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“I know her well,” Becca said. “She’s my best friend.”

“I thought she grew up in High Springs.” Phoebe had just assumed, not knowing anything about her.

“Nope. Gainesville. She moved to High Springs for her teaching job.” Becca used the nearly empty pitcher to pour more beer into her glass, then into Jonathan’s. “Such a funny coincidence!”

Becca seemed poised to change the topic, but Phoebe felt an urgent need to continue talking about Arden.

“But—so, Becca, you’re really good friends with her?”

“Yeah, why?” Becca looked curiously at Phoebe as the rest of the group broke off into different conversations.

Phoebe hesitated. She didn’t want to cross some unknown line—what if Arden was a really private person? So she decided to keep things vague. “Is she dating anyone?”

“Pfft. No.” Becca held up an apologetic hand. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just, Arden is super-shy. She doesn’t date.”

“She doesn’t?” This did not line up with the image Phoebe had in her mind of a gorgeous, grown-up popular girl toying with Sam’s heart. And what about the guy she had alluded to?

Jonathan grabbed the empty pitcher for a refill.

“Not really, no. She tends to get hung up on guys who are out of her league. Not that there’s anything wrong with her. She’s beautiful, smart, sweet—all the things. She is just lacking in self-confidence sometimes. So I think she pins her hopes on guys who are unavailable so she won’t get hurt.”

Phoebe raised her eyebrows.

“I’ve known her forever,” Becca explained. “Some patterns become pretty obvious over time.”

But it wasn’t just how well Becca knew her friend’s patterns. It was how uncannily Arden’s issues sounded like Sam’s.

“We were sort of talking—we didn’t get into specifics, but she mentioned someone. Are you sure there’s no one she’s involved with?”

Becca looked confused. “Definitely not. I would know.” After a thoughtful moment, she added, “I mean, she’s had a very misguided crush on someone completely wrong for her. She acts like she doesn’t, but like I said, I know her very well. And that’s just the norm for her.”

“So she doesn’t usually go for, say, sweet guys?”

Phoebe was prepared to improvise some sort of explanation for why she was asking these probing questions, but Becca didn’t seem to mind. It seemed she’d had just enough alcohol to go with the flow of the conversation.

“Sweet guys? I wish! As her friend, there’s nothing I would like more. But no, the guys she likes are typically assholes. I think if she ever started dating a sweet guy, that’s how I would know she’d found the one.”

Phoebe suddenly wished her glass wasn’t empty. If Arden’s best friend thought Arden needed a sweet guy… and Arden herself had gushed about how sweet Sam was…

“Do you think she knows this? That she needs that type of guy and not her usual asshole type?”

“Oh yeah.” Becca rolled her eyes. “I’m basically her therapist at this point. I’ve told her she needs a nice guy, because she’s such a sweetheart herself, that’s the only way it will ever work out. I think if she ever works out her self-esteem issues, she’ll find the right kind of guy and settle down. That’s what she wants deep down, you know? She wants to settle down with the right man and start a family. She doesn’t love being alone.”

Phoebe stared at Becca, horrified. Sam hated being alone, too! Phoebe was starting to think she had made a huge mistake.

When Jonathan returned, he slid the refilled beer pitcher onto the table along with another vodka soda for Phoebe. “I noticed you were empty.”

Phoebe looked up and him and beamed. “Thanks.”

He sat next to her, and this time, Phoebe felt him scoot his chair even closer. She pressed her leg into his.

“Okay, people.” Becca was pulling a notebook and pens out of her bag. “The time has come. Who wants to make a fortune teller?”

There was a general cheer of approval as everyone lunged for paper and pens.

“I’d rather play MASH.” Phoebe winked at Jonathan.

One corner of his mouth lifted in amusement. “We can.”