Page 171 of Rewind It Back

Ryan wraps an arm over her shoulders to pull her into his side, kissing her on the top of her head. “It’s one of the many reasons I love you.”

“Thank you for having me,” I cut in. “Your home is beautiful.”

She wipes under her eyes, smiling. “It is so good to have you here, Hallie. You’re the final piece, even though I guess you were technically the first piece, knowing him as long as you have.”

Under the table, Rio runs his hand over my thigh, squeezing it.

I’ve loved getting to know these people, especially the other four girls. But knowing how close Indy and Rio are, it’s been especially nice to get to know her. I can see why they’ve become as good of friends as they are.

“Speaking of beautiful homes,” Kennedy begins, “Rio’s place looks amazing already. It’s been fun to follow the progress on your social media.”

I find him watching me with a proud smile as food is passed around the table. With each dish, he puts some on my plate before adding a serving to his.

“I can hardly recognize it,” Kai adds. “Mills was showing me the pictures online.”

“It’s coming along,” I say. “Also, if I haven’t already said it enough, thank you all so much for sharing my stuff on your accounts. The firm has been buried with inquiries and it’s a huge reason why I was offered a full-time position after my internship ends.”

“Hell yeah, you were!” Miller raises her Corona in the air.

“That was all you,” Rio says from next to me as we begin eating. “We just made sure more people got to see how talented you are.”

“I filled out an inquiry form last week,” Zanders says plainly.

Every pair of eyes turns to him in confusion.

“Tyler was asking me about it,” I tell him with excitement. “He’s hoping to use your project for an upcoming episode of his show.”

“That’d be great.” Zanders nods to himself. “More exposure for the center, but I want you to be the designer on the project.”

“I definitely will be.”

Stevie looks at him, more confused than anyone else. “What project are we referring to?”

He tries to act completely nonchalant about it, moving food around on his plate. “Well, you and Cheryl have been talking about moving Senior Dogs of Chicago into a bigger building. I found one. I bought it. I want Hallie to design it so there’s more room for people to come visit the dogs, hang out with them, and take them on walks.”

She stares at him, dumbfounded.

“What?” he asks, trying to bite back his smile. It’s drastically different from the arrogant version I’ve gotten to know.

“How people ever thought you were an asshole, I’ll never understand.”

Zanders chuckles. “Stevie girl, I hate to break it to you, but you were one of those people.”

“We’re five years past that.” She waves him off. “Zee, we can board so many more animals in a bigger space.”

“Plus, Tyler’s show is huge,” Rio cuts in. “If you guys do an episode with him and get some of the guys from the team involved too, you could get so much exposure for the center. You’d have people wanting to adopt from everywhere. Not only Chicago.”

“Thank you,” she says quietly to her husband with a beaming grin.

He’s acting as if buying her business an entirely new building is no big thing, smiling at her knowingly without saying anything more about it.

“Was the other house on your Instagram account your first project?” Indy asks me.

“My firstofficialproject, yes. Outside of redoing my childhood bedroom a million times growing up.”

I watch Rio smile to himself as he chews his dinner.

“That house on my account is my roommate’s home. Actually, Ryan, you might know her brother. Cruz Wilder.”

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