About an hour after she left, my phone rang. A restricted number. My heart lurched so hard in my chest that I was surprised it hadn’t accidentally burst through the side. Hope furiously bloomed inside my chest.
“Hello?”
“Hello? Is this Juliet?”
That hope imploded, leaving me hollow again. I was so desperate for it to be his voice on the other end that it almost felt like losing him all over again when it wasn’t.
“Yes, this is her.”
“This is Lily, Lily Ramsey. We met at Noah’s house?”
I straightened up. “Yes, I remember. How are you?”
“Good, thanks. Yourself?”
Oh, well, famous actress Lily Ramsey, my life is in utter shambles right now and I’ve eaten so much sugar I might actually go into a coma. Thanks so much for asking! “I’m good,” I lied.
“I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I forgot to follow up with you about coming over to groom my dog. Noah reminded me earlier, and that’s why I’m calling.”
My heart went into my throat, beating rapidly. “He . . . reached out to you? Today?”
“Yes. Why?”
Tears blurred my vision, and I was glad we weren’t face-to-face. He didn’t want anything to do with me, but he was calling his celebrity friends to use my services. Just like he’d promised he would when we’d first met. That had to mean something, didn’t it? “No reason. I was just curious. But I’d love to schedule a time to come over and take care of Blueberry.”
“I can’t believe you remembered his name after all this time! I’m impressed!”
She shouldn’t have been. I felt doomed to remember every single thing associated with Noah for the rest of my life. “What day and time would work for you?” I asked, and we set up an appointment.
After we hung up, I realized Shelby was right, as usual, and this time I wasn’t going to ignore her advice. It was time to go back out into the world and do what I could to move on.
There were other phone calls: one from Zoe Covington, who invited me to stay for lunch after I groomed Nemo, and two from celebrities that I’d heard of but never met. Noah again, doing what he had promised, even though he was furious with me. This made me feel even more guilty that he was so honorable and kept his word and I just generally sucked.
But I wasn’t going to let that get me down. The next morning I was cleaning out my van and reached under the passenger seat and felt something furry. I pulled out Sunshine’s teddy bear. I felt bad that I hadn’t looked for it sooner and decided to return it to Gladys immediately.
I probably should have texted or called first, but I wanted to see Noah’s house, even from a distance. It might have been pathetic, but I wasn’t claiming the high moral ground here. When I got to the gate, my heart pounded in anticipation that Noah might have told them not to let me in. But they just waved me through, which was also a testament to how much time I’d spent here.
When I got to Gladys’s house, I gripped the steering wheel tightly, steeling myself. And I was not ready to see his house, even though I’d been trying to psych myself up for it. It sent pangs of emotion through me when I caught a glimpse. There were people outside, and I guessed they were part of the construction crew. I wondered if he was home. Probably not—it was the middle of the day. For all I knew he might have been traveling for a movie.
I went up to the front door, and when Gladys answered it, I fell apart. I handed her the teddy bear while sobbing, and she looked at me and said, “Better get in here. What’s gotten into you?”
She took me into the living room, and I spent ten minutes trying to fill her in on what had happened in between sobs, but it mostly came out like, “And I love him and”—hiccup—“he never wants to see me again”—sob—“and I didn’t even apologize to him”—wailing—“I ruined everything” until she finally interrupted me.
“Do you know how rare true love is? And I’m assuming that’s what you think you feel for that movie star?”
“Uh-huh.” I nodded.
Gladys scowled at me. “Then go up there and make him see that you love him. Right now. Life is too short, girlie. Despite you being a blubbering mess, I know that you’re not weak. Apologize. Fight for what you want. Quit your boo-hooing and be a woman about it!”
Yes. She was utterly brilliant. I should do that. I should fight for him. I should tell him that I was sorry and that I loved him. How could he make a decision about whether or not he wanted to be with me when he didn’t have all the information? “I’m going right now to talk to him.”
“That’s the spirit,” she said with a proud look.
“Thank you!” I called, running out of her house and up to Noah’s. When I got closer, I recognized his publicist. She was barking at someone on her phone and looked absolutely furious.
“Reina? What’s going on?”
She paused her call long enough to speak to me. “Magnus is missing. Nobody can find him.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Not Magnus. This was like the worst possible news. With everything else that was going on, I couldn’t face a reality where Magnus had been chewed up by a mountain lion or coyote. I had to help look for him.
I headed out into the hills, following the well-trodden path that led down into the canyon nearest Noah’s house. I’d taken both Sunshine and Magnus down these trails many times. I didn’t know what made me think that I might be able to find him. There was definitely some magical thinking happening in my head where I saw myself leading Magnus back to Noah’s house and him instantly forgiving me. The reality was, there wasn’t a huge chance I would find him. But at least if I helped look and somebody else located him, maybe I’d get some credit?
I didn’t let myself think of the worst-case scenario, because it would take my already shattered heart and break the remaining pieces into smithereens. I loved Magnus too much. I loved Noah too much for anything to happen.
“Magnus!” I yelled, and I heard other voices at a distance also calling his name. I decided to head in the opposite direction of the other searchers, thinking I could help cover more ground that way.
Stopping for a moment, I called Shelby. When she answered I asked, “Magnus is missing and I’m out helping to look for him. Did you see him at all today?”
“What are you doing at Noah’s? No, that doesn’t matter if Magnus is missing. You can explain later. I haven’t seen him because I haven’t been to the house today. Isn’t he microchipped? Can’t you track him down that way?”
“It’s not a GPS tracker.” Although given Magnus’s history, Noah should probably get one for him. “It just means if someone finds him they can scan it and get Noah’s information to contact him.”
“Do you need me to come help you look?”
“No, there are a lot of people here.”
She asked me to keep her posted, and I told her I would.
I found myself heading down toward a stream that Sunshine particularly loved to splash around in. It was definitely off the beaten path. I kept calling Magnus’s name. It took me about twenty minutes to get there, and when I came over the ridge I saw—the stream. No Magnus like I’d hoped. I decided to press on, still yelling for him. I couldn’t hear anyone else’s voices, so it seemed like a good idea.