Back at her house, Neve carried Ivy inside. The little girl was still upset and kept asking why Daddy was so mean to Jess’ dad. Neve sat her on the couch and tried to explain, “Do you know what a bully is?”

Ivy sniffled. “Yeah?”

Neve took the girl in her arms and hugged her close to her body, rocking back and forth.

She murmured, “Well, Mark’s- I mean, Mr. Harrison’s brother was a bully in high school. He never bothered me, but he was pretty hard on some of the other kids in our class. And your Daddy could never stand a bully. He was always so protective. Not just over me, but everyone else too.”

“Oh,” Ivy said in a small voice. “So, Daddy’s the good guy and the other man was bad?”

Neve thought. “I suppose so, at least in this situation. But you should still always be nice to people. Your Daddy was…harsh…today. He should’ve been nicer. And I also think that he’s trying to find his place here and didn’t like when Mark offered to take us to dinner.”

Ivy nodded and seemed to understand, although Neve knew that there was a deeper reason for Connor’s emotional outburst. Jealousy? It seemed off, coming from Connor now, but it had been evident on his face. It was hard to imagine the new Connor jealous. The old Connor certainly had been, but he’d lost that right when he left.

Later that evening, the awkward incident was still weighing heavily on Neve’s mind. She had sent Ivy off to bed hours ago, and now she was left to her own thoughts. She stayed awake, going over and over what had happened.

It has to mean something, doesn’t it? Obviously, he still cares – or at least he feels very…protective. But it really doesn’t matter. It can’t matter. I just can’t let my guard down again. Have to remember what happened last time!

But her body wasn’t on board with turning her back on Connor, and her traitorous mind made that clear with the steamy hot dream she was thoroughly enjoying when the ringing of her phone woke her.

It was after midnight and she had apparently fallen asleep on the couch, still going over the implications of the “incident” again and again.

Yawning, she pulled her phone off the arm of the couch and up to her ear.

“Hello?”

“Neve.”

Her eyes jolted open at the easily recognizable voice. “Connor?”

“Yeah. Sorry…were you sleeping?” His voice was low and rumbly, just the way she liked it. Used to like it.

“Umm…yes?” She checked the clock on the wall. “It’s after midnight. What’s wrong?”

He blew out his breath on the other end of the phone. “I’m sorry for waking you up. I’m sorry for a lot of things, and now I have to add to the list. I just wanted to apologize about earlier. I shouldn’t have reacted that way.”

She grew slightly angry at remembering what he’d done and said earlier. “Yeah, you’re right…you shouldn’t have. What was your problem? I mean, I know that his brother was pretty horrible, but that’s not Mark’s fault. Mark is a good guy.”

There was a moment of silence. “Is he?”

Neve could easily detect notes of confusion, anger, and jealousy in just those two words. “Yes, he is. He’s always been good to me and to Ivy.”

Another pause. “Are you with him, Neve?” His voice was quiet, almost…fearful.

She wanted to say yes, to see what he would say – how he would react to the knowledge that she’d been with another man while he’d been gone. After he’d left her, pregnant and alone. He didn’t know you were pregnant, her mind reminded her, but she shrugged it away. “We’ve gone out a few times.”

“And?”

“And what? What do you want me to say, Connor? That he isn’t you?”

Her words echoed softly through her living room and into the phone before she could call them back. She let out a little gasp.

Oh god.

Had she really just admitted that? This was bad. This was very, very bad.

Connor was silent.

“I d-didn’t mean…” she started, then faltered.

Had she not meant it?

Of course, she’d meant it. After all, it was true.

Mark just wasn’t Connor. He didn’t make her feel the same way. He didn’t make her heart race just by coming into a room, he didn’t make her feel so loved and protected just by draping an arm around her. He didn’t make her feel all hot and bothered and full of passion and desperate to be with him.

No one had ever made her feel that way, except for Connor.

Mark should’ve been perfect for her.

He was handsome, well-liked, and a good dad. But inside, she knew that he would never stack up against the intensity and the passion that Connor had.

Mark would never do what Connor had done – take a profession that was passable at best and turn it into a celebrity-type career. He’d never be as creative, as strong, or as fascinating to her.

“Don’t.” His single word was growled, the emotion laced into it jolted her mind back to what she had just admitted.

“Don’t what?” she asked hesitantly.

He cleared his throat and when he spoke, it was as if his words were being ripped from his soul. “Don’t take this away from me. What you just said…it’s what I’ve been waiting to hear for what seems like years. You can’t take it back.”

She sighed brokenly. “Why did you leave, Connor?” she demanded. “Why can’t you tell me?”

“Do you really think it matters at this point, babe?” he asked, his voice dangerously low.

She swallowed. His voice affected her in ways that no other man’s voice ever could. “Yes. I’d like to hear it. To know what was so important that you had to leave me. Leave me alone.” Her voice broke on the last word.

“It was my mother,” he confessed in a tortured voice.

She swallowed again. She hadn’t been expecting that. “What about her?”

He sighed into the phone. “Can I come over? I don’t want to do this over the phone.”

She shouldn’t have allowed him to, but she realized she may never get this opportunity again. She was pretty sure he didn’t want to tell her what happened all those years ago, he was just trying to make her understand. “Yes.”