Two nights later, Garrett and I lay in bed after another toe-curling round of sex. I rested curved into his side with my head on his shoulder as I tried to steady my breathing. Every day with him seemed better than the last. I couldn’t wait to see what the next day would hold.

But then he spoke into the quiet of the bedroom and ruined the cozy, happy little bubble I’d spent the past several days in.

“I want to go public with our relationship.”

I put an elbow on the mattress and pushed up, trying to focus on his face in the dark. “What?”

Garrett twisted away from me, and a second later the bedroom was flooded in the light from the bedside lamp. When he faced me again, his expression wasn’t one of a man who’d just gotten off a couple of minutes before. The sudden serious change in the atmosphere had me sitting up and holding the blanket to my chest as a protective shield.

“I want to take us public, Gwen. Do you have any idea how fuckin’ hard it is keeping our relationship a secret from the press? I can’t take you out. I can’t even take my own kid to the park or pick her up from daycare, for Christ’s sake. The only time I get to hang with my family is when were holed up in this goddamn house. I’m sick of it.”

I ran a hand through my tangled hair. My stomach knotted with apprehension, and I found myself looking to the side because meeting his eyes was impossible. “Garrett, we agreed—”

“We agreed when you were pregnant and we were barely on speaking terms!” he snapped angrily.

My defenses shot up at the change in his tone, and I started to grow mad as well. “And who’s fault was that?” I demanded. “If I remember correctly, you’re the one who sicced your entire legal team on me!”

He threw his arms out in frustration. “Jesus Christ. Not this shit again.” I held the sheet tight as I climbed out of the bed, yanking it along with me as I tried to stand and gather my clothes. “Where the fuck you going?” Garrett cursed, pulling at the sheet I was trying desperately to cover myself with, forcing me to stay in place.

“Where do you think?” I bit out, suddenly furious that the glow that had been shining on our budding relationship had been snuffed out. “I’m going to my room. I don’t want to fight with you.”

One second I was standing by the side of the bed tangled in the sheet, and the next I was on my back with Garrett’s massive frame towering above me. His hip pinned me in place as he glared down at me. “So you get pissed and you just take off? How the fuck’s this supposed to work if you run every time I say or do something you don’t like, huh?”

“Get off.” I shoved at his huge body, wanting nothing more than to escape.

“Answer the damn question, Gwen.”

I couldn’t bring myself to voice my real concerns. Call it cowardice, but I just couldn’t. “Garrett. I said get off.”

The fire I was throwing from my eyes didn’t even seem to faze him. “Not until you talk to me.”

Damn him for being reasonable when I felt anything but. “I said I don’t want to fight with you,” I repeated lamely. “And to prevent either of us from saying something we can’t take back, I think it’s best if we just take some time apart to cool off.” I thought it was a sound, mature argument, but he apparently saw it differently.

“I see I haven’t even come close to busting down that goddamn protective wall of yours.”

If only he knew. “That’s not true,” I whispered, staring into those green eyes I was quickly becoming obsessed with.

His jaw ticked in an effort to keep his anger under control. “It is. If I was in, you wouldn’t fight me on something so stupid.”

My body went stiff beneath his. “It’s not stupid!” I shouted. “Wanting to protect myself and my daughter from the vultures who are constantly trying to get a piece of you isn’t stupid. It’s called being cautious,” I argued vehemently.

I placed my palms on his chest and pushed to no avail. He wrapped his fingers around both my wrists and effortlessly pinned them to the pillow above my head.

“And what’s there to be cautious about, huh?” he bit back. “What are you protecting yourself from? You really think I’d let those fuckers invade your life? I’d protect you the best I could, Gwen. You and Liddy both. So what’s the real fuckin’ problem here?”

“That is the real problem!” I shouted, even though it was a lie.

And he knew it. “Bullshit! Tell me the truth. What are you so fuckin’ scared of!”

With that, I snapped. “What if it doesn’t work out?” I cried. “What if Kimber’s right and you get tired of me just like last time? Then not only will I be alone again, but I’d have to deal with photographers and reporters trying to burrow their way into not only my life but my daughter’s too. I can’t do that, Garrett. I won’t.”

The disappointment that enveloped his stony expression flayed my skin right open. I hated that I caused that look on his face, but he’d asked for the truth. Like it or not, I’d given it to him. I might have already fallen head-long in love with him, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t still harboring some serious insecurities beneath the surface. And I’d just let them all bubble right up. I’d have given anything to take the past few minutes back.

“Nowhere near busting down that wall,” he mumbled to himself with a defeated shake of his head. I expected him to let me go and kick me out to my own room, so I was surprised by what he said next. “You sleep here. You’ve slept in this bed every fuckin’ night since we started, and that’s not going to change now. You want to be pissed, be pissed. But you’re doin’ it right here.”

He moved to his side of the bed and turned out the light. I lay on my back, staring into the darkness. An unpleasant silence surrounded us. Garrett might have demanded I sleep in his bed, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t an unbearable distance between the two of us. He stayed on his side with his back to me. It felt like there was an ocean separating us, and it was no one’s fault but my own.

I listened as his breathing eventually evened out as he drifted to sleep. However, I spent the next several hours wide awake, praying I hadn’t irreparably screwed everything up.

* * *

I woke up the following morning feeling even worse than I had before I finally managed to fall into a fitful sleep. When my alarm sounded and I peeled my dry, scratchy eyes open, I discovered Garrett was already gone. My heart was nothing but a giant bruise behind my ribs, and I had to blink rapidly to keep from crying as I went about getting myself ready for work and Liddy for daycare.

By the time I made it to Bernie’s, I was in control of the tears, but I still missed Garrett like crazy. I wanted to see him, talk to him, apologize for my shitty reaction the night before and make things right. I went about my morning in a haze of sadness, going through the motions of scheduling, ordering, and invoicing before finally getting sick of my own company. I needed out of that back office, so I finished all the administrative tasks I had and headed to the front of the shop to sling coffee and take orders, hoping for a midday crush to take my mind off how epically stupid I’d been.

Unfortunately foot traffic in the café was relatively light thanks to the storms that had rolled in. Luckily one of my favorite baristas was on shift. Gina was as lively as she was funny and could hold an hour-long conversation with a broom handle. She had a penchant for hilarious gossip and worked wonders at keeping me entertained between random customers.

I was in the middle of making a latte for a customer when the bell over the door rang out, alerting me to a new arrival, but I didn’t see who had entered. I gave the woman at the counter her drink and change, sending her on her way just as Gina came skipping over to me like a ball of exuberant energy wrapped in a five-foot package.

“Ohmigod,” she whisper-yelled in my ear once we were alone behind the counter. “Ohmigod! Ohmigod! Ohmigod!”

“Use your words, Gina,” I told her with a playful roll of my eyes.

“Ohmigod, Gwen. You’re never gonna guess who just walked in and sat down!” She let out a silent squee of excitement before continuing in a hushed voice. “Garrett freaking Wilder!” She waved her hands in front of her face as my back went straight. “God, he’s so hot. I’d give my left ovary for a night with that guy. I read in Rolling Stone that he has a thing for blondes. Do you think that’s true? Maybe I’ve got a shot!” She flipped her sunny blonde tresses over her shoulder like she was trying to draw his attention while I fingered my own brown locks and wondered if what she’d read was true.

“Shit!” she practically shouted. “He’s looking over here! I need to go fix my makeup.” Without another word, she jetted off toward the break room in the back, and I finally turned to get a look at the man who’d sent my employee into a fit. My knees nearly buckled under the weight of his penetrating gaze, and when I slowly made my way around the counter toward his table, my breathing escalated and I thought my heart was going to beat right out of my chest.

“Hi,” I offered almost shyly. Until that one word left my mouth, his expression had been unreadable. Then he busted out that dimpled smile and I felt like I could breathe for the first time since I woke up. And I didn’t give a single fuck if every feminist in the greater Seattle area would hang me for admitting as much. It was the damn truth.

“Hi back,” he answered, adopting my quiet tone.

I looked around to find we were all alone. No other customers were milling about, and Gina was still in the bathroom working on her makeup. “What are you doing here?

“I didn’t like how we left things.”

That ache around my heart slowly started to fade.

“I didn’t either,” I confessed, smiling for the first time that day. Knowing I hadn’t screwed up too badly was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. “I’ve been wanting to apologize to you all day. I acted like an asshole last night. I just get scared sometimes.”

“I get that.” His hand shot out to take mine, but Gina chose that moment to return so the contact was brief—too brief for my liking. “I understand where you’re coming from, so I’ll give you time. I just needed to see you.”

“Well, I’m glad you came. But what’s with the cap?” I asked, pointing to the baseball cap obscuring half of his face. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear one before.”

His lips ticked up in a grin. “My attempt at going incognito.”

I chuckled quietly so Gina wouldn’t hear. “Well, I hate to break it to you, but you failed miserably. Gina clocked you the instant you walked in. I thought she was going to pass out.”

His eyes quickly flashed to the counter and back to me. “Gina the one watching us right now who looks like she’s about to launch herself over that bar?”

I didn’t have to turn around to know that was exactly what she looked like. “That’d be her. So you need to order something to keep her from getting suspicious. She’s the world’s worst gossip.”

His grin remained as he gave me a small nod. “Give me whatever’s good. I’m starving.”

“You got it.” I winked inconspicuously. “Any coffee?”

“Yeah. Black. And make it big so I have an excuse to hang for a bit longer.”

I floated back to the counter on a cloud to find Gina waiting with giddy excitement. “You were just talking to Garrett Wilder!” she informed me in a hushed voice while grabbing my arm and giving it a little shake. “Holy shit! What did he say?”

“He said he wants a cranberry streusel muffin and a large coffee.”

Her face fell as her gaze bounced back and forth between Garrett and me. “That’s a bummer. With the way he’s checking out your ass right now, I’d hoped he was at least hitting on you. Then you could hook up with a rock god and I could live vicariously through you.”

At her words, I could practically feel Garrett’s gaze on me. I heated from the inside out, making my cheeks burn.

I busied myself with Garrett’s coffee and was just about to grab a muffin from the pastry case when his voice came from behind me, much closer than expected.

“Hey.”

I stutter-stepped, nearly stumbling into the case before getting my footing. When I spun around, Garrett was sitting at one of the barstools lining the counter. “Uh….” My eyes acted like tennis balls between him and Gina. “Hi.”

His smile was positively wicked as he extended his hand. “I didn’t introduce myself before. I’m Garrett.”

“Uh….”

Before I had a chance to figure out what was going on, Gina let out a high-pitched shriek from right beside me. “I knew it! I knew he was checking out your ass! That article said he preferred blondes, but he was totally checking you out!”

“I was,” Garrett said to Gina. “And I’m not sure what article you’re talking about, but they got their info wrong. I’m a sucker for brunettes.” I was pretty sure both Gina’s and my ovaries exploded just then. “So, gorgeous, can I get your name?”

It took me a second, but I finally caught on to what he was doing, and a huge smile split my face. But Gina was there to jump in before I could answer. “This is Gwen, and she’s totally awesome! And single! Really, really single!”

He looked back and forth, those dimples at full attention. “That true, gorgeous? Are you really, really single?”

I couldn’t correct her and tell her I was, in fact, in a relationship with the man sitting right in front of us, so I played along, enjoying Garrett’s game. “Like my friend said, I’m Gwen. But no, sorry, I’m not single.”

“What?” Gina chirped, causing his dimples to deepen as his smile grew wider.

I looked at her with a shrug. “It’s new. I haven’t really told anyone about it.”

“But….” She looked like I’d just told her that the Tooth Fairy wasn’t real and that Santa spent his summer murdering the Easter Bunny and his offspring. She leaned in close and whispered, not so quietly, “That’s Garrett Wilder. He’s the dating equivalent of a filet mignon. Whoever you’re dating is rump roast in comparison. Dump his ass.”

Garrett looked like it was taking everything in him not to burst into laughter. Like I said, Gina was hilarious.

I tried for nonchalance as I replied, “Sorry. I really like him.”

“How much do you like him?” Garrett fished. “I mean, you said it’s new, after all.”

“Exactly!” Gina yelped. “It’s new! You can’t like him that much.”

“I like him a lot,” I told Garrett directly.

He hummed contentedly, sending a bolt of pleasure straight to my core. “He’s a lucky guy.” His eyes traveled up and down my body, and I felt them like a physical touch. “Very lucky.”

It was my turn to grin wickedly. “Oh, he really is. And something tells me he knows it too.”

“No doubt about that, baby.”

I was enjoying our banter so much I thought nothing could kill my good mood. But then the door to the café opened and another person walked in…

And everything went to shit.