

He poured dressing over his salad. “And the television show?”

“Life, Restyled came later. A producer saw some of my videos and thought the same concept would work on television. One meeting turned into another, then a pilot, and eventually the cable show. Now I have one more goal—getting picked up by one of the major networks.”

“Sounds like you’ll get it—I'm surprised they're not knocking on your door already.” He cocked his head. “But you make the whole thing sound like a string of lucky breaks.”

“There was definitely some luck involved.”