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“Don’t look at me.”
    Tara stood and went to the intercom. “Hello?”
    “Tara, it’s me, Maddy. May I come up?”
    Tara looked back at Dyson then back at the intercom. How likely was it Maddy would accept an excuse that she was busy? Not very. “Sure.” She pressed the button to open the downstairs door.
    A few moments later Maddy was standing in her kitchen looking at Dyson with big round eyes. “I didn’t mean to interrupt anything,” she said.
    Tara pulled out a chair for Maddy. “This is Dyson. Dyson, meet Maddy. She’s who I’m working for right now.”
    Maddy hesitated. “I didn’t know you had a . . . I mean, you should have told me. I wouldn’t have worried about you and Max if I had known you were coming home to him.”
    Tara poured a mug of coffee for Maddy and plopped it down in front of her. She waved a hand at Dyson. “He’s not mine. He’s my roommate’s.”
    Dyson sat up straighter. “Who is Max?”
    Tara sat down at the table. There was the tone again. The same one her father would have used if he’d heard Tara’s name and a man’s mentioned in the same breath. The thought made Tara a little sad. Sometimes she almost forgot how much she missed her parents, then something random would remind her. She’d been okay when they had first moved down to Naples, Florida. They sent happy emails from a retirement community by the gulf. They deserved to be living out their dream retirement, but it didn’t make Tara miss them less. “Max is nobody. He’s Maddy’s cousin.”
    Dyson stabbed a piece of egg with his fork and directed his comment to Maddy. “She could use a date. She’s a little tense, if you know what I mean.”
    Tara threw a piece of bacon at Dyson. “Don’t judge me. You’ve been coming here for a year, and you’re still a leftover.”
    Dyson chewed his egg slowly then waved his fork in the air. “Call me what you want, but Brigitte keeps coming back to me. I’m the only one she does that with.” When Tara didn’t immediately answer, he asked again, “Right?”
    Tara reluctantly admitted, “You’re the only repeat.”
    He smiled. “See, I’m different.”
    Maddy looked back and forth between them. “Should I ask?”
    Tara shook her head. “No, it’s better to leave Dyson with his pride.”
    Dyson held another forkful of eggs near his mouth and said, “She’ll marry me one day, Tara. You’ll see.”
    “People don’t change, Dyson. Brigitte is who she is. Stay with her because you’re okay with things as they are. But don’t stay because you think she’s going to become monogamous all of a sudden. It doesn’t happen like that.”
    Maddy twirled her coffee mug between her hands. “Love can change a person.”
    Tara stood up. “No, it can make them pretend to change. Once a cheater, always a cheater.”
    Dyson put his fork down. “Brigitte isn’t a cheater. She’s never lied to me. I know she’s with other men when she’s not with me. She doesn’t have to change, she merely has to choose.”
    Scraping the remaining food off her plate into the trash, Tara said, “Whatever you want to believe, Dyson. Maddy, did we have someplace to go today?”
    “I want to take you to meet Gio and Julia. They invited me out for brunch and said you could come along. If you’re going to their party next week, this would be a good way to get to know them before then.”
    “You didn’t say anything yesterday.”
    “They called me this morning.”
    “I’ll need time to shower.”
    “I’ll wait,” Maddy said with a smile. “I’m sure Dyson and I can find something to talk about.” She turned away from Tara and said, “Now, about you and this Brigitte. You shouldn’t let her get too comfortable. I may have some ideas for you. I’m a master matchmaker . . .”
    Tara figured the two deserved each other and headed off to shower. She had the water running and was about to step into the spray when her phone rang. Expecting the call to be from Brigitte, Tara