My fingers went straight to my lips as I walked to the door. The heat burned deeper than the surface he touched. He twisted and fired up my insides, but I wasn’t that girl. I mean, I was. I wanted him with every cell of my body. He was a bad boy, dark and brooding. He was exactly my type, but he wasn’t mine. He had a girlfriend, and I refused to be anyone’s deep, dark secret.

I threw open the door, expecting to see Mona or Nate, but it was Grace in tears on my front porch.

“We need to talk.” I stepped back and let her into my home. She looked around the place and smiled through her tears. “You’re such a big fat liar.” Her words weren’t said with any hint of seriousness, but her tears continued to fall. “You said you lived in a hovel.” She spun around and looked at my mostly furnished house.

“I’ve been lucky to have some help.” I ushered her to the sofa where she fell into the cushions like she was worn through and through. “What’s going on?”

The sound of the drill echoed from the kitchen, and Grace lifted herself from the couch. “Who’s here?” She swiped at her tears and pinched her cheeks. Leave it to Grace to find energy when it came to meeting new faces. Male faces, that was.

“It’s the handyman.”

She straightened her clothes and headed in the direction of the sound. She made a dead stop in the doorway.

I had to admit, he was a sight to see and had stopped me dead in my tracks a few times as well. I could stand around and stare at him all day, but then I’d never get anything done.

“That’s a tall piece of man candy, isn’t it?” she asked, looking over at Ryker.

“He’s taken,” I said. Ryker balked, but before he could answer, I pulled Grace into my bedroom and shut the door. “I can get you a glass of wine.” It was one of my guilty pleasures. I rewarded myself for a day’s work well done with a glass of wine and sometimes a few ropes of red licorice. Most people liked to pair wine with a meal, but I treated it more like a dessert event.

Grace shook her head no, which was odd because I’d never known Grace to turn down wine of any kind.

“I’m pregnant.” She flopped onto the bed and cried. In between her tears, she got out the rest of the story. “He’s married.” She wiped her runny nose with her sleeve. I came to sit beside her, and she buried her face in my lap. “He’s the only one I broke my no condom rule with. And that only happened once.”

“It only takes once, Grace. What were you thinking?” I ran my fingers through her hair.

“I wasn’t thinking. I was feeling, and my hormones overrode my brain.”

“What does he have to say about the situation?”

She rolled over and looked at me with her bloodshot green eyes. “He told me to get rid of it.”

“Who the hell is this asshole?”

Grace covered her face with her hands. “My boss,” she said in a muffled tone.

“Shit, Grace, what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I came here.”

I folded my arms around her and hugged her tight. “You can stay here while you figure it all out.”

* * *

The next morning Grace and I drove into the booming metropolis of Fury. Traffic was backed up by one car at the only stoplight in town.

“Don’t tell me this is it.” She twisted in her seat to look behind her.

“No, there’s the diner up ahead, and Ryker owns a motorcycle repair shop on the opposite end of town.” I made a left at the light and pulled into the parking lot of the diner.

“I can’t believe anyone can live out here. There’s no bars, no men.”

I looked down at her flat belly and shook my head. “Men are what got you in the situation you’re in now.”

She lowered her head. “I know, but not all men are bad, just the ones who fuck you on their lunch hour and go home to the little wife at the end of the day.” She twisted her lips into a frown. “I really thought he was different.”

“He was—he was married.” I turned off the engine and twisted in my seat to look at her. She looked better today. After a night of crying, she had it all out of her system, and she could plan her next move with a clear head.

“He didn’t wear a ring. He never talked about a wife. I had no idea.”

“Would it have mattered?” Grace worked hard and played hard; when she wanted something, she’d pursue it with single-minded focus until she claimed it.

“Yes, it would have. I’ve never knowingly slept with a married man.” She opened the door and stepped out.

Grace’s words were always picked with care. She said she wouldn’t knowingly sleep with a married man, but then again, I wondered whether she ever asked.

We walked into the diner and found Hannah glaring at us. Well, mostly at me, because she’d never met Grace. “Sit where you want,” she said with a sigh. She was a pretty girl, and I could see why Ryker was with her, although they never really looked together. Ryker didn’t seem like a warm-and-fuzzy kind of guy unless he was whispering in my ear. Just the thought of that sent shivers all the way to my sex.

When I thought of Ryker, which was always, I imagined he was more of a get-in-and-get-out kind of person. I didn’t see him being all lovey and romantic. I saw him as the kind of guy who didn’t mince words. He and Hannah probably had an agreement. He gave what he wanted, and by the look on her face anytime he was around, it wasn’t enough.

We ordered breakfast, and I drank coffee while Grace drank juice. She was a woman with child now, and her choices were important. I wondered whether my mother had been extra careful with her diet while pregnant with me. I had so many questions that would forever remain unanswered.

Grams had told me how pretty my mother was, but she didn’t have many pictures. In fact, she didn’t have any of my father. They hadn’t been married, and I got the impression that Grams didn’t like him much. She blamed him for my mother’s death. He was driving, so according to Grams, it was all his fault. I closed my eyes and focused on pulling a picture of them into my memory, like I’d done a million times before, but nothing came. Nothing ever came.

“Is there anything to do out here in the boonies?” Grace asked as Hannah brought our food.

“There’s a carnival in the next town over. It’s happening tomorrow night. You should go.”

“Are you going with Ryker?”

“Right.” Hannah turned and left without offering any more.

“Is that what hicks do for fun?” Grace asked once Hannah left.

“Hicks and pregnant women,” I laughed. “We’re going.”