Damn. I’m busted.

It wasn’t until just before she pulled into her driveway when Sophie noticed she was being followed. Her heart plummeted to her stomach, then jumped back up to land in her throat, when she recognized the driver of the jeep parked on her bumper. In her rearview mirror, she could just make out the expression on his face. It was one of anger, shock and disbelief.

She moaned and leaned her head on her steering wheel, trying to get a grip on her thoughts and come up with just the right thing to say. Instead, her mind was a jumble of chaotic thoughts. Nothing seemed to solidify into a reasonable explanation for what she had done.

Suddenly, her car door was yanked open, and Gage stood there, breathing fire. “Get out.”

Reacting automatically to his demand, she jumped out of the driver’s seat to stand before him. “Gage, let’s discuss this like...”

“Why? Why did you do it?” He glowered down at her, his hands on the car behind her, bracketing her between them.

“Gage, could we please go inside? I know you must be angry, but we should discuss this in private, not on the street.” She was babbling, but he was making her very nervous, standing so close to her.

He leaned closer still, forcing her to tilt back against the car to look at his face.

“You lied to me, you seduced me with your female tricks and played me for the fool in front of the entire unit.”

That made her mad. She placed her hands against his chest and shoved hard, pushing him only a few inches away. She rose onto tiptoe, getting closer to eye level with him, then launched her own attack. “Now wait a minute, buster.” Sophie poked a finger at his chest to emphasize each point. “I didn’t have to seduce you. The night we met, you were moving pretty fast yourself—so fast, you never even bothered to find out my name. And I didn’t play you for a fool in front of the unit. They have no idea about us, and I don’t intend to tell them anything.”

“You cheated on Bryce,” he said, shoving two fingers at her face, “twice. That’s unforgivable.”

“I didn’t cheat on Bryce. Bryce is my brother.”

“That’s just sick.” Gage backed away, his face mirroring his horror. “You’re having an affair with your brother?”

“Ooooh! You arrogant, prejudging, moronic, so-and-so!” Sophia stomped her booted foot in rage. “That’s not what I meant. You jumped to conclusions about Bryce. I just didn’t bother to enlighten you. Next time, you start to pass judgment on someone, make sure you have all the facts straight.”

“How could I get anything straight when you can’t be honest with me about the simplest facts? You’re a liar, Sophie Keaton. Honesty is the most important ingredient in any relationship. I can’t believe I ever thought I was in love with you. I just want you and your wacky family to stay out of my life. And that includes your crazy cat.”

With that, Gage spun on his heel, climbed into his jeep and started to back out of her driveway.

“Oh, yeah? Well, Rambo’s a wimp!” she yelled after him.

Instead of pulling into his driveway, he sped away.

Huh. Well, that’s that. That solves the problem of keeping Gage out of my life.

Sophie realized she was standing in her driveway, in sight of the rest of the neighborhood, and anyone within shouting distance would have heard her last comment. Suddenly embarrassed, she slammed her car door and walked into her house, her haven.

Be careful what you ask for, you might get it.

Her mother’s words came back to her from childhood. A week ago, she might have felt great satisfaction for getting what she wanted. Perversely, now that Gage had sped out of her life, she suddenly realized just how much she wanted him in it. As the emptiness of her home settled in around her, she felt tired, emotionally defeated and ready to cry.

“What have I done?” she whispered.

Sophie had spent so much time fighting to keep Gage out of her life, when in actuality she’d been fighting her own growing attraction.

Shoulders drooping, Sophie trudged through her house, stripping off the outer layers of her uniform. She sank onto the couch in the living room and bent over to loosen the long laces on her combat boots. Cujo appeared around the corner of the sofa and chased the strings as she pulled them from the eyelets. Sophie tugged at the boots and let them drop to the floor. Tired of swatting the strings, the cat joined her on the couch and rubbed his head against her bare arm.

“Hi, Cujo. Did you miss me, today?” Sophie ran her hand along the smooth fur of the yellow and white tabby.

Taking that as permission, Cujo stepped carefully into her lap and sat looking up into her eyes.

“Sometimes I feel like you’re the only one who understands me.” Sophie gave the cat a half smile as a tear rolled out of the corner of her eye and down her cheek.

Cujo seemed to watch the tear make a path down her face to land on her shirt. He looked up when the next one rolled out of her eye and followed the same path of the first. Curiosity getting the better of him, he stood up on his haunches, placed his forepaws on her chest and sniffed the next tear on her cheek, tickling her face with his whiskers. Putting one paw up in the air, he waited for the next tear and lightly batted at it.

Laughing through her tears, she gathered the cat into her arms, and buried her face in his fur as the tears came faster. Cujo squirmed to get away, choosing a perch at the other end of the couch just out of her reach.

Sophie replaced the cat with a pillow, curled on her side on the couch and continued to pour out her grief. After licking the tears out of his fur, Cujo sat patiently, while Sophie spent her tears.

---

That evening, Bryce found Sophie asleep, still half dressed in her uniform, with Cujo curled next to her. Her face was blotchy from crying, and she hiccupped softly with each breath. Unwilling to wake her, he moved through the living room to the kitchen to fix a light dinner of chicken noodle soup and tuna sandwiches for them both. When he had it laid out on the table, Sophie staggered in, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

She took the seat next to him at the table. “When did you come in?” she asked dully.

“Just about twenty minutes ago.” Bryce looked her up and down, taking in the rumpled uniform and the salty traces of dried tears. “I didn’t want to wake you. You look like you’ve had a rough day. Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” she moaned. Pushing her bowl and plate out of the way, she laid her face against the cool wood surface.

“Let me guess. This wouldn’t have anything to do with the tall, dark and macho man next door, would it?”

“Oh, Bryce, I’ve made such a mess of everything!” Her wail was muffled by her sleeve.

“I take it he finally figured it out.”

“Yes.”

“And he was mad, right?”

“Livid,” she said, dully.

“So?”

She lifted her head and frowned at Bryce. “What do you mean, so?”

“Well didn’t you say you wanted him to leave you alone?”

“Yes, but...”

“Then what’s your problem, Sis?”

“Nothing,” she said sadly then threw her hands into the air and wailed, “Everything!” Sophie burst into another round of sloppy tears.

Bryce rose from his chair and knelt next to hers to gather her into his arms.

“Aw, Sophie, it’s not like you to cry. You’re the big sister, you’re not supposed to cry.”

“I...can’t...help...it,” she said, between hiccups and sobs.

“Gee, Sis, the big guy must mean something to you for you to fall apart like this. Come on, let’s go sit on the couch and talk through this logically.”

He tugged at her hand, pulling her from her chair, and led her to the couch in the living room.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” she muttered.

“Yes, there is and don’t argue. Let Dr. Bryce analyze the situation for you.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s look at all the facts. What’s the first fact?”

A thought suddenly struck her. “He said he was in love with me.”

“Okay, fact number one: he loves you. So, what’s the problem? He loves you. You love him. You two get together and live happily ever after. Case closed.”

“No, the operative word is was!”

“Okay, so back to the facts, and fact number one is—he was in love with you. Well, it’s a start. What’s fact number two?”

“I lied to him,” she stated flatly.

“I think lie is a little harsh. So, let’s make fact number two: you misled him.”

“Even if I could get past the lying part, I don’t meet his qualifications.” Sophie flopped back against the couch.

“Okay, so you can’t cook, and you’re not always graceful. You’re not tall, nor brunette, and...” he paused, and stared at her face, forcing her to look back at him, “you’re only a B in chest size.”

Rather than scowling as he’d hoped, her expression remained wan.

Bryce leaned forward and clasped her face between his hands and looked her straight in the eyes. “Sophie, those aren’t the things that count, and you know it.”

“No? Then why would he say that? Why would he go to the bother of making a list, if that wasn’t what he really wanted?”

Bryce released her, and sat back on his heels. “Obviously, you don’t know men. We like to talk a lot, but we don’t always say what we mean. It’s a man-thing. Like a peacock strutting his feathers.”

“Huh? What does Gage’s list have to do with peacocks?”

Bryce sighed. Apparently, Sophie’s brain was a little soggy from all those tears. “Never mind the peacocks.” He went straight for the point. “What was the last thing on his list?”

“Dynamite in bed,” she said, her mouth tightening. Bryce noted with satisfaction there was a little glitter of anger in her eyes.

His lips twitched at the corners, but he refused to smile. “Oh, yes, how could I have forgotten that?”

“I can’t imagine,” she said, her words short and clipped.

“Well, you must have made an impression on him. That night he came to dinner, there was so much heat in the room NASA could have ignited a space rocket. Think about it, Sis, he cared enough about you to threaten me!”

That caught her attention, and she sat up.

“He threatened you? Why?”

“You remember Tisha, don’t you?”

“Yeah, what’s she got to do with Gage?”

“Nothing, except I had her over a couple of days last week while you were out, and it got him all hot and bothered.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the first time was last Sunday. I brought her over to the house to study and, well, you know... Next thing I know, there’s Gage ringing the doorbell with some dumb excuse about checking a water faucet in the kitchen.”

Mention of the water faucet caused Sophie to blush furiously.

Bryce eyed her discomfort with interest. “Say, what’s with the red face? You want to tell me something about a water faucet?”

She shook her head vigorously, the color in her cheeks deepening. “No, just finish your story.”

“Anyway, he pulls me out the back door while Tisha is buttoning her shirt, and Gage tells me to get out with Tisha before you get home.”

“He did what?”

“He was trying to get me out of the house with Tisha before you got home. Pay attention, so I don’t have to repeat myself.”

“Okay, okay. So, when was the second threat?”

“A couple of nights later, I stopped by the house with Tisha again, and you were out, and anyway, we didn’t stay long. When I came home later that night, Gage was waiting for me. He called me into his house and threatened me with bodily harm.”

“Threatened you, how?”

“He told me not to hurt you.”

“And that was a threat?”

“Sophie, Sophie, Sophie.” Bryce shook his head. “It’s another one of those man-things you just don’t seem to understand.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, then enlighten me, oh great man. And hurry it up!”

“It’s not so much what he said, as how he said it. I could tell he was really mad, because his face was red.”

Sophie nodded her understanding.

“His fists were clenched and raised like he was ready to swing.”

“So, what did you do?” She leaned forward, interest evident in her expression.

“I said okay.”

“You said okay? And then what?”

“We watched a game on TV.”

“That’s all?” she asked, her voice rising. “He threatens you with bodily harm, and you watch a game on TV? Am I the only one who doesn’t get it? So, what does that mean?”

“Haven’t you been listening? He said not to hurt you. He’s got to care if he confronts another man about how he treats his woman. And I thought you were the smart one in the family. Geez, Sis, sometimes you can be so dense.”

---

Sophia leaned against the back of the couch and thought about what Bryce had said. Gage really did care if he would confront Bryce about hurting her. “But, Bryce, that was before—when he thought I was easy. This is now. He’ll never forgive me for misleading him. I don’t even know why I should bother. Like I’ve said all along, he’s not my type.”

“Oh, come on, Sis. Don’t give me all that crap again about Gage not being your type. Why isn’t he your type? What’s so wrong with him?”

“He’s overbearing, egotistical, and likes to order people around—just like Dad.”

“It looked more to me like he’s a take-charge kind of guy, who is confident and can get things done. What’s it with you and Dad, anyway? You’ve had a burr under your saddle about him ever since you were a teenager.”

“I just didn’t like the way he would come home after being gone all that time and expect to take the lead from Mom. I watched her take the back seat every time he came home. It was demeaning.”

“Sophie, it seems to me your gripe isn’t with Dad, but with Mom. Did you ever think to ask Mom whether or not she liked it that way? Maybe she wanted to have a break from riding herd on us all the time. Did you think of that? Did you ever bother to ask her?”

She pushed her lips into a pout. “No, but it just didn’t seem right.”

“I think you need to straighten a few things out in your own mind, before you try to involve Gage in it. Sounds like you have a few things to resolve.”

“Maybe you’re right.” She felt even more depressed at the reminder she may have had it all wrong for so many years. Well, it was high time she figured it out.

“Why don’t you call Mom and Dad, right now? Better yet, go spend some time with them next weekend.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right. It’ll also get me away from moping around here. I can mope around at the folks’ house instead.”

“That’s the ticket. And while you’re gone, I can work on Gage.”

“No. Bryce, you just stay out of our affair.” Blushing, she rephrased. “Just leave it alone, and let us figure it out. Promise?”

“Uh...yeah. Okay, Sis, whatever you say,” Bryce said with his fingers crossed behind his back.