He shrugged. “You do. You tapped on my car window four years ago. Where would I be if you hadn’t?”
“You’d have figured something out. You could have gotten into adventure travel with your father, or gone on treasure hunts with him, instead of keeping the jerks at bay so that I could do my thing. Now your father’s gone—”
Dylan interrupted him. “Noah, my father and I had our chances to do things together. I have a chance now to fulfill some of his dreams, the dreams we shared. Think I’d have that if I hadn’t thrown in with you and made all this money?”
Noah smiled. “That is one way of putting it.”
Dylan looked out at the city they both loved. “Olivia’s family and friends in Knights Bridge watch out for her. She didn’t know that at first. When her friend in Boston betrayed her and she moved back home, she let her pride get in her way. Now she knows.”
“She’ll do anything for her family and friends, and they’ll do anything for her.”
Dylan glanced sideways at Noah. “It’s that way with the O’Dunn sisters, too.”
Noah watched a U.S. Navy ship far out on the Pacific, just a gray blip on the blue water. “Phoebe doesn’t realize that it’s not just her protecting her family and friends. They’re protecting her, too.”
“Maybe too much so,” Dylan said.
“They think what she wants is to live alone in her little house on Thistle Lane for the rest of her life.”
“What if it is what she wants?”
Noah didn’t take his eyes off the ship. “They don’t want to see her heart broken again, so they tell themselves she’s given up on love.”
Dylan was silent a moment. Then he blew out a breath. “Noah, you and Phoebe—”
He turned sharply away from the view and smiled at his friend. “Never mind. I’m talking out of my hat. I’m no good at figuring out people. I’m just glad we figured out that Julius Hartley was protecting Daphne Stewart and had no particular bone to pick with either of us.”
Dylan seemed unwilling to change the subject, but finally he sighed. “He and Loretta are going to L.A. to talk to Miss Stewart. You’re going with them, aren’t you?”
Noah shook his head. “Loretta and Julius are already in L.A. You and I, Dylan my friend, are meeting them at Daphne’s house in Hollywood Hills.”
Dylan scratched the side of his mouth. “We are, huh?”
“And Olivia, too. I’ve already talked to her. She wants to be back home in time for the fashion show. I’ve arranged for a flight from L.A., after our visit.”
“You never fail to surprise me.”
“Likewise,” Noah said. “How long have you known it was Phoebe in that Edwardian dress at the charity masquerade?”
“Olivia didn’t recognize her—”
“Olivia doesn’t have your objectivity or experience with people. Design and colors, yes.” Noah followed Dylan out of the office. “When, Dylan?”
“When you danced with her,” he said when they reached the hall. “I didn’t tell Olivia because she didn’t ask. She didn’t tell me when she found out because I didn’t ask. Worked out just fine.”
“You two have a great life together.”
“I like how you put that. We have a great life together now. It’s not just in the future.” But Dylan’s eyes were serious as he and Noah stopped at the elevators. “Noah, I don’t want you worrying about Olivia and me if you and Phoebe…if you two…” He grimaced. “Hell.”
Noah grinned. “Not going to have my back with this one, are you?”
“I don’t need to. You’re a smart guy. You know what you’re getting into.”
As the elevator dinged, Noah could see Phoebe’s turquoise eyes, her smile, her dark strawberry hair against her creamy skin. Yes, indeed. He did know what he was getting into, but what was going on between Phoebe and him was for them to sort out on their own—without Dylan McCaffrey, Olivia Frost, Phoebe’s three younger sisters, her eccentric mother, her brother-in-law, the rest of the Frosts, the rest of the Sloans or the rest of Knights Bridge.
The elevator doors opened and he and Dylan got in. “Sometimes we hold on to an image of ourselves because we’re convinced it’s what we’re supposed to be. It’s what we want, what other people want from us.” He was hardly aware that he was speaking to Dylan. “I was supposed to be the techie rich guy with a babe on each arm.”
“Maybe Phoebe is just who she is, Noah.”
“She has a great life and a great job. I don’t intend to mess that up for her.”
“From what I saw in Boston…” Dylan paused, glanced at Noah with a smile. “I’m not sure Phoebe O’Dunn’s given up on having a man in her life as much as she wants everyone else to think.”
“Come on. Let’s go to Hollywood.”