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“Thanks. I love you, too.” I glanced around the packed restaurant. “I knew I was going to be early. I stopped at the cemetery.”

“Maybe they’ll have our table ready,” she said, picking up her Aperol spritz and stepping up to the reservation podium. A moment later, we were led to a table in the back of the restaurant.

“Tell me what happened,” Holly said once the server had left us alone with our menus.

I rested my elbow on the table. “They offered me ten percent over market value. I said no. They countered with twenty. I told them I’d consider it. My lawyer told them not for anything less than thirty.”

“You’d sell the house?”

I shrugged and glanced at the menu. “Matti’s not there any more than she’s at the cemetery.” Because I talked to her when I was in my car, when I couldn’t sleep, and when I was in my class, watching the children, wishing I could hear her laughter. She was with me all the time, not just at the cemetery.

“I think you’d regret selling.”

“But maybe I’m stuck because of the house. It was Jeff’s house, not mine.”

“Putting your name on the title was the only good thing he did for you. Besides giving you Matti, of course. He made sure that no matter what happened between the two of you, you had an equal claim to the house.”

The server returned with breadsticks and took our orders. Strangely, tonight I was hungry, but I stuck with the chicken parm. True to her word, Holly ordered the lobster risotto.

“Think about it,” she said once we were alone again. “You said you believed Astrid, that he was going to leave you for her. If she thought she could get your house, why did he get the apartment with her?”

“Jeff was happy we had a home for Matti, but he didn’t have a deep connection to the house. He wanted his kids to have a home.”

“Don’t martyr yourself on this one. He wouldn’t want you to give up the house. Fuck Astrid and fuck his parents. The house is yours. If he wanted it to go to his kids, he could’ve put it into a trust. Then Astrid would be watching sunsets from your bedroom balcony.”

“Ugh. Maybe the money would be enough to buy me peace. I could walk away with a lot of money. The house is worth more than I could ever afford to buy on my own.”

Holly leaned into the table and lowered her voice. “All I’m saying is that you can do whatever you want. Sell the house or keep it. Just don’t make your decisions on anyone else. I love you, Jaymi. You need to find some happiness.” She glanced at my belly. “For you and the baby.”

Holly’s eyes widened as she focused on something behind me. “Oh god. I think he’s pissed.”

“Who?” I spun around. A gentleman I immediately recognized from Holly’s phone scanned the room. Another guy stood next to him. “Did you know he’d be here?”

“Not exactly.” Her lips twitched into a half-smile. “He had reservations for us.”

“And you canceled them?”

“Hijacked would be a better word. Either way, I ditched my date with him to be with you. I left him a message that I couldn’t make dinner.” She chewed her bottom lip. “Then I used his reservation.”

“Why would you do that?”

Both her gaze and her voice softened. “Because my best friend needs me. And I wasn’t going to—oh shit. He’s coming over.”

Tyce and his friend paused at the side of our table. This was going to get awkward. His brows formed a deep V, and his gaze drilled into her. “The reservation desk informed me I’d already been seated.”

Holly sipped her drink and slicked her tongue along her upper lip. “I…um…so this is my friend Jaymi.”

He shifted his gaze to me, and I shook his hand.

“Tyce Ayres. Callum Tideswell,” he said of his friend. “Wait time is ninety minutes.”

“Ouch,” she said and took another sip of her drink. “I’d give you the table, but we’ve already ordered.”

He took the drink from her hand. “Or you could offer for us to join you.”

“I could, but I’m not sure Jaymi would be comfortable with that.”

I groaned and covered my eyes. “Or I can go.” I slid my napkin back onto the table.