Prologue
JULIETTE, FOURTEEN YEARS OLD
Ifell for Griffin Dupree back in the eighth grade.
Well, I fell for his voice anyway.
But it wasn’t until ninth grade that I declared to the world that I would marry him one day.
Fine. I declared it to one other person. But I also wrote it down, which everyone knows is the first step in goal-setting.
I was over at my friend Laney’s—my best friend for the past six months. Elaine Lannister, if we’re being technical. But call her Elaine—the name she inherited from her grandmother—and she’d demote you to acquaintance on the spot. So. Laney’s.
The next morning, I would move for the seventh time in four years. You’d think I’d be used to it by then, but I wasn’t. Goodbye had become my least favorite word. So, I decided not to say it this time. I’d let my absence do it for me.
Except for Laney. I couldn’t do that to her. Not after the way she’d claimed me on the very first day of school, and never let go.
As I braced for the impending heartbreak, I sat on the floor, atop a sleeping bag, doodling. Laney had alreadyfinished her list and set the notebook and pen on her nightstand. Now, she lounged in bed, absorbed by something on Instagram or TikTok.
She lowered her phone and looked down at me. “All right, Julie-Bean. Are you done yet?”
Truthfully, I’d finished my list fifteen minutes ago. The rest of the time, I’d spent doodling a border around the torn notebook paper. Tongue poking out, I filled in the last star and declared, “Done.”
“Oh-kay.” She picked up her notebook, knees bouncing. “Who should go first?”
“You.” It was an unspoken agreement that Laney always went first because she was two months older.
She grinned conspiratorially, squeezed her eyes shut, and held up her list.
I grabbed the paper from her. “Holy crap.” Her list had twenty-six items, including Get Invited to the Met Gala, Be Stalked by the Paparazzi, Get a Boob Job, and… “Make out with Harry Styles?” I frowned. “I thought you wanted to marry Elias—” her crush from homeroom, “—or Cash Dupree?”
“I do. Both of them. Elias will be my first marriage, and Cash will be my second.” She flipped the paper over. There were seven more dreams.Marry Elias Robertsonwas number twenty-nine,Divorce Elias Robertsonwas number thirty, andMarry Cash Dupreewas number thirty-one. “These are in order.”
“Youwantto get divorced?”
“Duh.” She threw her hands up like that should be obvious, and didn’t everyone want that? “Then I get to have two weddings and wear two wedding dresses.”
“Ah. Gotcha.” I pointed a finger-gun at her. “Smart thinking.” Honestly, it sounded awful. But whatever. “Well. Mine’s probably going to underwhelm you then.” I squared myshoulders anyway. We hadn’t agreed to write the flashiest dreams. Just the ones we actually wanted. I flipped it around with a dramatic “Ta-dah!”
Her smile flatlined. “Two dreams? That’s it?” She squinted, trying to read. She’d already taken out her contacts for the evening. “Become a model, marry Griffin Dupree, and have all his babies.” Her eyes lit up, and she snapped her fingers. “Oh, that reminds me. Liam posted a reel last night you’re going to want to see.”
That was code for: Griffin’s voice is on the reel.
“Seriously?” I squealed, bouncing on my knees.
She picked up her cell. As Laney tapped the screen, I watched her fingers move like it was nothing, like a phone was just a thing people had. I’d give one of my molars for a phone. Even an old flip phone. Didn’t matter, so long as I could text my friends.
At first, the video was wobbly, the camera swinging low like someone forgot how to hold it. A cement floor whipped by, then a set of lockers.
“That’s right,” a male teenage voice boasted. “Seddledowne Stallions are still undefeated.” It wasn’t in focus yet, but I already knew it was Griffin’s cousin Liam. I held my breath, hoping this might be the reel where Griffin actually showed his face.
Finally, Liam came into view. Blond-haired, blue-eyed, Greek-god-level gorgeous, he grinned from a locker room bench, sweat-soaked bangs plastered to his forehead. And he was shirtless.
“Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus.” Laney cackled.
I snickered, though I thought it was weird she was ogling Liam when her main obsession was Cash. But that was just Laney. She appreciated the male sex in general. Often and openly.
And the Duprees had so much to appreciate.
