“Good Lord, Ida Sue. It’s a thousand degrees in here. What’s going on?” I ask, walking through the living room.

I’m not exaggerating either. It’s miserable in here. I mean, outside was warm, because this is Texas and the heat has picked today to play with us, but inside Ida Sue’s house is a whole other dimension—and that dimension is hell.

“It’s hot as Cyan’s balls after his all-night sex parties,” my cousin Mary growls. Her hair is pushed on top of her head, she’s using a paper fan and she’s wearing a bikini top and cut-off shorts—all that and she’s still sweating like a hooker in church.

I’m starting to rethink wearing my jeans and T-shirt myself.

“Hey, Blossom! I’m in the kitchen!”

Mary barely acknowledges me. As mean as she looks right now, that might be a good thing. Still, before I leave the room she literally growls at me, “This is all your fault, Faith.” Then she stomps off.

I have no idea what she means. Mary and I have always gotten along. I shrug it off, thinking the heat just makes her grouchy. I walk into the kitchen, wondering if I can convince Ida Sue we should go out to eat.

“Ida Sue, this heat can’t be good for the ba—” I stop when my gaze locks on the scene in front of me. “—by…”

The kitchen table has been pushed off to the side. In the place it usually sits is a ladder and on that ladder is… Titan.

“There’s my girl. How are you feeling?” Ida Sue asks.

My mouth goes dry. My blood is strumming a loud, wild song in my ears. It’s not just the shock of seeing Titan.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, my mouth falling open after I manage to get the words out. Titan is on a ladder working on the chandelier—or rather where it was. He’s wearing those tight Levis again, only now he doesn’t have a shirt on. He’s sweating—because again, it’s hotter than hell in here—and the perspiration is running down the sides of his neck. I follow one slow dripping trail as it glides down his shoulder, over his pecs, making a path that leaves me feeling flushed in a way that has nothing to do with the heat in the room. It slinks lower, moving over the indention of each ab so lovingly I wish I could follow it with my tongue.

“Quite a show, ain’t it, Blossom?” Ida Sue says with a lecherous grin, elbowing me gently in the side.

I’m really starting to hate the nickname Blossom.

I watch my aunt watch Titan and I know her face mimics what mine was doing just a minute before. It wouldn’t surprise me if she didn’t start drooling.

“Your aunt’s AC broke down and she had a ceiling fan she wanted installed in the kitchen,” Titan answers. He looks down at me and gives me a smile that makes butterflies take flight in my stomach, those beautiful eyes of his sparkling, his face almost tender. “You look really good tonight, Faith.”

“I… uh… thanks. I meant, what are you doing here?”

“He’s staying with me while he finds a place in town,” my aunt answers—ever helpful.

“He’s… Titan?”

“Didn’t have many options, babe. Ida Sue offered, seemed the best solution.”

I ignore the way he casually tossed in the word ‘babe’ and then I ignore the tingles that run through me when he said it. I try to concentrate on the biggest problem. The one that has the most potential to rock my world off its foundation.

“The best solution… to what?”

“I told you I was moving here, Faith. I didn’t lie.”

Oh crap. I mean, I know he said that, but somewhere in my head it all got fuzzy. I thought he’d get tired of staying and go back to California. Seeing him in my aunt’s house—an aunt he complained for weeks about because she kept pinching his ass—does not sound like he’s doing something he will give up on. I don’t know what it says, but it doesn’t seem like a good thing for me.

“Titan, aren’t you jumping the gun a little bit? I mean, we just found out I’m pregnant. There’s no need to make life-altering decisions right now. We can figure it all out when little Zeus or Eris gets here.”

“Zeus or Eris?”

“Greek gods. It was my idea, sugar-lumpkins. With a dad named Titan, the baby needed a special name,” Ida Sue chirps cheerfully. “Of course we could always continue the family tradition. How do you feel about naming your son Turquoise?”

“Turquoise?”

“Pretty, right? We could call him Turq for short. Turquoise Vegas… or was it Colorado where the soldiers finally swam home, Faith?”

“I think I’ll just leave and we can do dinner another night—after the air is fixed,” I answer instead, totally ignoring my crazy ass aunt’s questions.

“Nonsense. The pizza will be here soon.”

“Pizza?”

“I ordered it. There was no way I could cook in this kitchen. But when Titan here gets the fan going, it should cool down enough to eat. I hope you’re hungry, I ordered a ton. Once the air stopped working, though, everyone began bailing. White and Kayla couldn’t make the trip here, they had a parent-teacher conference, Gray and C.C. are stuck at home with sick babies, Black refuses to eat dinner with us because I won’t let him hit Titan.”

“I’d like to see him try,” Titan grumbles, stepping down from the ladder. He’s got a cloth he’s rubbing his hands on as he steps into me, invading my space.

“Why does Black want to hit you?”

“Because I was an insult to dickheads everywhere,” he says with a soft smile. I stare at the smile and the way the white of his teeth shines little by little. I stare so long that I have the strangest urge to reach up and kiss those lips, run my tongue over them, lose myself in them. I shake my head.

It’s just pregnancy hormones. That’s all it is.

“Babe?”

“When did the babe thing start?” I ask, because clearly I’ve lost my mind. I sound annoyed, because I am. Every time he calls me babe I feel a little shiver run through me.

“What?” he asks, his face moving to show confusion, and I watch every movement. I watch it and enjoy the show, because he’s close, because he’s beautiful, and because I like it. I watch because I’m insane and I do it while thinking that if this is not pregnancy hormones I’m in deep shit.

“You’re calling me babe,” I grumble and my frustration shines through and I can tell that bothers him because those soft eyes cloud and the small lines around them tighten.

Yes, I’m staring at him that close.

“Can’t really call you wife now, Faith,” he points out.

His words are spoken plain and simple. There’s no vehemence behind them, no attitude given to indicate he meant to serve a blow—but he did. The words hit me and when they hit… they hurt.

They shouldn’t have, but they did. Still, that isn’t his problem and after his last visit I swore to myself I’d stop reacting to Titan emotionally. There is a child involved, a child he obviously wants to play some sort of role with. I grew up with a parent who didn’t want a role in my life, and felt like she was forced to do that. It’s crazy—especially since she had three kids, but it was true. She didn’t want us. We felt that every single day.

Every. Single. Day.

I don’t want my child to know that feeling. I never wanted them to. So I swallow down my pride, paste a smile on my face and shrug away the hurt.

“Got it,” I say, and maybe my voice is a little tight, but I ignore that and avoid Titan’s eyes.

“Does the fan work now?” Ida Sue asks. I hadn’t realized she was gone, but she’s walking back to us holding a glass. “Here you go, some of my sweet tea to quench that thirst you raised,” she adds.

Titan is still looking at me. His gaze is locked on me, and I don’t know what he’s thinking. He looks thoughtful and his face is almost soft and for some reason I wish I could read his mind; I wish I did know.

“Thanks,” he mutters, taking the glass from Ida Sue. He takes a few steps away from us, putting some of the tools he used to work with down on the table.

“Oh, it works perfectly! C.T., you’re magnificent! Isn’t he magnificent, Faith?” she asks.

I should have, but I didn’t. I was hot, I was mourning the fact—however stupid it was—that Titan no longer called me “wife,” and therefore the initials Ida Sue used floated right past me. Instead I am caught up in the view, because Titan tilts his head back, perspiration still gleaming on his dark skin, and drinks the tea. And when I say that, I mean he tilts the glass up and while he drinks, I watch the way his throat moved, his adams apple teasing as it shifts. Jesus, how a man can be that sexy drinking out of a glass with pink flowers on it is beyond me—but it is true.

“Quite the show, isn’t it, Blossom?” Ida Sue asks softly in my ear, repeating her earlier question, and it may be a different show, but the star of it is the same and she’s not wrong.

“Damn it, Lovey! Why is it a million degrees in here?” Jansen asks, coming in from the back door, and yanking me out of my Titan haze—mostly.

“Our AC broke down,” she says, not tearing her eyes away from Titan—not that I blame her. It takes work for me to do it, but I do my best to focus on Jansen. “Titan was nice enough to install a ceiling fan for me. It should cool down soon,” she says—again keeping her eyes glued on all that is my ex-husband.

Jansen stalks over to us. He takes one look at a shirtless Titan, one look at a spellbound Ida Sue, and his face goes tight.

“Son of a bitch,” he growls under his breath and then he literally stomps from the room. I stand there, watching him go—not really understanding. Until a minute later.

“Ida Sue, why the fuck do you have the heat set on ninety-two?” Jansen growls from the hall.

I watch as my aunt is pulled from her Titan-lust-filled haze and annoyance moves over her face.

“That damn man is too smart,” she grumbles under her breath, but I still hear it and I can’t stop the laugh that bubbles out. Ida Sue goes to the hallway for what I can only imagine is damage control.

Titan is standing to the side and with the shocked look on his face, I laugh harder.

“I got played,” he grumbles.

And I laugh even harder.

“Damn it,” he growls.

And I laugh so hard, I feel tears seeping from my eyes.