I awoke to noises in the common area. As my brain came online, I made out Reagan’s voice. Her placid tone probably meant she was talking to her mother, poor thing. The woman ruled her life from afar.

I rolled off my pillow and nearly jumped out of my skin. Last night, I’d barely talked to Noah when I realized he could never be the one. He was a nice guy, but there were no sparks between us. He must have sensed that too as he hadn’t made any moves.

When I’d left, I stupidly checked for Gavin and didn’t find him. Yet when later I’d walked home, there were a few times it’d felt like he was there. Though I’d never spotted him. I’d been so angry that I couldn’t get him out of my head, I’d taken off his shirt and stuffed my pillow in it so I could punch it and get out all my frustration.

Seeing that I’d curled myself around said pillow during the night freaked me out. I could still smell him on the shirt. It was spicy and a little smoky from the fire. I glared at the poor thing I’d given a beating before shoving it off the bed. I briefly wondered what I would do with the shirt until I noticed the time.

Crapola. Mom would be here soon. I darted out of my room and passed Reagan’s door, which was cracked open. She was on her bed reading a book. Curiosity had me stopping to ask her about what she and Tade had been huddled together talking about the night before.

My girl had done the right thing and apologized. And what did Tade do? He’d asked her out. I couldn’t help hugging her when she said she’d accepted. I felt like a proud mama, like she was taking her first steps.

“What about you and Gavin?” she asked.

I really didn’t feel like answering and waved a hand to dismiss her question. “We shall no longer speak of him.”

“But—”

I shook my head. There were some things I heard about Tade that I wanted to pass on to her. Not that I believed any of it. But I thought it was important enough to share considering her date.

“You’re it,” I said in conclusion. “I see it in the way he looks at you. Plus Gavin even said as much.”

He probably didn’t even realize that he’d given me information I could share with her.

“I thought we weren’t mentioning his name.”

I blinked. “Yeah, forget I said it. Forget him.”

She targeted a finger at my chest. “You still like him.”

“Temptation is overrated.”

“So he’s tempting you,” she teased.

She meant well so I tried not to get annoyed.

“I’m not going there. Besides, you and I have more important things to consider.”

She had absolutely no clue. “What’s that?”

I gave her my best duh look.

“Like, what you’re going to wear?”

She shrugged and said, “Clothes.”

I spent the next half-hour searching and teaching her about the rules of dating since this was her very first one. If I didn’t know her mother, I would have thought her weird considering she was stunning. But knowing her family put things into perspective.

My phone buzzed and I remembered my mother was coming over.

“Mom,” I said into the phone.

“I’m downstairs.”

“Give me a minute.” I ended the call and said to Reagan, “Good luck, but you don’t need it. He’s going to die when he sees you.”

Propping open the door with a doorstop, I hurried down the stairs and let Mom in.

“Meggie.”

Her hug was welcome and I reveled in it.

“Mom,” I said back. “But don’t call me Meggie in public, please.”

She laughed and pushed my hair over my shoulder. “You’ll always be my Meggie.”

There was another long hug until I led her upstairs to our room.

“Reagan, you remember my mother.”

She stepped forward and held out her hand. “Yes, nice seeing you again, Ms. Stevens.”

“You too,” Mom said.

“I have to hop in the shower.”

It was past noon and as a late riser, I was ill prepared for Mom’s arrival.

As I left, I heard Mom ask, “What have you girls been up to?”

Even though I couldn’t see it, I imagined Reagan’s blush as she answered. “Megan was helping me get ready for my first date…”

I was grateful my mom was an understanding one. She had her own struggles with her conservative parents, who didn’t like any form of technology and had very old-fashioned views about the world. She would probably understand my best friend in ways I didn’t.

In record time, I showered and dressed. After saying goodbye to Reagan, I felt excited and nervous. Today was the day I would get answers I’d longed for.

“Do you have any suggestions on where to eat?” Mom asked on the way to her car.

Immediately, I thought about where Gavin had taken me and gave her directions there.

When we arrived, her brow knitted. “Are you sure this is the place?”

I put my hand on her shoulder. “Trust me, you’re going to love it.”

She reluctantly parked, her eyes darting at the people milling about. In the light of day, the aging brown building with businesses like a check cashing place, a laundromat, and a vacancy next to the Chinese takeout place didn’t look like somewhere you could find fine dining. But my stomach remembered and growled when it landed on the iniquitous door that lead to Terelli’s.

We were seated and reviewing the menu when Mom gasped. I’d taken the seat by the window, which left her back exposed to most of the dining room. She’d been covertly checking out the place.

“What?” I asked in a hushed tone.

“Don’t look,” she whispered.

Of course when she said that, I immediately glanced around. Two men that hadn’t been there before were seated at a table near the door across the restaurant from us.

“Megan,” she warned.

I met her frightened gaze. Her eyes said so much as her words were few.

“What’s wrong?”

She leaned over. “I know those two men. One of them is a part of a case we’re working on.”

Her voice was so soft, I was surprised I heard it. Though it was enough to have a chill roll down my spine.

“We should go,” I suggested.

She grabbed my hand, the one near the wall half hidden by our held menus.

“No, they will see me. And they’ll have men outside. Let’s just order and eat.”

We did and unfortunately fear sucked the taste out of everything. I could have been eating a cardboard box as I forced food down my throat.

Then one of the men answered a call. In two snaps, the waiter came over and took their plates. A short time later, he came back with two boxes and handed them what I imagined was a bill. They left soon after.

“They’re gone,” I said.

Mom slowly glanced over her shoulder and seemed to deflate with relief.

“Should we go?”

She shook her head. “Let’s have dessert. It will give us time to make sure they're really gone.”

The crème brûlée tasted the same as the last time but so very different. As much as I liked the place, I didn’t think I would come back. Twice, me eating here had ended badly.

When we left, Mom scared me without saying a word. She kept checking her mirrors. Did she think someone was following us?

“What’s going on?”

“Not here,” she said.

“We can’t talk in the car?”

She nailed me with a look that meant be quiet.

“At least tell me where we’re going?”

She said nothing and I shut up. I tried not to be freaked out by the situation. Eventually we pulled up to my grandparents’ house and she said, “Lee’s here.”

“Lee who?” I asked.

My voice cracked on a dry throat. I hadn’t spoken during the forty-minute ride to get there. I should have guessed that’s where we were going.

“My boyfriend, Megan.” She said it like I should remember and maybe I had forgotten. “I thought you should meet, especially if you’re planning on coming home for spring break.”

That was not happening. I couldn’t survive if I heard them getting it on. Gross.

“I’m staying with Reagan. She’s not going home and I don’t want her to be alone.”

It wasn’t exactly the truth. Reagan was trying to get out of going home.

She nodded and parked the car. When she got out, a rather good-looking older man stepped out on the porch.

“I wasn’t expecting you so soon,” he said.

Mom glanced back at me. “Something came up.”

He met her halfway and they hugged. Well, that explained who Lee was. The one Mom was shacking up with. She spoke softly with him while I stood by the car unsure what to do next.

“Megan.”

I sucked in a lungful of air and remembered he wasn’t my enemy and I was super happy for her.

I extended a hand. “Hi, I’m Megan.”

His expression was warm and crinkled his eyes at the corners. His salt-and-pepper hair was cut short, but he wasn’t balding.

“I’m Lee. I’m glad to finally meet you. Your mother talks about you all the time.”

Seeing I couldn’t say the same, I just smiled and shook his hand.

“Well, I sure you two need to talk. I have a few things to finish in here.”

He hooked a thumb over his shoulders and nodded before going inside the old farmhouse.

“What is he doing?”

Mom seemed to exhale for an eternity. “He’s setting up an alarm and he had a guy add a landline to the house off the books.”

I had so many questions. “Why? Did Grandpa approve?”

She held up a hand to stop my diatribe.

“Grandpa didn’t have much of a choice.” She blew out air. “I mentioned the case at the restaurant.”

My stomach churned. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”

“It’s a precaution. I got them a cell phone they’ll leave charged all the time, just in case.”

It had to be really bad if my grandparents agreed to all of this. They lived completely off the grid.

“It’s probably a good thing you aren’t coming home for break.”

“Are you safe?”

Her smile was there, but it lacked confidence. “That’s why Lee’s here and why I asked him to move in.”

“He moved in to keep you safe?”

“Not exactly. Like I said before, he’s been coming to the city for a while. The Feds have tried to put a case together and they’ve come up with a state charge to get the bad guys off the street. We’ve dated awhile and now that things are heating up—” When my brow arched, she narrowed her eyes. “The case heating up,” she admonished. “He offered to stay with me.”

“To keep you safe?” I asked again.

“Because we love each other and to keep me safe.”

“So you love him?”

She nodded. “I think so. Are you okay with that?”

It’s not like I had a choice.

“As long as you’re happy.”

Her grin broadened and we hugged.

“Now for the hard part.” And I had forgotten her purpose for coming to see me. “Why don’t we go sit out back.”

My grandparents owned a small chunk of land and there was a huge white oak tree with a smoothed-out area at the base that was great for sitting up against.

“Are you going to tell me about my dad?”

Her shoulders shifted back and she met my gaze.

“You have to understand, I’d gotten my first job as a clerk for one of the federal prosecutors. One night, after fetching too much coffee and making too many copies, I ended up at a bar a couple of blocks away from the office.”

I couldn’t keep quiet as anticipation clawed at my throat. “That’s where you met him?”

She nodded. “He was gorgeous of course. Looking back now, I was just so dazzled by him. I couldn’t believe a guy like him would want to talk to me.”

I didn’t like her putting herself done. “What? You’re beautiful. He was probably just as star-struck.”

Sadly, her head drifted side to side. “I’ll spare you the details, but he swept me off my feet.” She sort of laughed, but it lacked humor. “And everything else.”

“You got pregnant?” She nodded. “With me?”

She exhaled. “Needless to say, before I figured out I was carrying you, I learned he’d been using me for information.”

That hurt. I didn’t want to believe my biological father was a bad man. Who would? But the more she said, the more my heart plummeted.

She swallowed and I fidgeted with my hands because I couldn’t sit completely still.

“I called him on it and he didn’t deny it. When I told him to leave, he did.”

“But there has to be more?” I questioned.

I didn’t think my mom would hide my dad’s identity from me just because he’d been a turd.

“He wasn’t just some guy sent to find out information on a case—he was the son of the guy we were trying to bring down.”

Again, I had the sick feeling that I would recognize his name.

“Who is he?”

“Gregor Weber.” She waited for some recognition from me, but when none came, she added, “He’s the illegitimate son of Alonso Aparicio.”

That name did mean something. “Is he the South American drug lord they’re trying to bring down?” She nodded. “Gregor Weber doesn’t sound like a South American name.”

“Alonso, like many men with his wealth and power, had a German-born mistress in California. He didn’t want his wife or his men to find out he’d fathered a child with her. She named him after her family.”

She reached in a pocket and handed me a folded picture. When I undid it, I saw a striking blond man whose skin resembled that of any California guy’s who’d spent a lot of time in the sun. At first glance I didn’t see me in him. His eyes were crystal blue.

“Does he know about me?”

I pressed my lips together, waiting for the answer.

“No. I didn’t learn about my pregnancy until after I learned of his deceit and sent him away.”

“How did you find out?”

“He was listed as a person of interest on the case.”

My chest constricted and it felt like I couldn’t breathe.

“I raised holy hell; I probably broke every piece of furniture in his hotel room.”

“Wait? He doesn’t live here?”

She silently said no. “He admitted he’d been sent to find out information, but told me he fell in love with me. I called him a liar. In a play to get me to trust him, he admitted who he was. Something that wasn’t known about him from the case file.”

“So he did love you?”

She blinked rapidly and I wondered if she wanted to cry. “It didn’t matter. He claimed he had no choice and told me I was better off without him. He promised to leave me alone and say nothing to his father. ”

I dreaded my next question. “Did you tell your boss about him?”

“No.” Her voice was soft when she admitted that. “I was so hurt, so sick to my stomach, it took a couple of days to realize my sickness was more than just a broken heart.”

She didn’t know much more, as she lost track of him over the years. Considering who my grandfather was, she thought it was best to keep me a secret from them.

I had no time to process when my grandparents came home. I hadn’t seen them for a while.

“Megan, dear,” Grandma said, walking toward us. I scrambled to my feet and hugged her. “We missed you. Tell me all about your adventures at college.”

I was led to the house with her warm arms around me. Grandpa's hug grounded me more. He was the only father I’d ever known and the kindest man you’d ever meet.

We ate and talked. My grandparents engaged Lee and made him feel welcome.

The only thing I could think about on the ride home was that what my father had told Mom sounded so much like what Gavin told me.

Maybe I should heed his warning.