Page 15 of Alive At Night

“But it’ll cost.”

Julian studied me warily, and I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t particularly relish the idea of asking him for help. And in this area of my life, especially.

But after doing a mental audit of all my wedding date options after Sofia had messaged me this morning to make sure I’d received her invitation, I’d come up a little short. Okay, really short. I hated to admit it, but between my short-lived undergrad fling and my law school dry spell, I was floating adrift when it came to dating.

Cameron would have been a perfect option—if my professional ethics had not intervened. As soon as I was assigned to work with him on the Waverly case, I knew I had to figure out something else for the wedding. Or rather, someone else. I couldn’t mar our professional and personal relationship so quickly.

I wanted a date, yes. And I very much wanted to make an impression on my birth family. But more than that, I was determined to prove to Gardner Law that they’d made the right choice by hiring me.

“You have a lot of…impressive friends,” I started.

Both of Julian’s brows skyrocketed. “Excuse me?”

“Your friends,” I repeated. “I was hoping you could—”

“Most of my friends are married,” he deadpanned before I could even finish.

“I just need a date for a wedding,” I admitted. “It honestly doesn’t matter if they’re in love with someone else.”

The words tumbled out of my mouth before I really considered them, and now that I had, yep, they sounded bad.

“Um,Icare,” Julian intoned.

“I just meant that it would befake,” I quickly amended. “As in, not real. As in, just pretend.”

“Juniper…” he started, and I prepared myself for the lecture that was clearly on the tip of his tongue. Ah, just like old times. Reminiscing never felt so annoying.

“Come on, Julian,” I said before he could really rev his engines up. “I know you must have at least one friend whose number you could hand over in return for mysuperiorexpertise on medical malpractice.”

To my dismay, Julian looked horrified.

“Forget about it.” He threw his hands up in the air, shaking his head. “This was a bad idea.”

But now that the opportunity had presented itself, I was starting to think it was a truly wonderful idea. A little trade-off—what could go wrong?

My brain raced down memory lane, looking for potential. It foraged through the hazy, hidden recollections of that night Gemma and I had visited Julian at college in California. One face in particular swam to the forefront, clearer than all the rest.

“What about that one roommate you had?” I asked. “Neil? Nick?”

“Noah?” he choked out.

“Yes!” I crossed my arms over my chest, proud of myself. Maybe a little smug. “That’s the one.”

If I remembered correctly, Noah was ridiculously attractive, flirtatious, and friendly. Someone who would definitely be comfortable acting as a plus one.

Julian’s eyes shot to the ceiling. Exasperation riddled his expression.

“To my knowledge…” he began slowly, gaze dropping one inch with every word. “Noah is single. He’s not really the type to evernotbe single.”

He said the last part pointedly, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t looking to get involved with someone right now, either. Would it hurt if I hit it off with my date and we went on to live happily ever after in our own spicy fairy-tale retelling? Of course not. But it wasn’t a requirement.

“Yeah, on second thought…no,” Julian said, suddenly standing. But with one glance down at me, he sat again, a look of consternation on his face.

“No?”

“I’m not setting you up with Noah.”

“You remember the part when I said it wasn’t real, right?”

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