CHAPTER 11

After folding towels and putting them into the linen closet, Gemma stopped at the top of the stairs and listened. She didn’t hear Ford. Living with him was a grueling exercise in self-control. After seeing him in action last night, she’d avoided him today as best she could. Her house wasn’t enormous, though, and they’d had their run-ins. Coming out of the bathroom. In the kitchen for lunch. Hearing him moving about was equally tortuous. Closing the front door when he went on one of his patrols. Sliding the back door shut. The creak of the floor as he walked. The sound of him in the guest room.

How much more could she take? On top of the sizzling temptation of having a man who knew how to treat a lady in her house, there was too much jumbled up her mind. Jed. The whole mess with Samuel. Her possible pregnancy. All of it only added to the strain of chaining back her desire for Ford.

She was weary of it all. So was Ford. She could feel his tension, too.

He appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

“It’s safe to come down,” he said.

And she smiled hugely because he must think she was afraid, but not of him. Her smile took hold of him and what she saw triggered an answering response in her.

She stepped down the stairs and decided to let him think it wasn’t him she wanted to avoid. “No sign of Bo or anyone else?”

“No.”

“What do you think he’ll do?”

“Wait for your next move.” His eyes roamed her face, lingering on her eyes and mouth. Then he stepped back and turned, going to the sofa, where he sat.

Gemma sat next to him, curling her legs and rolling onto her hip. Her shoulder touched his arm and she would have moved over if he hadn’t stretched his arm along the back of the sofa.

“He must know I won’t join Samuel,” she said, trying to sound normal. Inside, her heart sputtered with the thrill of his nearness.

“He might, but does Samuel?”

Samuel wanted her money. He had hopes that it wasn’t too late to persuade her to come over to his side, to become a Devotee. She was an ideal candidate. Wealthy, healthy, young and attractive.

“Bo might convince him.”

“Let him.”

Hearing his frustration, she recalled Bo’s warning. “What will you do if he fires you?”

After a moment of thought, he turned his head toward her. “For a long time I thought the only thing I wanted was to be a cop. Eventually to run the police department. It felt like my calling.”

Because of what had happened to his family. “But now?”

“Now I’m not so sure. Sometimes I think I could do more good outside the police department.”

“Do you mean independently?”

“Like private investigations.”

Because of what Samuel was doing to the police department? It made sense. It also sounded as though he’d grown since he’d first become a cop. “Maybe it’s time you stopped avenging your family. Maybe you’ve avenged them enough.”

“You’re going to bring that up again?”

Didn’t he see that she had to? Maybe if she told him she thought she was pregnant…

“You’ll always do what’s right, Ford. Nothing or no one can take that away from you. Whether you’re a cop or not, it doesn’t matter. You’re a good man. And it wasn’t your fault that your family was killed.”

“Stop, Gemma.”

She couldn’t. This was only part of what haunted him. And she needed to know if there was any chance for them. She would have preferred time alone, not to get involved so soon after her divorce, but if what they had was the rare and real thing, she wouldn’t give up on him, especially not if she was pregnant.

“Let it go.” She brushed her fingers along the back of his ear, feeling the strands of his blond hair. “Forgive yourself for being a fourteen-year-old who survived.”

“You want me to forget?”

“No. Accept the fact that you had no control over what happened. You couldn’t have stopped them from killing your parents and your brother. If you’d tried, you’d have been killed, too.”

“Maybe.”

“Would your mother have wanted you to try?”

She saw the answer in the grief that came into his eyes.

“No. She would have wanted you to live. So would your father and your brother.”

Losing his family had driven him to become a cop and maybe there had been a time when he’d done it out of guilt, but she could tell he had different reasons now. Reasons that stemmed from a horrible tragedy that he’d turned into something good. Ford represented and stood for that good and he didn’t back down in the face of evil. That’s what made her love him.

Love…

Where had that word come from? Apprehension reared up in her. There was deeper pain in him than what had made him a cop. And it was that pain that would keep them apart, if he let it.

She began to move away from him. Maybe it would be better just to walk away, not to hope for a future.

He stopped her with his arm around her shoulder.

“You’re right, Gemma.”

She eased back against the sofa again, sinking into his blue eyes.

“I didn’t realize until now, but I’ve made peace with that. I’m a cop so that I can stop crimes. That will never leave me. I don’t do it to avenge anyone. Not anymore.”

“What about your wife?” She asked quietly, not sure if she was ready to hear his answer.

It came in the hard barrier that shuttered his eyes. “She was something different.”

Yes. Different. Damaging.

“Do you ever see yourself getting married again?” she gently asked, half of her wishing he wouldn’t answer. That way she still had denial. Except she couldn’t deny anymore.

“Maybe. Not for a while, though.”

“How long?”

“I don’t know. Ten, fifteen years from now.”

“That’s a long time from now.”

“Yeah. Good.”

Good? He wanted that much time to pass? Had he loved his wife that much? Had she been his true love and he didn’t need to have another in this life? Was his job in law enforcement enough? He did pour himself into his work, all that goodness driving him.

Crushing disappointment made her withdraw. She moved away from him, leaning back but not getting up off the sofa.

Even if they decided to keep seeing each other, he wouldn’t be there for her. Jed hadn’t, either, in a different way, but he still hadn’t been there for her. She couldn’t do that again. She couldn’t let herself down like that. The next time she gave her heart to a man, she’d know he felt the same.

Add onto that the possibility that she was pregnant and things got really complicated.

Disturbed, now Gemma did get up off the sofa, unfolding her legs and standing. She rubbed her arms and moved to the edge of the living room.

Ford came up behind her, putting his hands over hers and stilling them. “What’s wrong, Gemma?”

She moved away from his touch and faced him. “Nothing.”

“You’ve been acting strange lately.”

“No, I haven’t.” She answered too quickly. “I haven’t.”

He scrutinized her in his cop way. “What’s wrong, then?”

“Nothing. I just…I don’t like hearing you say things like that.” That wasn’t completely true. She actually thought it was good he didn’t want to settle down any time soon. She didn’t, either. Well, not right away, anyway. Ten to fifteen years was too long for her, but two years seemed reasonable.

Running his hand through his thick blond hair, something she wished she had the liberty to do whenever the urge took her, he sighed and then looked at her in frustration. “I’m not planning anything, okay?”

His lack of resolve on the matter was palpable. He’d thought about this and he’d thought about it long and hard. He didn’t see himself married. And she couldn’t be more convinced of his fear.

“We shouldn’t even be having this conversation. I just got divorced from a monster. The last thing I need is another man.”

There he went again, scrutinizing her. “Then why are we?”

What could she say? I might be pregnant, that’s why. They could both be forced into a serious relationship before either of them was ready.

“I didn’t see myself having sex with the cop who questioned me about my violent ex-husband.”

His close scrutiny eased. “I didn’t, either.”

They shared a long look filled with knowing intimacy. Neither of them could deny the sex was good between them. That’s why they hadn’t been able to resist each other. She was also sure that’s why neither of them had thought about birth control, not in the heat of the moment.

“Was it like that with your wife?” The question popped out. She hadn’t intended to verbalize her curiosity. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that.”

“No. It wasn’t the way it is with you.”

That he answered surprised her. He hadn’t had with his wife what he had with Gemma. Did it mean anything more than sex?

Treading carefully, she asked, “How did you meet her?”

“We both went to the same college. I met her in a coffee shop. A year later she got pregnant and we married.”

Gemma hid the flash of alarm that rushed to her nerve endings.

“After she died, I came back here,” he continued. “It’s the only place that’s ever felt like home.”

“I know what you mean.”

“We do have that in common, don’t we? Cold Plains.” He grunted a cynical laugh.

They’d both come here seeking peace and ended up having to fight for it. She’d come to escape her ex-husband and he’d come to escape the darkness of his wife’s death, to his hometown, where his family had lived, where his memories were, both good and bad. In the short time she’d been here, it had become that to her, too. Something bad had brought them here, and now they were fighting to keep it from driving them away.

“Whatever happens, Ford, I’m really glad I met you. You’re the nicest cop I’ve ever met.”

Another laugh grunted out of him. “You’ve never met any other cops.”

She smiled big. “You’ve got me there. You’re the first.”

And what a first he was. She looked down at the badge clipped to his shirt. The mood shifted between them.

When she lifted her gaze, she saw the laughter in his eyes die away, to be replaced with fire. Licking flames ignited answering heat in her.

Before she could find the willpower to turn and bolt, he leaned down to kiss her. The soft touch stirred her desire. He moved over her mouth with only his lips at first, and then probed for more. She wrapped her arms over his shoulders, going up on her toes to accommodate him. He angled his head and delved into her, feeding her hunger and his own. She reveled in the sensations he elicited with the play of his tongue.

He withdrew and hovered over her. She touched his face and kissed his lips. His arms held her tighter. She dropped hers to his shoulders and let him kiss her deeply again. He lifted his head to look at her, and then kissed her yet again, endlessly making love to her with his mouth.

“Ford?” she breathed. This felt less urgent than the other times. But more intense.

In response, he lifted her, holding her rear on the strong curve of his arm. She wrapped her legs around him, aroused beyond comprehension as he carried her toward the stairs. Almost beyond comprehension.

“Not the stairs.” She had enough control to make the request this time.

“I know,” he rasped.

She kissed him all over his face as he climbed the stairs. In the hall, he stopped to press her against the wall. With her legs around him, she could feel the iron hardness of his erection. Flushed, she gripped his hair in her fist, breathing faster.

He reached for the hem of her top, pulling it up over her head and letting it fall to the floor. Lowering her legs, she tugged at his uniform pants while he opened her shorts.

“Your legs look really hot in these,” he said.

“Your badge makes me hot.” A symbol of what she loved about him, what she’d always love.

Lifting her again, he carried her into her bedroom and dropped her onto her fluffy comforter. She removed her bra and shimmied out of her underwear while he stood beside the bed and stripped off his uniform.

Then he was on the bed, between her legs and over her. He looked his fill at her body, as thrilling as an actual touch.

Then, slowly, savoring each second of this ecstasy, he lowered himself on top of her and kissed her with such meaning she lost herself to him.

She arched and opened her legs more.

“Gemma,” he breathed. “What are we doing?”

“Just let it happen, Ford.” She ran her hands over his shoulders, down his arms and back around to his butt.

He kissed her hard.

She expected him to do more, but he took his time. His kisses softened. He put his hands on each side of her face, caressed her with his thumbs.

After endless moments of excruciating anticipation, he rose up just enough to find her, sliding smoothly inside. He kept up his patient pace as he began to move back and forth. Riveting passion locked their gazes together. And then neither could stand it any longer. With a grunt, he moved faster, thrusting hard and sure. They came at the same time, an incredible peak rich with more than physical satisfaction.

As reason sank upon Gemma, she fought to pretend it didn’t mean as much as it did. What hurt the most was seeing the same reaction in Ford.

But he rolled to his back and pulled her toward him. For tonight they’d forget the obstacle that would be there in the morning. And in the morning, she’d go get a pregnancy test.

* * *

Gemma found Ford standing on her front porch, watching across the street. Curiosity replaced the anxiety of facing him after last night and figuring out a way to get to the store without him. She stepped outside and saw Dillon loading luggage into the bed of his truck.

“His mother’s home from the hospital,” Ford said without turning toward her.

“Are they leaving?”

“For a while. Dillon agreed to leave the investigation up to me. He did the rest.”

By convincing the three women to go with him. She searched for the car that had been parked in the street. It was gone. It hadn’t been there yesterday, either. She wondered if Curtis’s arrest had decided that tactic. Or had Samuel’s strategy changed? She didn’t like that option. What did he have up his cult-worshiped sleeve?

Hallie emerged with her grandmother, Martha, and Dillon rushed to his mother, who left the house after them.

“Let’s go say goodbye,” Ford said, stepping down the porch stairs.

“Why don’t you? I need to run to the store real quick.”

He stopped and turned. “What’s your hurry?”

She shrugged. “No hurry.”

“You’re not going to say goodbye to your neighbor?”

After all they’ve been through, she could hear him thinking.

Damn.

Sighing, she hopped down the stairs and started walking.

“What do you need at the store?”

“Just some things.”

She felt him eye her a bit before Hallie saw them and went to help Dillon’s mother so that he could greet them. She took the injured woman to the truck while Dillon and Martha stepped up to Gemma and Ford.

Dillon extended his hand, and Ford shook it.

Gemma leaned to hug Martha. “I’ll see you when you get back.”

“Great goats, honey. I don’t think I’ll ever come back to this town.” They moved back from the embrace. “As long as my Felix’s murderer is caught, that will be all the memory I need of this place.”

“I’ll see to that,” Ford said.

And Martha smiled, moisture pooling in her old eyes.

“Thanks for everything,” Dillon said.

“I’ll call you when I know something,” Ford replied.

Dillon nodded.

Gemma walked toward the truck, giving Hallie a farewell hug before the girl went to stand beside Dillon and Ford.

Dillon’s mom sat with her head resting against the seat. Gemma felt a need to talk to her, to offer support and encouragement. The woman lifted her head off the seat back when she approached, battered and bruised.

Gemma took her hand. “You have a wonderful son.”

A smile glinted in her eyes. “Thank you. I know.”

“You’re lucky to have him, being married to someone abusive. If you ever need to talk, Martha has my number.”

“Dillon told me about your ex-husband,” she said.

“I’m sure the whole town knows about that.”

“One more thing I won’t miss about it.”

“Maybe you should consider taking up baseball,” Gemma quipped.

Dillon’s mother laughed and then winced when the skin stretched too much, touching the side of her head as though it pained her. “So I can imagine Curtis’s head is the ball.”

“I spend my ex-husband’s money on frivolous things because I know he would have hated it.”

The other woman gave Gemma’s hand a squeeze. “I’ll take up baseball.”

Stepping back, she waved and turned to see Ford saying goodbye to Hallie’s grandmother.

“Gemma.”

She turned to Dillon’s mother again. “Don’t let a good man pass you by because you made the mistake of marrying the wrong one.”

Gemma smiled, wishing it were that simple. “I won’t.”

“I agree with her.”

Pivoting, Gemma looked up at Dillon. “Take care of your mom.” She didn’t know what to say about Ford.

“Ford’s a good man.”

“I know.” But would he walk away from a good woman? She hugged him. “Thanks.”

“You, too.”

Gemma went to stand beside Ford, waving to the four as Dillon climbed into his truck and Hallie got behind the wheel of her grandmother’s car.

When the vehicles disappeared over a hill, quiet descended around them. Almost quiet. Birds chirped. Children laughed from some distant house. A dog barked.

And she was alone with Ford.

“I’ll drive you to the store,” he said, alarming her.

“Oh, you don’t have to.”

“I insist.”

Lovely. Now she’d have to find a way to sneak the test into the shopping cart and get through the checkout counter without him noticing. Him. A cop…

* * *

At the beautiful and well-maintained natural foods market, Gemma got a cart and pushed it toward the produce department. She put everything in the cart to make a salad, and added bananas and apples. She needed a lot of groceries to hide the test.

“We already have lettuce.”

“I like salad.”

Under his speculating gaze, she tossed another head of lettuce in the cart. In the meat section, she loaded up on crab legs and salmon and headed for the frozen-food aisle. Pizza. Burritos. Frozen dinners. The cart was a quarter full now. She headed down the snack aisle. Crackers. Chips. Dips.

“Hungry?”

She caught his now very intrigued look and went to the bakery and put in a few different kinds of bread. French. Onion rolls. Sandwich bread. Plenty of places to hide a pregnancy test now. She went down the canned food aisle for good measure.

“Are you going to fit all this in your kitchen?”

He was entertained by this. He probably thought she was on a spending spree again.

After the juice aisle, they turned down the personal hygiene aisle. Seeing the tests just beyond the pads and tampons, she stopped and looked at Ford.

“Could you give me some privacy here?”

He looked from her to the pads and tampons and in typical male fashion, experienced a moment of awkwardness before nodding. “Sure.” He turned. “Meet you in the next aisle.”

She smiled at his retreating back, rolling the cart to the tampons and then moving it to the pregnancy tests when he disappeared.

Grabbing one, she tucked it under a box of crackers and rolled the cart to the next aisle, where he looked at her from his study of toilet paper. She grabbed the most expensive package and put it on top of the crackers.

“Do you need anything?” she asked.

“No. I think you’ve got it covered.”

She had it covered all right.

He followed her to the checkout counter. Her heartbeat pecked away at her ribcage. Maybe it would be easier if she just told him she thought she was pregnant. The reminder that his wife had died during childbirth and the infant boy hadn’t survived quelled that idea.

The grocery clerk began checking out the contents of the cart. Ford stood beside her, watching. The clerk picked up the toilet paper. Next came the chips. A few cans of beans and tomatoes. Soup. Bread.

She reached for the crackers.

Gemma lifted a magazine and shoved it in front of Ford as the clerk ran the crackers through. The container of apple juice fell over onto the test.

“Another star gets divorced,” Ford said, eyeing her peculiarly. He was starting to get suspicious.

His badge caught her attention and she got an idea. Seeing the clerk reach for the test, she touched the badge. His head lowered to look there and then his eyes lifted. As the pregnancy test made its way from the clerk’s hand to the rolling belt, she moved so that Ford moved with her, his back to the counter.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Just reminiscing.” She traced the edges of the badge as the pregnancy test waited for the bagger to pick it up.

Hurry!

“Reminiscing about what?”

“You know.” She stepped closer to him, looking up at him suggestively. “Last night?”

He put his hands on her arms and moved her away from him. “What’s the matter with you?” He glanced back at the clerk, who’d slowed in the process of checking out the items to eye them.

He turned to face the counter. Gemma stopped breathing. The test was at the end of the counter. Ford’s head began to move in that direction. The bagger lifted the test.

It disappeared inside the bag.

Ford hadn’t seen it. Gemma breathed several times.

He glanced at her from under lowered brows. She wiped her forehead and smiled at him.

Now all she had to do was get him out of the kitchen while she unloaded the groceries.

* * *

Alone in the bathroom, Gemma unwrapped the pregnancy test. It had taken a near argument to get Ford to leave the kitchen. He offered to help her unload all the groceries but she’d refused. She’d almost had to yell at him. He hadn’t understood. He didn’t know why she was acting so weird. But he was curious enough to make her wonder if he wasn’t starting to catch on.

Feeling pale and sick with foreboding, she performed the test and waited. When the pink plus sign appeared, a tremor shook her hand as she stared at it.

How would he feel about this? Would he be happy? Was she?

Pregnant.

Oh, dear Lord.

With Ford’s baby. A feeling of pure euphoria stole over her before doubt chased it away again. How on earth was she going to tell him? She didn’t trust his reaction. But he had to know. Didn’t he? What if she waited a while?

No. Insecurities drove that impulse. Insecurity would keep her from taking the bold act of telling him what he had a right to know. Besides that, he was as much to blame for this as she.

Still, her legs felt shaky as she left the bathroom and made her way downstairs.

Ford was in the kitchen, sitting at the table drinking the new kind of soda she’d piled into the cart.

“It’s pretty good.” He held up the bottle.

Her nervous heartbeat made her swallow hard and catch her breath.

Noticing, he grew alert. “What’s the matter?”

There was no avoiding it now. Gripping the test in her hand, she moved to the table and sat down across from him. Then she just sat there and stared at him.

He watched her, the first signs of uneasiness edging into his gaze.

Words clogged in her throat. Lifting the test, she opened her palm and extended it to him. He looked down, up and back down again.

“I thought you were on the Pill.”

Disappointment plummeted inside her. “You never asked, so how could you know?”

“Women take care of that sort of thing. I thought you did…take care of it, I mean.”

“Well, you thought wrong,” she almost snapped. “Why is it up to the woman to do that?”

“I thought you’d tell me if you were worried about this happening. Most women do.”

“Well, most women don’t divorce an abusive husband! I wasn’t even thinking about being with a man when you came along. This is as much your fault as it is mine!” She was so upset that he wasn’t happy. Those brief seconds of euphoria she had had were obliterated now. He was going to let his fear take over, ruin any chance they had for happiness. If she weren’t pregnant, she’d walk out on him right now.

Knocking brought them both to attention.

Ford stood up and went to the door. After peering through the peephole, he turned to look back at her. “It’s Grayson.”

Samuel? What did he want?

Removing his gun from the holster at his side, Ford checked its readiness and put it back into the holster. Then he opened the door, searching beyond Samuel. He was alone.

“Hello, Ford. I’m here to see Gemma.”

Ford eyed him dubiously.

“May I come in?”

Ford opened the door wider and stepped aside, his movements mocking.

Samuel approached Gemma. “You’re looking well.”

“Thanks. What brings you here?”

“Is there somewhere we can talk?” He glanced back at Ford. “Alone?”

He wanted her alone so he could work his magic on her. “Anything you have to say Ford can hear.”

Fleeting disapproval crossed his eyes. “I noticed you haven’t been attending any seminars and I wanted to make sure you were all right. I strive to provide the community with the best therapy possible. I’m concerned over why I haven’t seen you at the center.”

Make sure she was all right? Therapy? She met Ford’s silent scoff before turning back to him. “I’m fine. Why were you concerned?”

“I thought the seminars were helping you.”

She folded her arms. “The seminars did help me, Samuel. But I don’t need them anymore.”

Samuel looked down at her folded arms briefly. “Are you certain? So soon?”

So soon. Meaning, he hadn’t had enough time to brainwash her. “I’m certain.”

He studied her, leashed frustration hidden behind the curtain of larger-than-life magnetism and good looks. “Is there something I should know about? Something that didn’t meet with your expectations?”

Ford moved as smoothly as a protective angel around Samuel.

“No. The seminars did help me. Really.” Ford stood beside her now. “I just don’t need them anymore.” As she’d already said.

He smiled, congenial and infectious, presenting a man with selfless benevolence that expertly cloaked his true intent. “I have a special interest in you, Gemma. A woman like you sets a fine example. You’ve been given difficult mental hardships to overcome, but you’ve persevered. You’ve begun to make a new life here, one people can look up to. I would hate to see you endure any more setbacks.”

Wow. The veiled threat was barely discernable. His special interest nauseated her. And she didn’t delude herself that her bracelet turning up at Jed’s crime scene was one of the setbacks he referred to. Would there be more if she didn’t cooperate? Didn’t yield to his ways and become a Devotee?

She glanced over at Ford, who wore a smirk.

“I appreciate all you’ve done, Samuel, and for thinking so highly of me. But you won’t see me at the community center anymore.”

He flashed an accusatory look at Ford. “I encourage you to reconsider.”

“And I encourage you to stop pressuring me.”

Now he had the opportunity to catch her own veiled threat. “Perhaps if you spent some time away from local law enforcement you’d change your mind.”

“Asking Ford to watch over me was the best decision you made. I feel so safe when I’m with him.” She put her arm around him and he put his around her.

The blatant snub brewed anger in Samuel’s gaze. “Very well. Then my worry is eased.” He went to the door with one last look at both of them. “Good day.”

Ford shut the door and faced her.

“I can’t wait to find out what they’ll do next,” she said.

“We need to find who killed Jed and the others before that happens.”

How? Bo had taken the best chance of that when he took the laptop.

They stood in her living room staring at each other. It wasn’t long before the magnitude of their earlier conversation returned.

Ford moved away from her, awkward again. Though he wouldn’t admit he was afraid, fear billowed from him. That’s why he’d claimed to want to wait until he was in his forties to have a family again. Avoidance was his motto. The prospect of fathering another baby terrified him.

His cell phone rang. Another interruption.

Gemma folded her arms again, this time rubbing them. What was she going to do?

“McCall.” He listened, and then, “Excellent. Your timing couldn’t be better. I’m on my way.”

He tucked his phone away.

“Where are we going?”

“I’m going. You’re staying here.”

He was leaving her? “What about Samuel?”

“You’ll be all right.”

Somehow she doubted that. His judgment was fogged by the knowledge that she was pregnant. In the next instant, she realized she didn’t care. If he could abandon her that easily, then she didn’t want him anywhere near her.

“Fine. Go, then. But don’t come back here when you’re finished.”

Stunned, he stared at her. “Gemma, I can’t take you.”

“You could if you wanted to.”

After a long, searching look, her ultimatum slid behind a barrier. Cutting himself off from her, he turned and left, taking her heart with him.

Gemma tipped her head back and breathed through the tears that burned her eyes. How could he?

How could he walk out on her after learning she was pregnant with their child? So they barely knew each other. They’d created a life together. Would he walk out on that, too?

This couldn’t have gone worse. She’d worried he’d take the news hard, but walking out on her? And right after she’d turned Samuel away. A tear swelled over her lid, tickling her skin on its way down her cheek. She angrily swiped it away.

She wished she could have stayed away from him. Even if she’d thought to go on the Pill or make him wear protection, she wouldn’t have before that first time on the stairs. That had happened without warning. Neither of them could have prevented it. And unfortunately, she was pretty sure that’s when he’d gotten her pregnant.

Gemma swiped another tear away, plopping down on one of her living-room chairs and hanging her head low. She was well on her way to ending up just like her mother. Single and with a lover who couldn’t step up to the plate and be a father.