I couldn’t believe I had forgotten to pay the electric bill. Way to show everyone what a mature adult you are, Juliana.

I ignored the taunting voice in my head and hopped on one foot toward the door as I put my boot on the other.

Thankfully, no one was there to witness my idiocy. Jolene had gone home over the weekend to visit family, and apparently, also meeting future husband possibilities. She sounded super stoked when we talked. I told her to ask them if they were into platonic sister-wives so we wouldn’t ever have to separate. That at least got a smile out of her.

I scrambled to find my phone, keys, and the bill. Technically, it wasn’t late yet. If I could make it to the building by noon, then I wouldn’t owe a late fee. But there was no chance of mailing it in with it due tomorrow, on a Sunday. Cue eye roll.

I’d never been late on a bill before, but I’d been so caught up with extra research material Dr. Stahl had given me. Because he hated me. Hell, he hated everyone, but for someone who was striving for success on her own, he was making it more difficult for me. It didn’t matter that I had strict orders to be at the forensic lab twice a week, he’d scoffed and stared down his nose at me.

“Since you’re off gallivanting around, Jolene has had to take on more TA work with the useless undergrad student,” he had snarled at me. “She has fallen behind on research, so I expect you to pick up the slack. Have these read by Monday with a plan ready for the week.”

He’d tossed a stack of research articles that would take anyone a month to read through. So, my mind had been a little frantic over the week, trying to cram as much information in as possible. If I hadn’t taken a small break to eat, then I would’ve completely forgotten the bill that sat on the kitchen counter under my Chinese take-out menu.

Now I was about to be a frantic failure without power if I didn’t haul ass. Dramatic? Yep.

Slipping my last boot on, my phone began to vibrate in my hand. I almost drop it on the tile when at the last minute I caught it, bringing it to my ear with a breathless, “Hello?”

“Hey, Jules.” Hudson’s voice boomed through the phone.

“Hey, Hudson.” I locked the door and jogged down my apartment stairs toward Betsy.

“I was calling to check in. I haven’t heard your voice in a while. I miss you.”

“Oh, yeah. I’ve been busy with work and everything.” I purposefully ignored the ‘I miss you’ comment. “How are you?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m good. Got a promotion at work last week.”

“That’s great, Hudson. I know you love working for my dad.” I put my key into the ignition and said a silent prayer that Betsy would turn over on the first try. I didn’t need Hudson to hear her struggle and start in on me again.

“I do. Your parents had me and my family over for dinner this week.” I struggled to follow the quick topic change from work to my parents. “They asked me if I’d mention to you maybe calling more.”

“Hudson,” I said, hoping he’d catch the warning note in my voice.

“They miss you, Jules. We all do.”

“I know. But that’s just the way it is. My life is here now.”

Hudson and I had been friends since we were in diapers. We got in trouble together, played together, did everything together. We were each other’s first everything, too. It was no secret that our families expected us to end up together. And with me leaving, it had changed the future they had imagined for me.

They had been upset when Hudson and I broke up, but I guessed they’d expected me to go to grad school and come back to my rightful place by his side. I threw a curve ball to their plans when I left. I hadn’t realized Hudson had been expecting me to return to his side too until he’d dropped that huge bomb on me at the airport. But it was too late. I had never felt passion with Hudson. It was more like comfort. That comfort had become even more apparent after my night with Shane, which lit me on fire in ways I’d never experienced. I just couldn’t go back to Hudson after that.

“What happened to us Jules? Weren’t we happy together?”

This wasn’t the conversation I wanted to have as I sped through the streets trying to get my bill dropped off on time.

“Of course we were. Just . . .Maybe not in the way we should have been.”

“What do you mean? Did I not satisfy you? Because the way I remember it, I satisfied you many times.”

I laughed uncomfortably, not wanting to talk about our past sex life. “Did you honestly feel a fiery passion with me? If you did, then why did you let me walk away so easily?”

“Because it’s what I thought you needed, and time away would make you realize how great we were.”

“No, Hudson. I walked away because I wanted to feel more.”

“I refuse to believe we’re completely over. If you need to get it out of your system, then fine. But I’ll be here, waiting for you.”

“I’m sorry, Hudson. I have to go.” I hung up before he could respond. I didn’t know what to say anyway.

Finally, I pulled up to the building at twelve-ten. Traffic had been a bitch, but maybe someone was still there and would let me in. I parked and walked up to the door and of course no one was there. The place sat dark and barren. A sign on the door read that all weekend payments could be dropped off at the slot on the side of the building.

At least I wouldn’t be late.

I walked around and slipped my payment in, feeling satisfaction at having it done, just as the skies opened and buckets of rain poured down on me. I pulled my jacket tight and ran toward Betsy, getting soaked on the way. Freaking end of February was just cold enough to chill me to my bones, but not cold enough for snow.

I got in and blasted my heat, which decided to take forever to get going, but at that point, I was okay with even slightly warm air.

“Come on, Betsy,” I said, stroking the dash. “We just got to make it home. Mama will take you to the spa and get you an oil change and checkup. Just warm me up, baby.”

However, a couple blocks later, Betsy gave up on me. She sadly puttered, and I had enough sense to coast over to the shoulder. I placed her in park and tried to get the ignition to turn over. A couple of false starts, and then nothing. The lights came on, but the engine was dead.

“Betsy. Baby. Don’t do this. I’ve defended you to everyone. Don’t let me down, girl.”

I closed my eyes and whispered a quick prayer before turning the key.

Nothing.

“God dammit!” I yelled. “No! No, no, no!” Every word was punctuated by me smacking the steering wheel. Frustrated tears burned the backs of my eyes and I clenched my jaw to hold them back, but it was useless. The day, the week, the conversation with Hudson, it all caught up with me. I let my forehead fall to the leather of the steering wheel and cried. Who was I going to call? The obvious choice would be Jack. He’d know what to do. But my pride refused to give in.

He’d look at me with this I-told-you-so look. Then he’d call my mom and dad and I’d be fucked. And I couldn’t call anyone else because they’d all talk about it at Sunday brunch, and I’d sit there like a shamed child.

After letting a few more tears fall, I sat up and wiped my cheeks, taking a deep breath and tried to think until a light bulb went off.

Shane.

He was a cop, he had to help me. And he didn’t really chit chat with anyone, so it’d be fine. I’d just have to ask him to not tell Jack. A part of me didn’t want him to see me like this, but he’d already seen me low, so whatever. He was the lesser of two evils.

I pulled out my phone and scrolled until I found his name. It rang once before he picked up.

“Have a date so soon after the last awesome adventure?” His tone teased me, but it was all I needed to hear, and dammit, if I didn’t embarrass myself even further when I started to cry.

“Sh-Shane.”

“What’s wrong? Where are you?”

Immediately his tone changed to serious, falling into cop mode.

“I’m fine. So-sorry. My car broke down and I didn’t want to call Jack because he would just get on my case and I can’t, I can’t have any more today. I didn’t know who else to call.” It all poured out of me and I could hear his sigh through the phone.

“Okay. Have you called insurance for a tow?”

“Umm, no. I didn’t know I needed to.” I was such a novice and felt like an idiot admitting everything I didn’t know.

“Where are you?” I gave him my location. “Stay in your car with the doors locked. I’ll be there shortly.”

As soon as I hung up, I dropped my phone into the passenger seat and pulled down my visor to check myself in the mirror and wipe away any stray mascara trailing down my cheeks. I did the best I could with a paper napkin I found in the glovebox, and then closing my eyes, I took some deep, steadying breaths to try and calm down. Shane had heard me lose my cool; he didn’t need to see what a hot mess I looked like on top of it.

Once I looked a little less horrifying, I began searching for my insurance card. I was pulling it out, as Shane nosed his car in behind me.

He came around to the passenger side and I unlocked the door to let him in. The rain had slowed, but not stopped. Water dripped down his temples and the bridge of his nose.

“I found my insurance card.” I held up the piece of paper like it was the answer to all our problems. He was nice enough not to laugh at me.

“Good. Why don’t you go ahead and call them? Let them know you broke down and need a tow. But first, try and turn the engine over for me. Let me hear it.”

I pushed me keys into the ignition and hoped that Betsy would both start, so I could avoid whatever was wrong with her, and also not start because I would feel like the biggest tool bag for making a mess out of nothing.

Taking a deep breath, I turned the key. Silence. The lights came on, but the ignition didn’t do a damn thing.

“Well, it’s not your battery. Besides that, it could be about anything.”

“That narrows it down.”

He ignored my sarcastic comment. “Pop the hood and let me see if I notice anything off.”

“Okay.” I started looking along my dash around my wheel for something that looked like it popped my hood. Apparently, I took too long, because Shane’s long arm reached across my chest and pulled a lever by my steering wheel. My breathing stuttered at having him so close, his body slightly leaned over mine, the heat from his skin reaching across the small space between us to light me on fire. He was so close, I had to fight from leaning forward to bury my lips against his neck and licking the drop of water that slowly slid down his sharp jaw.

A blush worked its way up into my cheeks from my thoughts, but deepened when he gave me a slightly exasperated look, making my embarrassment at looking so dumb impossible to hide. Miss I-want-to-be-independent couldn’t even pop her own damn hood.

Thankfully, if he noticed, he didn’t acknowledge it before getting out and moving around the front of my car. While he peeked under the hood, I called my insurance company and stumbled through answering all the questions. By the end of the conversation, I had been taken down a peg on how smart I thought I was. I had a Master’s in biochemistry and could break down the parts of a cell, but I could barely make an insurance claim. So much for college.

Shane climbed back in a couple of minutes after I ended the call. He was drenched. His light hair looked almost brown as it clung to his forehead. I clenched my fists to stop myself from dragging my fingers across his forehead and pushing it back to stop the water dripping down his face.

“I don’t see anything obvious out of the ordinary, so it’s going to have to be taken to a shop. They may get a chance to look at it today, but if not, they probably won’t until Monday.”

“Dammit. I guess I’ll have to see if Jolene can give me a ride. Or I’ll have to ride the bus.”

“Don’t ride the bus.”

“I don’t have much choice.”

“You have lots of choices. Jack—”

“I am not asking Jack for help. He barely thinks I’m capable as it stands. If he found out about this, he’d jump ship to Mom and Dad’s side and probably cart me back to Texas himself.”

“Okay.” Shane dragged the words out and lifted his hands in defeat. “Just, don’t ride the bus. They’re not always the safest places. Call me if you need a ride and, if I can’t give you one, I’ll find someone who can.”

“Thank you,” I muttered, my eyes glued to my lap. “The tow should be here soon.”

“Good. We’ll get you all squared away and then I’ll get you home.”

“Thank you,” I said again.

We didn’t wait long before the truck arrived. We were going to follow him to the shop, but the driver told me there was no point. They wouldn’t be able to work on it today. He said they’d call me with an update, then he looked me over, shivering and wet in the cold rain, and told me to hurry home before I got sick.

Shane escorted me to his car and blasted the heat. Actual heat. Not the pitiful gasps of warm air Betsy struggled to give off.

“Listen,” Shane said with his hands gripping the steering wheel, the car still in park. “I live right around the corner. Let me take you there and get you warmed up. I’ve got some soup too, and then I’ll take you home.”

“I can take care of myself.” I sounded like an ungrateful snotty child, as I sat shivering in the seat.

“I know. Just . . .Just let me get you warm.”

Biting my lip, I watched his profile and my imagination took off. How would he keep me warm? Why did he care so much? He probably missed me and was using this opportunity to get close to me. The idea warmed me more than the heat coming through the air vents.

However, the snug image I had created in my head shattered with his next words.

“If Jack ever does find out about this, at least I can say I took care of his little sister and maybe he’d spare me some mercy.”