I woke in the morning to an empty bed, a pounding head, and whispered giggles coming from my kitchen. I propped one eye open to find a glass of orange juice and three aspirin on my nightstand. I took them gladly, then lay back down and closed my eyes again.

From the giggling, I assumed my mother had brought Izzy home. I was disappointed not to wake up with Chase beside me, but I was used to it. Like Preston, he must have disappeared sometime during the night. I climbed out of bed, moving slowly in deference to my massive hangover. I found my robe on the floor, cinched it tightly, and headed for the kitchen, ready to face my mother’s third degree.

What I found nearly tore my heart in two. Or maybe it stitched some of the broken pieces together.

Izzy stood on a chair at the counter with one of my aprons doubled over and wrapped around her, while Chase helped her measure a scoop of flour into a bowl. On the kitchen table was a tray with a coffee cup and one of my bud vases holding one lone stem that must’ve been plucked from the potted mum on the deck.

I leaned against the doorjamb. “Morning,” I croaked, still more asleep than awake.

“Mommy!” Izzy cried. “Go back to sleep! We’re making you a surprise.”

“Sorry, sorry.” I was about to ask Chase if he minded, but the smile he gave me answered that question. In fact, it melted my heart.

“Yeah, Mommy, go back to sleep,” he said.

I was desperate for coffee but I obeyed, right after I ducked into the bathroom to brush my teeth and pull my nightgown on.

Izzy was whispering noisily outside my door, so I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep.

She climbed into bed beside me and yelled “Surprise!” in my face. I tried not to grimace.

“Hey!” Chase whispered, almost as loud. “Mommy has a headache. No yelling. We don’t want her to be grumpy, right?”

I cracked one eye open. “I’m never grumpy, am I, Iz?”

She looked solemnly at Chase and shook her head.

“See?”

“Good to know.” He winked at me.

I pulled myself into a sitting position. “So what do we have here?”

“It’s a tradition,” Izzy explained as Chase set the tray on my lap.

I looked up at Chase and waited for clarification.

“I told her making chocolate chip pancakes on Sundays is a tradition for me.”

“I like tradition,” Izzy announced, snuggling in beside me.

Chase left the room and returned with a plate of pancakes for her and one for him, then settled down at the foot of the bed.

“These are great.” I hadn’t been hungry earlier, but I was suddenly ravenous. “The coffee is good too.” I took another sip, hoping he’d brewed a large pot. “You remembered how I take it?”

“Light and sweet—just like you.” His smile had me melting like the chocolate chips in my pancakes.

When Izzy finished, I gave her permission to go watch cartoons. She left the room, but leaned back inside the doorway a moment later. “Don’t forget to ask her,” she whispered loudly.

“I won’t,” he whispered back.

“Ask me what?”

“I told her I’d like to take you both fishing today but said it was up to you.”

“Fishing? She wants to go fishing?”

“Apparently. She asked me what my other traditions were, and I said sometimes on Sunday I like to go fishing. She asked if she could go too, so . . .”

“Isn’t fishing supposed to be a time for quiet reflection? Do you know how quiet a six-year-old can be? We’ll scare all the fish.”

He wrapped his hand around mine and rubbed his thumb back and forth over my skin. “I don’t care. I’d love to spend the day with both of you. If she wants to go fishing, she can scare all the fish she wants. You up for it?”

“Maybe. I’m a wee bit hungover, but I’m feeling a little better. Must be this first-class room service.”

When I finished eating, I snuggled back under the covers. Chase nestled in beside me.

I curled into his side, feeling like I belonged there, and rested my hand on his hip. “You know, when I woke up and you weren’t in bed, I figured you’d left during the night.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” he said, kissing my forehead.

“What did my mother say when she dropped Izzy off?”

“She asked if you were okay.”

“And?”

“I said I thought you would be. Then she gave me a wicked smile.”

Way to play it cool, Mom. “That sounds about right. I told you she liked you.”

“Good, and so does Izzy, I think. I’m hoping you might too.”

I focused on his blue-green eyes and stroked his cheek. “You’re definitely three for three.”

* * *

After a shower and a lot more coffee I was ready to go fishing. We stopped at Chase’s apartment so he could shower, change, and pick up his equipment. Then he insisted on stopping at Walmart for a pole for Izzy and a fishing license for me.

“I don’t need a license. I’ll just watch.”

“Do you plan to see me again after today?”

I was dumbfounded. “I hope so.”

“Then you need a license.”

He took us to a quiet spot along the north branch of the Raritan River, where he spent the better part of the afternoon unhooking my fishing line from low-hanging trees and taking tiny fish off Izzy’s Hello Kitty fishing pole. Unlike me, Izzy was experiencing an abundance of beginner’s luck.

In spite of barely getting his own line wet, Chase seemed to be having a good time. He laughed and smiled, and held Izzy in his lap when she got tired and refused to lie down on the blanket. He held my hand when he could, and kissed me just about every chance he got.

We stopped at the diner for dinner, and Izzy immediately claimed the bench seat next to Chase. “Are we having pancakes next Sunday?”

He glanced at me and smiled. “That’s up to your mommy. If she says it’s okay, then it’s okay with me.”

“Please.” She looked up at me with her big blue eyes and blinked several times. Like mother, like daughter.

Twenty-four hours ago I’d been lying in bed, drinking, and crying. Today, I had a license to fish. I couldn’t help but agree things were looking up. “We’ll see.”

“Please, Mommy. If you and Chase have another sleepover, then he can make pancakes.”

I rolled my lips together to keep from laughing and looked up at the ceiling.

Chase, however, couldn’t help himself.

“Please? We can have another sleepover.”

When I lowered my eyes, he was grinning.

“We’ll see, Iz,” I repeated. “You just be good, okay?”

He lowered his voice. “Why does she need to be good? You’re the one who should be good.”

“So should you,” I answered, teasing.

Izzy was still begging for Sunday pancakes when I tucked her in later. Then she insisted on Chase reading her a story. Listening to the peals of laughter coming from the bedroom, I wondered if she would ever be able to fall asleep, but it seemed an afternoon of fishing had worn her out. She was snoring softly by the time he came out of the bedroom and joined me on the couch.

I was tired as well, but I couldn’t help smiling.

He returned my smile. “What?”

“Where did you come from, Chase Holgate?”

He pointed toward the bedroom. “In there. I was just reading Izzy a story.”

“That’s not what I mean and you know it.”

He shrugged.

My love life had been one for the books so far. But Chase? He was exactly what I’d always wanted; what I’d dreamed about. Steady. Kind. A beautiful soul. And let’s not forget sexy as hell.

“I’m not a lucky person. And you seem too good to be true.”

“I told you I was one of the good guys, and I meant it. I’m also crazy about you. I have been since I met you. At first, it was for the obvious reasons.” He waggled his eyebrows, in case I didn’t follow. “But as I got to know you, it was because of the person you are.”

“You hardly know me.”

He slipped his arm around my shoulder, and I curled up against him. “I know that you’re a good daughter and a good friend and a great mother. You’re friendly and easygoing. You don’t take anything or anyone for granted, and you’re spontaneous. Add that to being so incredibly hot—and that you’re pretty damn good in bed—and you’re the real deal, baby.”

Although I believe he meant the last part, he said it as if he were teasing me. His words slipped under my skin and warmed me in a way that was new and exciting. I wanted him to write them down so I could read them over and over again.

“What about me?” he asked. “Think you know me?”

I thought about what to say maybe a bit too long, because he began to look a little uncomfortable. I finally nodded.

“I’m pretty sure I do. In addition to being so incredibly handsome and just about the sexiest man I’ve ever met, you’re strong and quiet. You’re dependable but not predictable. I think you’re trustworthy and honest, kind, loving, gentle, and I think you may also be very sensitive.” He was smiling, and I kissed him several times before I finished. “I think you just might be the prize in the bottom of my Cracker Jack.”

“Cracker Jack?”

“You know how when you buy a box of Cracker Jack, it’s because you think you want the sweet, sticky popcorn and nuts, but what you really want is the prize? In order to get to it though, you have to eat all that popcorn, and before you know it, you’re sick to your stomach and miserable because you had to go through all that to get to your prize. But once you have that whistle, or tiny plastic horse, or little shoe, it’s yours, and if you want, you can keep it forever.”

He pulled me into his lap and kissed me until my lips were swollen and my cheeks burned from the scrape of his whiskers. I fumbled with his belt, but he grabbed my hand.

“Your daughter’s asleep in the next room,” he whispered.

“She’s out like a light.”

“I don’t want to take a chance.”

I stood and pulled him up behind me, then led him into the bathroom and locked the door behind us. He hoisted me up onto the counter.

“Rain,” he mumbled into my neck. “I know I’m a day late with this, but I don’t have any protection on me, and I know damn well I didn’t use any last night. We’re playing with fire here.”

“Would you stop if I told you to?” I asked, knowing the answer.

“If I need to, I will.”

The way he sighed made me laugh. “It’s okay. I’m on the pill.”

“Oh, thank god.”

We tried doing it with me sitting on the countertop and Chase standing, but that didn’t work. He was too tall. Then we tried with him sitting on the lid of the toilet and me straddling him, but once we got busy, the toilet rattled so much he was afraid it would come apart. So we moved to the edge of the tub. He faced out, stretching his long legs into my tiny bathroom, while I straddled him again, facing the tub. It not only worked, I had another amazing orgasm. In less than twenty-four hours, I’d had several of the most intense orgasms of my life.

We stayed on the edge of the bathtub afterward, speaking in low voices.

“I should probably go,” he said into my hair, making no attempt to move.

I planted tiny kisses along the side of his neck. A soft, low noise came from deep in his throat.

“I don’t want to leave.”

I kept kissing him and worked my way to his ear. “I don’t want you to go either,” I whispered.

“You can come to my place.”

I leaned back and frowned. “You’re worried about my daughter walking in on us, but you’re okay with leaving her home alone.”

“Of course not. We’d bring her with us. I have two bedrooms.”

“I can’t do that. What kind of mother takes her kid from her warm bed and drags her out in the night so she can go have sex?”

“A horny one.” He sunk his teeth into my shoulder.

It took a while, but we were finally able to tear ourselves away from each other. He left only after I promised that Izzy and I would stay at his apartment the next night.

Later, I lay in bed and tried to process the past couple days.

It seemed sudden and crazy, but I had feelings for Chase. Strong ones. I’d tried to ignore them, but they were real. Obviously. And during that time, while I was getting to know him, I think I’d been emotionally letting Preston go, even if I hadn’t been aware of it.

At that moment, I would have given just about anything to have Chase lying next to me.

I had almost drifted off when my phone vibrated on the nightstand.

My smile faded when I realized the text wasn’t from Chase.