A smile slowly spread across her face. She took a few steps into the apartment and ran her fingers along one of the shelves. “It’s a really great apartment,” she agreed, a wistful note in her voice. “You’ve thought of everything. I can’t even be upset about the money, because I know it’s not much to you.”

“It’s not,” he agreed, glad they weren’t going to argue about it.

“But I can’t take it.”

He frowned. “Why not?”

She gazed out one of the windows, and he heard her give a heavy sigh. “This place is so perfect.” She looked back at him, a rueful smile on her face. “You’re so perfect, too. But Bianca will have a fit.”

Bianca? Was she serious? “All the people who give a fuck about Bianca, raise your hand.” He made an exaggerated show of glancing around the empty apartment, and then looked over at Edie.

With an apologetic look at him, she raised her hand.

Magnus made an exasperated noise. “Seriously?”

“Seriously,” she agreed. “I’m so sorry. I know it isn’t what you want to hear. It isn’t what I want to tell you, either. But . . . I owe Bianca. I really do. She’s been so good to me, taking care of me since I hurt my knee.”

“Forcing you to depend on her, you mean.”

Edie shook her head. “No, it’s not like that.”

“It’s exactly like that. Your relationship with your sister is as needy and codependent as mine is with Levi,” he exclaimed. “Only thing is, I’m starting to figure that out about Levi, and you’re still defending Bianca. You don’t need her. You can live somewhere where you can have free rein of the house instead of the small portion that you can manage with your bad knee. You can take public transportation instead of waiting for her to drive you somewhere. You can have your own life.”

“I know,” Edie said, and she wrung her hands, looking distressed and unhappy. “And I want that. I want this place, and I want you, but I . . . can’t yet. For the last few years, Bianca has made her entire life about me. Helping me recover. Helping me with my business. Being at my side day and night if I needed her. She would view this as an utter betrayal, and I can’t do that to her.”

“So you’re choosing your sister over me?”

“Of course not,” Edie said, moving toward him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek to his chest. “I’m just choosing to ease her into things instead of surprising her overnight. Give me time to let her know we’re dating and we’re serious? Maybe she’ll get the hint and start exploring things on her own. You know if I move three hours away, she can’t be my assistant anymore.”

Good, he thought, but didn’t say it aloud. He wanted her disentangled from Bianca and her scheming. The less she knew about his part in their stupid games, the better. Because he’d started out willing to be duplicitous in order to get what he wanted . . .

Now? He wanted nothing but Edie, and he wasn’t about to let anyone stand in the way of that. Magnus put his arms around her and rested his chin atop her head. “So what do you propose I do with a cat-friendly sixteen-hundred-square-foot flat in Park Slope?”

“Move in?”

Magnus considered that. It wasn’t a bad idea after all.

Chapter Fifteen

“So what do you think of this color?” Gretchen asked, picking through a ring of swatches and then holding up one in particular. “This is called Venetian Mustard.”

“I think I will punch you in the face if you make me wear that color,” Edie said, dabbing her mouth with her napkin.

Gretchen beamed at her. “See, this is why I wanted to meet with you over colors instead of Chelsea or Greer. They’d just tell me that they loved it and whatever makes me happy, they love, too. They’re too nice.”

“So you needed a bitch to give you a real opinion?”

“Exactly,” Gretchen agreed, and held out her glass for the waiter, rattling the ice. “This mojito isn’t going to refill itself, you know.”

Edie sipped her cosmopolitan, reaching out to brush her fingers over the mustard-yellow swatch of fabric. Taffeta. Shudder. She shook her head again. “Absolutely not that color. Not if you value our friendship.”

“You know I do,” she sang out, pleased.

The two friends were having lunch at a small bistro near Hunter’s office. Gretchen had insisted on meeting in person instead of picking out colors online, and it had been a while since Edie had had lunch with her friend. Bianca hadn’t minded the drive, claiming she had shopping to do in the city, so here she was, having lunch with Gretchen and trying not to daydream about that wonderful little apartment Magnus was moving into even as she lunched.

Well, not little, she admitted to herself. Maybe little by Magnus’s standards, but sixteen hundred square feet was pleasant by New York City standards.

The waiter dropped off new drinks for both Edie and Gretchen, and they flipped through the ring of fabric samples for a few minutes, trying to decide on good color combinations. Gretchen had decided that she wanted a main color and a contrasting color, and their tastes were wildly different. And since Edie had been recruited for her opinions, she made sure that Gretchen knew them. As Edie batted away Gretchen’s newest suggestion of teal and pink, Gretchen took another swig of her drink. “All this bridal shit is beating me down and the wedding’s still a damn year away. By the time I finally go down the aisle, all you bitches are going to be knocked up. Did you know that Sebastian and Chelsea are hooking up? And Asher and Greer are fucking.” She shook her head. “I am either the world’s most fantastic matchmaker or you ladies are harder up than I thought. Speaking of, how are things with Magnus?

Edie blushed. “Going well.”

“Ooooh,” Gretchen purred, leaning forward with interest. “Look at that completely awkward stare on your face. Things must be going well indeed. Didn’t he adopt a cat to be around you?”

“Two, actually,” Edie said, feeling warm at the thought. Magnus came across as this total alpha businessman, but he was really a big softy, wasn’t he? She loved that. Then, the sad twinge that had been plaguing her for days set in. “He asked me to move in with him. Sort of. He bought a place in Park Slope that he wanted me to move into so we could be closer and I’d have room for my cats.”

“Aw! That is so totally adorable and utterly controlling of him,” Gretchen teased. “Sounds like something Hunter would do. So when is the moving day?”

Edie stared down at her drink. “I can’t. I have Bianca to think about.”

Gretchen’s eyes widened. “Why, are you guys in a threesome?”

“What? No!”

“Oh, good. Cause that’s kinda fucked up considering she’s your sister.” She sucked on her mixing straw for a moment, then gave Edie a curious look. “So why’s she stopping you guys from moving in together?”

Edie rubbed her forehead. Gretchen wouldn’t understand, either. She couldn’t stand Bianca, who she viewed as a moocher and a waste of oxygen. No one knew Bianca like Edie did. Selfless Bianca, who’d given up all her free time to tenderly care for Edie as her leg recovered, to drive her to endless hours of physical therapy and went to the store when Edie hurt too much to walk. Bianca, who had stuck by her side like glue ever since the accident. She wouldn’t repay that by ditching her sister the moment she fell in love . . .

She blinked, startled at the realization. She was in love?

Of course she was. It made sense. Magnus was perfect for her in every way she could imagine. He was thoughtful, funny, loved cats, didn’t mind Edie’s bitchy moments (and there were a lot of them), didn’t make her feel like an invalid, and gave her great orgasms. It didn’t hurt that the guy was her every girly fantasy wrapped into one smoking-hot package.