Izzy led Priya back down the stairs and turned to take her to the kitchen.
“What’s this room?” Priya said, standing outside the doors to the library.
“Oh. That’s off-limits,” Izzy said.
She hadn’t sent Priya pictures of the library. She hadn’t even told her about it. For some reason, it felt like the library was a private thing, between her and Beau.
Priya let out a dramatic sigh but thankfully didn’t object. “Fine, fine, you’re living in an enchanted house, with lots of mysterious doors, and some of them lead to magical wings or secret gardens or buried treasure, I get it.”
They walked down the long hallway to the kitchen as Priya looked intently at the art on the walls.
“Where are we going now?” she asked. “To the pool?”
Izzy laughed. “The pool is after this, but first I’m taking you to the kitchen. There’s usually something delicious in there, and I know you’re probably hungry, so—Oh! Hi!” Beau and Michaela were both at the kitchen table, in front of Michaela’s laptop.
“Hi,” Beau said. He was wearing…jeans? She’d never seen him in anything but sweatpants before. Okay, or his swim trunks, that one time, but she tried not to remember that.
“Hi, Izzy,” Michaela said. “Beau said you’d bring your friend by today.”
Izzy turned to Priya, who didn’t even disguise the triumph on her face.
“Michaela, Beau, this is my friend Priya. She’s another editorial assistant at TAOAT, in town for a wedding. Priya, Michaela and Beau.”
Michaela and Beau stood up.
“Nice to meet you, Priya,” they both said.
Priya almost skipped across the room to shake their hands. “Nice to meet you! Thanks for taking care of our Izzy, so far away from home.”
“It’s been my pleasure.” Beau smiled at Izzy, then turned to Priya. “Um. Where’s the wedding?”
“The Four Seasons,” Priya said. “It’s apparently right by the beach? Though it seems like there’s a lot of stuff right by the beach here, given what I saw on the drive from the airport. And the weather! It’s incredible for March. There are so many flowers already blooming!”
Michaela smiled. “March in Southern California isn’t like March in New York, that’s for sure.”
Beau looked over at Izzy, a glint in his eyes. “You should make sure to take Priya outside, show her the orchard.”
“There’s an ORCHARD?” Priya looked back and forth from Beau to Izzy.
Beau laughed. “That’s what Izzy said, too. More or less.”
Izzy laughed as she remembered the tour Beau had given her at the beginning. “More or less,” she repeated, and they grinned at each other.
Michaela stepped over to the kitchen island. “Priya, would you like some chocolate cake?”
Priya beamed at her. “I would love some chocolate cake, actually! It’s probably going to spoil our dinner, but I don’t care. Where are we going, Izzy?”
Beau’s eyes snapped to her. “Oh, you’re going out to dinner tonight?”
Izzy nodded. He had that weird, blank look on his face again.
“Yeah, to a Mexican place downtown. Didn’t I tell you?”
He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Oh my God.” Everyone in the room looked at Priya. “This cake. This cake is incredible. You told me about the pool, and the bathtub, but not the cake. Is there just cake like this here, all the time? You have to go back to New York in what, a week? How are you going to survive?”
Beau turned away and sat back down. Okay, maybe he’d had enough of Priya. Though, to be fair, he’d been a lot nicer to her than Izzy would have guessed. And a lot nicer than he’d been to Izzy when she’d gotten here.
“Speaking of the pool,” she said. “Let’s go outside. You can finish your cake as I show you the gardens and the pool. And the orchard.” She smiled in Beau’s direction, but he didn’t look at her. She took Priya’s arm and steered her firmly toward the kitchen door. “See you later, Beau, Michaela. Thanks for the cake.”
Priya was subdued—for her—during the tour of the gardens and the pool. It wasn’t until they got back to the car and were on their way down the hill that she exploded.
“OH MY GOD.”
Izzy grinned. “Great house, isn’t it?”
Priya let out a high-pitched noise. “House? The house? You think I’m talking about the house? Yes, yes, the house is lovely, that is not what that OH MY GOD was for. Isabelle Marlowe, WHEN are you going to jump that man? Or have you done it already? Tell me you’ve already done it, and you just haven’t told me.”