Page 127 of Crazy Love

Elle squeals, doing a little dance. “Well, I thought I’d wear a Dior dress I’ve had my eye on, but…Tamara Ralph’s people have reached out!”

We all freak out, yelling and waving our hands in the air and pounding the seats.

“You’re gonna be styled!” Sadie says, doing a little dance.

“You aresucha superstar,” Poppy says.

“I’m not though! I really liked staying in my little hidey hole and writing away. The way this has all gone is crazy. Is it too soon to say that I’m panicking?” Elle says with a nervous laugh.

“Not about how you’re going to look though, right?” Tru asks, leaning forward to put her hand on Elle’s shoulder. “Because we all know you’re going to look amazing.”

“No. I mean, I’m nervous about that too…being seen by all those people. But I’m mostly worried I won’t like the movie. Or that everyone else won’t. I like what I’ve seen so far, but I haven’t seen it all put together yet. It’s hard to tell how it’s going to turn out.”

“That makes total sense,” I tell her. “It must be so exciting to have your characters brought to life, but also, terrifying…because what if they don’t capture them how you intended?”

“Exactly. I’m one of those the-book-is-always-better kind of people…unless it’sThe Notebook, and then Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams just completely slayed in that movie,” she says.

“Agreed,” we all chime in.

“Speaking of going all out…” Sadie says, turning around to look at me.

I lift my eyebrows, waiting to see where she’s going with this.

“Has Penn added any more Christmas lights outside?”

The laughter in the SUV is loud and I’m laughing right along with them.

“You’ve seen the lights, huh?” I say.

“Penn told the guys in the group thread that they had to come see the masterpiece he’d created outside, so we drove by last night,” she says. “WHOA.”

“We drove by too,” Tru says. “Unbelievable.”

“Us too!” Poppy says. “Becca had to get out and take pictures with Elsa and Mrs. Claus!”

“So cute,” Elle says. “Levi is obsessed and a little afraid of the Snowman.”

I wipe my eyes, unable to stop laughing. “Yesterday, Penn thought the area around the mailbox needed a little embellishment and the next thing I knew, he was stringing two thousand lights around it and the lamppost.”

“Don’t forget the ginormous inflatable of Waldo with the stocking hat,” Sadie adds. “He was adding that out there when we pulled up.”

“Oh my god, you’re kidding,” Tru says. “I missed the Waldo?”

“That guy,” Elle says, shaking her head. “He is a new man with you, Addy. He’s always been fun, but the way he is with you and Sam and Winnie…” She sighs. “I just love seeing it so much. Especially because he was so adamant about never getting married, never settling down. He resisted.”

“Did he ever,” Sadie says.

“But then we all heard about you when we came back from the Bahamas.” Tru laughs. “What did you do to him in the Bahamas? I’ve always been dying to know!”

“I took him to flamingo yoga,” I say, which sends us into another round of laughter.

“You guys are perfect for each other,” Poppy says.

I grin and look out the window, thinking about the stuffed flamingo with extra-long arms that I surprised him with last night. It’s so fun to give him these things. He set it on his nightstand and then took it downstairs this morning, wrappingits arms around the top of his chair at the kitchen table. Winnie and Sam are in on it now, looking for funny flamingos.

“Is that why you have that furry flamingo key chain?” Tru asks.

“Yeah, it’s kind of our thing. We surprise each other with flamingos…”

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