WINTER

"How about I come up with you? Just to see if you two need anything," Finn offered when he drove into the parking lot.

Uncertainly, I looked up at the apartment Ivy and I shared. If Finn and I were going to be something then I had to have the two most important people in my life be in the same room at the same time. And if he was going to fall back in love with Ivy, better I knew it now—like ripping off the bandage instead of toying with the ends while the wound underneath festered and got infected.

"Sure."

"I'll leave if there’s any tension. No questions."

I had to give him props. He was trying hard. I reached over the console and kissed him softly on the cheek, his stubble slightly abrasive on my lips. I tingled from the contact, and it must have shown on my face because he made a low, rough sound—one that I was beginning to associate with activities that involved very little clothes and a lot of sweat.

"We should go inside," I suggested and drew away before I took him up on his very obvious invitation.

He merely smiled and hopped out. I waited for him to open the door for me. The first time I’d tried to open my own door, he’d flipped out. It was something he enjoyed doing, and honestly I loved the gesture so I sat in the seat and watched him lope around the front of the truck and then come to my side. I had my seatbelt off with the door open so he could reach inside and help me out.

"If you drove a car, I would be able to get out of the vehicle myself."

"Sure, but where would the fun be in that?" He winked and held me tightly against him as he slowly lowered me to the ground. There was no mistaking the hard steel that I slid against.

"I don't know whether to be impressed by your quick recovery time or worried I didn't satisfy you."

"How about chuffed because you can always make me hard?" He planted a soft kiss on the crown of my head but made no attempt to move away.

At this rate, we'd never get into the apartment. I firmed up my spine and took his hand. "That's a good alternative."

I led the way up the stairs and let us in.

Ivy heard the door open. "Is that you, Winter?" she called from the bedroom. Her voice was faint and weak.

"Yes. Do you need something?" I quickly ditched my purse. "Stay here," I murmured quietly. Finn obliged and walked over to the sofa while I hurried to the bedroom.

Her bedroom was dim. She had pulled the shades, and the streetlight peeking around the sides of the too-small window covering was the only illumination.

"Jimmy let me go." Ivy was lying on her back with a book covering her chest. What to Expect When You're Expecting. It was last year's edition. She noticed me looking at the cover. "I'm only in the third chapter, and already I know we're screwed."

"Maybe you shouldn't read it."

"Then we'll be unprepared and screwed. At least now we'll know why we're screwing up."

"Why can't you wait tables?" I sat next to her on the bed, keenly aware Finn was sitting by himself in our living room.

"He said no one wants to see a pregnant belly. Reminded them of home."

"We can buy a webcam, and you can strip at home. There's a fetish for everything. Remember the knitting guy?" I'd come across a guy in a full body suit knitted out of gray—and what looked like really itchy—yarn. One of the strippers told us that it was fetish gear. If someone liked to look at men or women in a full knitted sweater, then there was probably a crew who loved the pregnant belly.

"You need to get off the Internet, Winter. That shit'll scar you." She thumbed the edge of the book. "Did you happen to mention to Tucker that I could be a great shop bitch?"

"Things are tight there. Rent is expensive in the East Village."

"Bullshit. He doesn't want to hire a felon." She sighed and pressed her head against her hand. "Which is ironic since half his clientele must be criminals. Every chick inside had at least one tattoo." She shook her head and laughed humorlessly. "I took the car and applied at some restaurants, but I'm guessing if I have to handle money then I won't be hired. I called a cleaning agency, and they said no as well because all their cleaners had to be licensed and bonded and someone with a felony record wouldn't pass." She opened her mouth to say something and then closed it. Fidgeting with the book, she didn't look up when she asked me, "Winter, do you think I should have an abortion?"

My heart turned over. "I don't know."

Initially, I was convinced I would have gotten the abortion, but now…I didn’t know. I was the unwanted child of some woman in China. Maybe if I'd been born a boy, my biological family would have kept me. But I wasn't. I was a girl and therefore expendable, or worse, just trash, given that I was left on the side of the road. Mom had said that my bio mom must have cared deeply because I'd been left near a police station, sure to be found and then fostered out.

It was the best possible light to place on anyone abandoned. It hurt to hear Ivy talk about her baby in such unhappy terms, but she was right. It wasn't my body or my future at stake.

"I'll support you in whatever decision you make," I said and gave her the best smile I could. "I took the apprenticeship job, and I know that once I start inking fulltime I can make enough to support us both."

"And the baby?"

"All of us."

She raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "I'm going to find a job. Even if I have to work construction, I'll find something. As long as you're in this with me." She held out her pinkie. When we were kids we used to hook our pinkies together and call it the Donovan sister promise—unbreakable. I didn't hesitate but hooked mine with hers.

"Donovan pinkie promise," we both said and then shook.

"You need anything?"

She hesitated and then gave me a wry grimace. "I think I'm getting those pregnancy cravings. Now that I'm not puking all the time, I'm constantly hungry. I'd kill for McDonald’s fries and a Coke."

"I'll get it." Finn appeared at the doorway. "Hey, Ivy, how you doing?"

Ivy didn't even look surprised or interested. "Oh, hey, you're here. I'm fine," she said uncharitably.

"But hungry." He was unperturbed. "Want to make a McDonald's run, Winter?"

"Sure." I turned back to Ivy, whose normally open face was inscrutable. "Medium? Large?"

"Large, but do you have to go, Winter? Finn's perfectly capable of driving a half mile by himself, right, Finn?"

"Nope. I'm pretty worthless without Winter."

"I'm sick and pregnant," she snapped.

"You said you weren't sick, only hungry."

My head bobbed between the two of them in confusion. Was Ivy mad that I was leaving her or going with Finn?

"Ready, baby?" he asked me and held out his hand.

I looked back at Ivy, who was glaring openly at both of us. It was five minutes, ten at tops, and it seemed that since Finn was doing the favor, I should go with him. Or that's how I justified it to myself.

"We'll be back soon," I assured Ivy.

"Fine," she muttered. "Leave me then."

Mystified at Ivy's tantrum, I took Finn's hand and went back to his truck.

"What was that all about?" he asked when he climbed into the driver's seat.

"I don't know. I thought maybe you would."

He started the engine. "No idea, but she really didn't want you to go with me."

I had no answers, so I asked what he was doing tomorrow. He winced. "Paperwork. Small flip jobs like mine require a few bills to about four subcontractors. A project like Riverside requires a mountain of paperwork, which I hate."

"Not my thing either," I admitted. While I liked things orderly, I couldn’t imagine a worse job than sifting through papers and bills all day. I resented even having to work the front desk and filling out the commission forms that Tucker required us to keep. He was a paperwork fiend. I blamed that on his law school training as well.

The McDonald’s was barely far enough for us to justify the drive. Finn put the order in for the largest Coke and fries they had. "Want anything?"

I nodded, because who didn't love the greasy french fries hot from the fryer and loaded with salt. "Make mine a small. I don't have the eating-for-two thing going for me."

On the way back, Finn was clearly thinking of something. He tapped the steering wheel absently and ate half my french fries. I made a mental note to order a large next time so I could actually get more than five fries.

"What would you think if I offered Ivy a job?"

"Doing what?"

"The paperwork. I could get Mal to come in and set up some firewalls so she'd only have access to non-essential things. No bank accounts or credit cards. But she could file, fill out permits, follow-up on stuff. Do secretarial work. I could put her on the payroll, and she'd be covered under the group health plan. She did that shit for your dad before he died."

He was right. Dad was an insurance agent, and Ivy had worked in his office every summer. Me? I followed after my mom, who taught elementary art. I’d thought for the longest time that was what I wanted to do, but then I only went to community college and instead found a place for my art at Tucker's. I think Mom would have been okay with that.

"Would that bother you?" he asked quietly. I realized then we'd returned to the parking lot of the apartment complex.

"I don't know." I sat back and reflected on it. There didn't seem to be any love vibes between them. Ivy had acted weird, but not because it seemed like she was peeved Finn and I were together but more that I was abandoning her. She didn't suggest I make the fast food run and Finn stay at home, like a girl would've done if she was crushing on a guy and wanted to get the extra girl out of the way. No, she wanted Finn to go and me to stay.

Finn showed no interest in Ivy either. He was polite to her, but I suspected he was treating her in that manner because of me, not because of any burning love. And I had to trust them. Finn didn't have a history of cheating. He didn't seem like the type to cheat, especially after the story he'd told about his dad.

And Ivy? I couldn't see her doing that to her own sister. Maybe she'd have done something crappy like that to Finn when she was drinking, but she was clean, sober, and loved me. No, I couldn't imagine that. And Finn's solution was genius. Even Tucker didn't offer health benefits, which Ivy sorely needed now.

"I don't think it would bother me." I shifted in the truck seat so I could look him directly in the eyes, as if somehow if I could see the truth. "Do I have anything to be worried about?"

"No, never," he said. His gaze never wavered. He never blinked. "I'd never do that to you. If it gets to be a problem, tell me, and I'll see if I can't find her a different job with another construction outfit. Besides," he leaned forward and tucked some of my hair back behind my ear, "you're first wife."

I met him more than halfway, plastering my mouth against his in a fierce, joyous kiss. Drawing back, we were both a little breathless. "We better get these fries in before they turn cold."

"Yup."

He didn't move.

I didn't want to either, but I did.