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“Yes, but just once. I need to be invited to a weekend with a wealthy philanthropist. I need to talk to him about a fellowship.” And my mentor won’t recommend me since he thinks I’m a gullible idiot.

“You want me to come with you?”

“No! God no!” I laughed nervously, covering my flushed throat with my hand. “That’s the last thing I want. I just need you to give the philanthropist’s wife dance lessons.”

“Dance lessons?” He shook his head. “This story just gets stranger and stranger.”

“Her dance instructor stood her up and she’s preparing for a ball in Paris. And I said you might be able to step in.” I grimaced, realizing how insane it sounded. “It would give me the opportunity to meet her and maybe . . .”

“Wrangle an invitation to the weekend from her?” Levi suggested, and I nodded sheepishly. He smoothed his hands over his muscular thighs as if checking that his limbs were still there. “I haven’t done any real dancing in years. I don’t know if I’d be up for the task.”

“You mean you don’t give dance lessons to suburban housewives anymore?” I teased. He used to give lessons at a local school in secret to make money while going through the Academy (but also because he loved it—though he would never admit it).

“I make decent money now, you know. I don’t really need to.”

“Ah, come on, don’t you miss it?” I looked at him pleadingly. “Look, it would be one lesson max.”

“And you’d be there?”

“At the beginning, yes . . . and maybe I’ll stop back at the end.”

“Diana, you cannot leave me in a room full of bored rich women. I’ve seen enough episodes of Real Housewives to know how that one ends.” He came closer. “If I do this, you’re coming with me as my assistant.”

I shook my head adamantly, recalling all the while the lessons he gave me and Mom and Nonna. How good it felt to have his arms around me. How he’d made me love to dance. “I couldn’t.”

He shrugged and turned away. God, he was annoying. “Fine!”

“You’ve got yourself a fake fiancé then.” He winked, and I had to fight the urge to fling myself into his arms.

Chapter 10

Levi

Indy needed me. The words kept running through my head as I drove home, and I felt the same sort of exhilaration as I did when I flipped on my afterburners and climbed straight up into the sky.

She needed me. By the time I got back to my place, however, the initial high had worn off. Guilt had replaced it.

I’d left her alone after Josh’s death, run off like a dog with his tail between his legs. All because I was terrified that something bad might happen to her. I might agree to come to her rescue now, but it would never make up for all those years that she’d probably needed me and I’d abandoned her.

Tossing my keys on the table, I wandered over to the lone bookshelf in my living room where I kept the few family photos I brought with me. It was kind of a makeshift altar with a photo of my dad leaning on Francine, holding up the keys to his new car, a big grin on his face. There was another photo of my mom and me at a dance competition, and one of Liv and Callie in front of the Globe Theatre in London. In the center of it all, there was the photo of me and Josh at our graduation from the Academy. I’d set the meteorite right in front because I liked the way it reflected the light.

I picked the rock up, feeling the surprising heft of it in my hand, and wondered what Indy had done with the other two pieces. When we’d found it I was sure it was a sign that I was going to space one day. But maybe it was there to remind me that I was born under a bad star.

I closed my eyes trying to chase the words away.

Turning my back on the photos, I fished my phone out of my back pocket. I hadn’t forgotten about the bomb Indy had dropped on me. She’d met Callie and Callie had never said anything? I couldn’t believe she’d do that to me.

Callie picked up on the second ring. “Oh my god, Levi? What have I done to deserve a phone call from you instead of a one-word message?”

“Were you ever planning to tell me about your meeting on the ferry?” I got right to the point.

“My meeting on the ferry? You’re gonna have to give me more to go on here.”

“Diana,” I grit out.

“Ah! Did she contact you? I told Liv she would. I was sure of it.”

“Olivia knew about this too?”