Page 77 of Julian

And then, in the back, I spot Abby, already seated in a curved booth, one leg crossed over the other, a martini glass in front of her and another drink waiting across the table.

The second she sees me, her entire face transforms.

“Oh my God,” she says as I approach. “There she is.”

I laugh, sliding into the booth and unwinding my scarf. “Hi to you too.”

Abby’s eyes narrow immediately. “No. Absolutely not. Don’t you dare come in here pretending to be normal.”

“I am normal.”

“You went to the Bahamas with a billionaire and disappeared off the face of the earth for five days.”

“Three and a half,” I correct. “And thank you again for watching Beau for me.”

She waves off my gratitude and leans across the table. “Harper… I’ve been patient, I’ve been a dogsitter, I’ve been a friend who now deserves to hear every last detail.”

I can’t help smiling as I reach for the drink she ordered me. “What is this?”

“A peppermint espresso martini because it felt festive and because I figured you’d need hard liquor for this conversation.”

I take a sip and immediately groan. “That’s disgustingly good.”

“I know.” She points at me with her empty olive toothpick. “Now start talking.”

I laugh softly, shaking my head as I settle back against the booth.

Outside the windows, snow continues drifting past the glass in soft white streaks, the city a snow globe beneath it, but inside I’m warm and loose and strangely untethered in the best way.

Abby studies me.

“You’re glowing.”

“I am not glowing.”

“You are literally glowing. You’re radiating, Harper.” She sits back dramatically. “I hate this for me.”

I laugh again, but there’s no stopping the blush climbing into my cheeks because the truth is, I know exactly why she’s saying it.

The Bahamas changed things. Not just the relationship between me and Julian. It changed me.

For so long my life has felt like survival. Bills and schedules and responsibility and Dylan and constantly calculating how to hold everything together without sharing the burden or the toll it was taking.

But in the Bahamas…

For the first time in years, I stopped bracing. I let myself be happy.

And maybe that’s why everything is different now.

Abby watches me carefully. “Oh, this is bad,” she says with delight.

“What’s bad?”

“That face.”

“What face?”

“The face of a woman who is absolutely gone over a man.”