“What are you looking at?”

Diane came up behind me as I peeked out of her dining room window into the back yard. I smiled.

“Nothing.” I smiled some more.

Chase was dropping off some old junker that Wally wanted for parts. I’d ridden over with him in the tow truck. As I stood at the window, he uncoiled the chains on the rollback. The wind was blowing, and he kept pushing his hair out of his face with his forearm. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but judging by the way he and Wally were laughing, I assumed there was some good-natured ribbing going on between them.

“Seriously,” she asked, looking at the two of them and perhaps not finding Wally still as adorable as I found Chase. “What are you smiling at?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I just like watching him, I guess.”

Chase moved around to the front of the truck, pulled open the door, and climbed inside.

“If you like looking at him so much, why don’t you just say yes? Then you can look at him anytime you want.” She stared up at me and blinked her baby blues, then slowly raised her eyebrows in a silent and prolonged “Hmm?”

“Other than when he’s at work or under that race car in your garage, I do get to look at him whenever I want. We don’t need to be married for me to be able to look at him.”

She let out an exaggerated sigh.

“Is he or is he not the best man you’ve ever known?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Does he or does he not treat you better than any man you’ve ever known?”

I nodded.

“Is he or is he not the best sex you’ve ever had?”

“Diane!” I laughed. “I never told you that.”

“You don’t have to. You’re not the only one who can read minds, you know.”

“Since when?”

“Baby, all I have to do is look at your face when you look at him. Jeez, even Wally can read your mind, and the only thing he reads is the TV Guide and the directions on the back of his Hot Pockets.”

“Why do you still let him eat that crap?”

“Because I can’t cook for him six times a day, and don’t change the subject.”

I shook my head and went back to spying out the window. All Chase was doing was unhooking a car from the rollback. It was probably something he did two or three times a day. I could even understand if he’d been shirtless, but it was May and he had on a T-shirt, thick work gloves, and steel-toed boots. But just watching him move, laughing, comfortable in his own skin—well, I could’ve watched him all day.

“Oh, my god. Please don’t tell me it’s Preston.”

My heart leaped to my throat. “What?”

“Preston. Please don’t tell me the reason you won’t marry Chase is because of Preston, that you have some sick, misguided idea in your head that he’ll be back.”

I wanted to clamp my hand over her mouth. I shuddered. Call me superstitious, but I still believed in the Betelgeuse rule, and I didn’t need what’s his name appearing in Diane’s dining room. Or anywhere else in my life. I hadn’t heard from him in months, and I didn’t want any reincarnations, thank you very much.

“Of course not,” I said, horrified. “How could you think that?”

She settled her hands on her hips. “How? Because you’re with a gorgeous man who worships the ground you walk on, whose baby your carrying, yet you refuse to marry him. Why wouldn’t I think that? It’s not like you’ve ever been clearheaded when it comes to Preston.”

I cringed. Four times. She’d said his name four times. That couldn’t be good.

“And I’ll tell you another thing. I’m not the only one who thinks that.” Her eyebrows inched upward.

“Who would think that?”

“No one’s said anything to Chase, of course, at least not that I know of. But the guys talk, and you know Wally. He’s an old lady in a forty-two extra long.”

I faced the window again. The old Impala was parked outside Wally’s garage. Chase was rewinding the chains. Of course there was a reason I wasn’t marrying him: his family. I couldn’t imagine willfully avoiding his mother for the rest of our lives.

My own mother would never have been this pigheaded about something. Even with Preston—oh my god, five times—but even with what’s his name, she let me know she disapproved, yet she never threatened to disown me or turn her back on me.

Chase saw his brother five days a week, but their relationship was still strained. I could only imagine what Dylan and Lorraine had said when they learned I was having a baby.

I thoroughly believed that Dylan had tried to convince Chase it wasn’t his. And if I was right, that would’ve made things that much worse between them, even though Chase knew Dylan could be right.

But the idea of Chase’s thinking I wouldn’t marry him because I was still in love with he who shall remain nameless? That I couldn’t bear. That would destroy any chance we had for happiness.

Chase reached up to secure the chains. As he did, his shirt inched up, exposing the skin around his waist. I went weak in the knees.

When he saw me at the window, he grinned. Warm and tingly, it went straight through to my spine. When he and Wally began walking toward the house, I grabbed my purse.

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” I said, hoisting the strap over my shoulder. “We have to go.”

Diane was dumping chips into a basket lined with a paper napkin.

“I thought you were staying. I made dip.”

“You stirred onion soup mix into a container of sour cream.”

“I had to rinse the spoon and put it in the dishwasher, didn’t I?” She folded her arms and gave me a long look. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just remembered something I need to do. I’ll call you tomorrow.” I beat a path out the door, cutting Chase and Wally off before they reached the house.

“What’s wrong?” Chase asked as I came barreling through the door. I pulled it closed behind me.

“Diane has a headache, so we’re going to take a rain check.” I slipped my hand into his and started pulling him toward the truck.

“She was fine twenty minutes ago,” Wally argued.

“It came on all of a sudden,” I said. “You should go see if she needs anything.”

He glanced up at his back door. “Yeah. Hey, I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s okay,” I called over my shoulder.

Chase helped me into the cab and climbed in beside me. “That’s too bad. I have to drop the truck off at the station, but we can stop at Blondie’s if you want or go to a movie or something, since Izzy is spending the weekend at your mother’s.”

I shook my head. “I have a better idea. It might be a little crazy, but I hope you’ll say yes.”

“Does it involve one of your cravings? Other than a pitcher of margaritas, I’ll get you anything you want.”

“Is that a promise?” I held my arm across the console. He took it and kissed the back of my hand.

“You know it is.”

“Good. Let’s drop this off and head home.”

Chase hadn’t proposed to me in at least a month. It was possible that he’d gotten sick of asking or that he’d changed his mind, but I didn’t think so.

It was time for me to worry about my own happiness, and to hell with anyone who wanted to stand in the way.

If he wasn’t going to ask me to marry him again, then I’d just have to ask him.

And I knew the perfect place.