I woke up at Ellie's house feeling like shit from drinking the night before. I had been moping around all week, feeling sorry for myself and being super depressed. Even though I knew it was the right thing to do, rejecting Dylan again had felt so wrong in every possible way and the doubts about whether I did the right thing were killing me.

Taking me out clubbing in Omaha and getting me trashed was Ellie's idea to cheer me up, but after the alcohol wore off I just felt worse than ever. Ellie's twin brother Spencer had tagged along and acted like our bodyguard all night while we got wasted and drove us home after.

There was a knock at the bedroom door that made my headache even worse and I looked up to see Spencer standing there, eating a bowl of cereal with his red hair rumpled up with bedhead, wearing a pair of green plaid pajama pants and a white over-sized t-shirt.

He walked in and plopped down on the bed next to me and said, "Good morning Sunshine," with his mouth full of cereal.

"There's nothing good about this morning Spencer," I grumbled.

"Yes there is. I'm here," he teased, shooting me a smile. Spencer was like the brother I never had. As much as Ellie shared her Mom with me since I didn't have one, she had shared her brother too since I was an only child.

"Are you sure that doesn't make the morning even worse?" I asked, laughing at the fake hurt look on his face.

"I will have you know many women have told me that waking up to me was the best part of their day."

"Man. How shitty must the rest of their day been?" I asked, laughing as Spencer picked up a pillow and smacked me in the face with it.

"I'm teasing Spencer. You know I love you," I laughed. "But for real. Get your annoying ass out of here and let me go back to sleep."

"I could do that, but I won't," he said, earning himself a glare from me. "I came up here to let you know you have a visitor downstairs."

"A visitor?" I asked, scrunching my eyebrows. "Why would anyone visit me at Ellie's house? Who even knows I'm here?"

He got a guilty look on his face.

"What did you do Spencer?"

"Well, I might have run into Dylan in town yesterday and told him where he could find you today."

"What?!" I shouted. "Dylan's still in town? I thought he went back to L.A.?"

"He did but he came back and now he's downstairs waiting for you and Ellie's keeping him entertained."

"He's downstairs right now?" I asked, looking down at the rumpled pajamas I had on, panicking.

Suddenly my hangover was forgotten and I jumped up out of bed, frantically grabbing some high-waisted jeans and a crop top sweatshirt out of Ellie's closet and running into her bathroom. I quickly washed last night's face off and put on some fresh natural makeup and brushed through my long blonde hair.

"Make sure you brush your teeth slim. Dylan definitely doesn't want to smell that breath," he said, waving a hand in front of his face and wrinkling up his nose.

I leaned out of the bathroom and glared at Spencer who was now laying on Ellie's bed with his feet propped up on the footboard crossed and his hands behind his head, lounging.

I brushed my teeth and put on some deodorant and perfume before going out to the bedroom and checking myself out in Ellie's long mirror.

"You look fine. Now get out of here and stop keeping the man waiting," Spencer said, throwing a pillow at me.

As I walked downstairs my stomach started to hurt from my anxiety. I was excited about the fact that Dylan was here but nervous and not sure what to say. We hadn't spoken for a week and our last conversation had been pretty rough.

I walked around the corner to the living room and heard Ellie ask, "So are you friends with Leonardo DiCaprio then? Do you think you could get me his number?"

"I'm his friend but if I gave out his number he'd be pissed. People in Hollywood are really protective of their personal cell phone numbers."

"Oh," she said sadly.

"Hey," I said leaning against the doorway with my hands in my pockets.

Dylan looked over and noticed me for the first time and stood up. He was wearing ripped jeans, tennis shoes and a white polo shirt that showed off his arm muscles. His sandy blonde beach hair was flopping to the side over his forehead and his handsome face and green eyes instantly had my stomach in knots.

"Hey," he said, standing there in silence, looking me up and down for a second before saying, "I have something to show you. Will you come somewhere with me?"

"Where?"

"It's a surprise. Just trust me. Okay?"

I looked over and Ellie was nodding, urging me silently to say yes.

"Okay," I said hesitantly. "Only if Ellie comes with us," I blurted out. I didn't trust myself to be alone with him. Even my willpower wasn't that strong with him looking this good.

"Ummm. Okay, that's fine," he nodded and Ellie clapped her hands and squealed with excitement.

I followed him out to his rental car that was parked in the driveway and got in the passenger side and Ellie got in the back seat in the middle, leaning forward and hovering over us.

"Oh my gosh! I can't believe I'm really in Dylan Chase's car!" she squealed, bouncing up and down.

"Actually, this is a rental car. My car's a lot nicer than this," Dylan laughed.

"So where are we going movie star?" Ellie asked, still bouncing up and down like a kid.

Dylan looked back at her and said, "You'll see," as he put the car in reverse and backed out, heading across town.

"Sorry. She's a little bit of a fan of yours if you couldn't tell," I laughed and he nodded.

Ellie asked, "Did you know you two are everywhere? Every website and news station is talking about how Dylan Chase is in love with a girl from Iowa. TMZ actually called me the other day and offered me $100,000 for an exclusive interview about you."

"What?!" I asked, turning around and looking at my best friend. "Are you serious? What did you tell them?"

"I told them they could kiss my white, freckled ass," she laughed. "I figured if you wanted them to know something you'd tell them yourself. I'm not selling out my best friend."

I exhaled with relief and said, "Thank you."

"Of course."

Dylan pulled into the long driveway that the GPS on his phone led us to. To the left there was a field with horses surrounded by a white picket fence and to the right was a decent sized pond that had a few Canadian geese floating in it and straight ahead at the end of the long drive was a two story modern ranch house that looked newly built.

"What is this place?" I asked. "Do you know someone that lives here?"

"You'll see," Dylan said, looking over at me with a mischievous smile.

He pulled up in the driveway beside a red Lincoln MKZ and we all got out. A woman in a business suit and heels got out of the Lincoln and walked towards Dylan and shook his hand.

"Hi Dylan. I'm Angela. We spoke over the phone," she said, shaking his hand with a big smile.

"Yes we did. This is Brenley and her best friend Ellie," he said, motioning to us and I shook her hand, still confused about who she is.

"Shall we get started on the tour then?" she asked, handing us each a white slip of paper. In the top left corner was a little picture of this house and the page was full of stats about it.

"This is the home you wanted to look at and I think it's perfect for what you need. There's plenty of room for a large family," Angela told Dylan. "This house has 6 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, a game room, a swimming pool and a lake for fishing or boating. It has a basketball goal in the driveway and a horse barn and a large fenced in field for horses. The horses that are currently here can be sold with the home for an extra price. It also has a big wooden castle playset in the backyard. This is the dream house for kids to grow up in. Let me show you guys around," she said with a smile.

"Dylan, wait," I said, reaching out and grabbing his arm before he could follow her. "What is this? You're thinking about buying a house here?" I asked, with scrunched eyebrows.

"Yeah," he said, turning to face me. "I thought about what you said. You don't want to move to Hollywood and raise a family there and I don't blame you. You asked me one time why I would want to raise my kids there when I wouldn't even let my brothers or sister move there. You were right. I want my kids to grow up in the Midwest like I did, around good people, close to family."

He looked down at his hands and then back up into my eyes, studying them for a second before saying softly, "But most importantly, I want them to have you as a Mom."

My heart skipped a beat and if felt like an entire swarm of butterflies were flying around inside me as I looked up into his eyes, standing there stunned.