“Oh, me, too,” Gracie said as she straightened. “We could start a list.”
“Can I go first?” Pam grinned.
Gracie carried the bowls over to the sink. “Do you have a grand opening date yet?”
“I’m thinking the Fourth of July weekend. Plenty of tourists looking for a place to stay. I’ve put out the word and I’m already getting reservations. Of course that puts the pressure on for me to finish, but hey, I can manage. Sleep is highly overrated.”
Gracie nodded as she ran water in the bowls. This all felt so weird. She was standing here having a perfectly normal conversation with Pam Whitefield, whom she had always hated. But Pam seemed to be completely nice while Gracie’s own sisters were acting mean enough to be candidates for demonic possession. What was going on?
“Are you getting a lot of flak about the picture in the paper?” Pam asked. “I confess I saw it this morning.”
“Not a surprise,” Gracie told her. “It was on the front page. Hard to miss.”
“I’m sorry. It’s a real drag for you. But Riley looked good. He always did have an impressive body.”
“He was helping my neighbor. Her dog fell in the pool.”
“So that explains the scratches.”
“Exactly. Little Muffin wasn’t as grateful as she could have been.” She finished with the bowls, wiped her hands, then turned back to Pam. “Then some guy takes the picture and suddenly Riley’s in the middle of a scandal. Poor guy.”
Pam’s kind expression didn’t change, although Gracie thought she might have seen a little sharpening around the eyes. Or was that just her looking for trouble?
“So you’re not…” Pam shrugged delicately.
Not sure if she was being set up or no, Gracie sighed. “I swear, there was a pool, a trapped Yorkie and a frantic neighbor.” Yes, there had also been sex, but she wasn’t about to spill that.
“Just as well,” Pam said. “Riley looked great, but he never really grasped the whole ‘pleasing a woman’ thing.”
Gracie had to bite her tongue to keep from defending him. “Bummer,” she said instead.
Pam tilted her head. “It would be kind of sweet if you two got together after all this time.”
That made Gracie choke. “You’ve got to be kidding. Aside from the fact that you’re about the last person who should want that, I can’t imagine any universe in which it would be considered normal.”
Pam looked away. “Sometimes you can’t fight fate.”
GRACIE RETURNED to her rental late that afternoon feeling as if she’d run a marathon, or at least a half one. She was weary to the bone, slightly beat-up and more than a little out of sorts.
She couldn’t make sense of her world, which was unlike her. In the past few years, she’d prided herself on living smack in the middle of normal. Coming back to Los Lobos had changed all that. Okay-coming back to Los Lobos and getting involved with Riley had changed all that.
While she didn’t mind the Riley part of her life, the rest of it wasn’t so easy to deal with. She didn’t like fighting with her family. She’d had the fantasy of a warm and loving reunion in mind, but the reality was about as far from that as it was possible to get. She hated the lectures, the assumptions, the judging, the rejection. Worse, without them, she was truly alone.
Gracie tried to tell herself that she’d been alone since the death of her aunt and uncle. The only difference was now she knew it whereas before she’d hoped she had more. Only the news didn’t make her feel any better.
Fighting a headache, she pulled into the driveway of her rental only to see a familiar car parked next to her spot. The gleaming Mercedes made her heart beat a little faster, but that was nothing compared with the rapid tap dance it took up when Riley stepped out and nodded at her.
Man, oh man, did he look good. She liked the way the sunlight caught the earring he wore. How many bank presidents claimed that slightly sexy, slightly dangerous look? She liked that he was strong and determined and someone she could count on. She liked how he made her feel inside. Okay, she liked how he made her feel on the outside, too. She wanted-
Gracie stopped her car and turned off the engine. In the second it took her to drop her keys into her purse and open the door to step out, she reminded herself that not only was she in town for a few weeks, but that she couldn’t seriously think about getting involved with Riley.
No, no, no, no, no. Not him. Remember? Anyone but him. He was her past, her scary obsession. He was a man going in one direction and she…she was going somewhere else.
“Hi,” she said as she got out and slammed her door shut.
“Hey.”
“Have you been waiting long?”
He shrugged. “About fifteen minutes. I was about to call your cell.”
“I was at Pam’s. Baking. So what’s up?”
“We have to talk.”
She couldn’t help smiling. “Riley, that’s the girl’s line. I thought guys took an oath to never say it.”
“This time it’s true. We have to talk about last night. We didn’t use a condom. If you’re not on the Pill, we have to discuss what could happen.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
RILEY WATCHED closely as Gracie reacted to his statement. Her eyes widened slightly, her mouth twisted and her shoulders slumped. Obviously this was not the topic she’d hoped they would discuss. But did that mean she was guilty of setting him up in more ways than one?
He couldn’t decide, and he hadn’t been able to come to a decision all day. He wanted to say he knew Gracie, but did he? She was funny and smart and led with her heart and her chin, but he’d been used by women before. Was she any different or was she just better at it?
“Come on in,” she said, and led the way into the house.
He followed her into the kitchen where she put down her purse and turned toward him. She folded her arms over her chest.
“It was just one time,” she said, sounding more defensive than angry. “The odds of anything happening are really, really slim.”
What he didn’t understand was how it had happened at all. Ever since he’d been a kid and thought he’d gotten Pam pregnant, he’d been obsessively careful. But last night…
“I agree it’s unlikely,” he said. “But I want to know.”
She nodded and walked to the large calendar on the wall. Stickers of cakes had been placed on various dates with the names and locations next to them in black felt pen. She counted out the days twice, then sighed.
“My period is due in twelve days.”
Riley figured he knew as much or as little about the inner workings of the female reproductive system as the next guy. He prided himself on being good in bed, but the baby-making stuff was more of a mystery. Information reluctantly learned in high school sex-ed drifted through his brain. If he remembered correctly, midcycle was the most dangerous time. Well, shit.
“How long after that can you find out if you’re pregnant?” he asked.
She winced. “I don’t know. A couple of days. I’ve never used a pregnancy test myself, but I’ve heard they’re fast and you don’t need to be very late.”
She turned to face him. Her eyes were wide and troubled. “Don’t you think it’s a tiny bit premature to be having this conversation? Can’t we just wait and see what happens?”
“Sure.”
He had the information he needed now. He would bide his time until she either got her period or he had proof she was pregnant. While he didn’t want a repeat of Pam’s performance, he also wasn’t willing to walk away from his responsibilities. His father had walked out twenty-one years ago, but Riley still remembered everything about the day. He wouldn’t do that to any kid of his.
“It’s just the odds are so against me being…you know.” She swallowed. “Honestly, I can’t take on one more
