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then?” She shooed Mischa away gently.
    “I thought you might want to be my maid of honor. Or matron of honor, I guess, since you’re married yourself.”
    She blinked at me for a moment before she said, “Isn’t there someone else you’d rather have? A friend from New York? College roommate?”
    I shook my head. “There isn’t anyone left in New York I’m that close to. I sent a couple of invitations to people down there, but I don’t want any of them to be my matron of honor. My mom and Noel are coming from California, but I can’t make my mother my matron of honor, either, no matter how well I get along with her.”
    “No,” Kate agreed, “that probably wouldn’t look right.”
    “I’d like you to do it. If you don’t mind.”
    “I don’t mind. Of course not. I’d be honored. If you’re sure…”
    “I’m positive,” I said. “Please.”
    Kate nodded. We worked in silence for a few minutes, both of us probably a bit more overwhelmed by emotion than we ought to be.
    “So are you going to renovate the condo?” Kate asked finally. I accepted the change of subject without quibbling.
    “I think so. Derek went to look at our finances and to talk to his dad. He likes to run these things by Dr. Ben.”
    Kate nodded. “It’s nice that he has such a good relationship with his family.”
    It certainly was. Especially since my own family, whichconsisted of my mother and her new husband, was clear across the country on the California coast.
    “Let me know what you decide,” Kate said. “I’ll be happy to help out with the work, if you want.”
    “We never say no to extra hands. You know that. We’ll see what Mr. Antonini says.”
    Kate nodded, and we went back to our pulp and our hair dryer.

—2—

    “Still like it?” Derek asked two weeks later, standing in the hallway looking around. We’d closed on the place about an hour before, and had headed over to inspect our new purchase.
    I glanced up at him. He’s over six feet, I’m five two. “Don’t you?”
    He shrugged. “I didn’t like it much to begin with. But I figure I owe you one. I had to talk you into getting excited about the midcentury ranch on Becklea Drive, and I had to talk you into believing we could handle Kate’s carriage house, and I had to twist your arm to get you to agree to give the Colonial a try…I figure it’s your turn to choose, yeah?”
    “I guess it is. But I’d be happier if you were happy, too.”
    “I’m not unhappy,” Derek said, looking around. “I’d just like it more if it had some fun features I could play with.”
    “I know. You like crown molding and arches and wide plank floors and tall ceilings. This has none of that. But it has a lot of other benefits. We can get in and out quicklyand probably sell it pretty fast, too. And I bet if we try, we can figure out ways to make it look more interesting.”
    “It’s not the same thing,” Derek said, but he sounded a little more positive. “What did you have in mind?”
    “I’m not entirely sure. But it’s such a blank slate that we could do almost anything to it. We could start by taking out the plain hollow-core doors and putting in solid wood doors with panels instead.”
    “That’d help to make things look more solid. What else?”
    “Depends. What would you say to putting in a pocket door to the bathroom? It would save space in the hallway. It’s a little cramped the way it is.”
    “That’s a good idea,” Derek said. “Except instead of a pocket door, why don’t we make it a sliding door with a rail? It could rest here”—he put his hand against the wall between the two doors, the one to the hallway and the one next to it, to the bathroom—“when it’s open.”
    “With the rail actually visible?” I squinted up, trying to picture it.
    “Remember when we first met last summer?” Derek said. “You were enamored with the industrial look? Exposed ductwork, concrete kitchen counters, all that jazz?”
    I