Page 187

Dani reaches over and taps the cover of one book.

“This one is about a Jersey Devil cowboy and a second-chance romance.”

My head snaps up.

“Shut the fuck up.”

Dani grins.

“I swear.”

“A Jersey Devil cowboy?”

“Yep.”

“In New Jersey?”

“Obviously.”

I grab it.

“Give me that.”

The room erupts.

“She's one of us!” Finley announces.

“Wait until we get to the mating bite discussion,” Chiara says.

I stare at her.

“The what?”

Carolina lifts her glass.

“Welcome to book club, Layla.”

I look around at them.

Five women I walked into this room expecting to interrogate. Five women who walked in fully prepared to interrogate me. And somewhere between journalistic ethics, Ellie Vance, billionaire boyfriends, and a Jersey Devil cowboy, something has shifted.

We're not friends.

Not yet.

I'm still the reporter writing about people they love.

They're still deciding whether I can be trusted with those people. And maybe I'm still deciding how much I can trust them too.

But the line between them and me doesn't feel quite as solid anymore.

Tentative.

Unexpected.

But real.

I smile and hold up the book.