“I’ll be here for her, but I don’t want anything to do with Sharon,” I state, referring to the woman who gave birth to me.

  I don’t understand Nalia’s reasoning for wanting a relationship with our birth mother. She tried to explain it to me once. Tried to describe how she feels it’s the loss of us that turned our mother’s life upside down. But as far as I know, her life was shit before she was forced to give us up when we were only two, because she had gone out partying, left us alone, and hadn’t come back for two days. No one even knew she was gone until they heard Nalia and me crying, and by that point, we were both in need of medical attention.

  “I know you don’t, but you still need to be there for your sister. She thinks she can help Sharon. So as much as you and I may not like it, we still need to let her try,” he says, and I feel my face go hard and my muscles tense.

  “The only person that bitch needs help from is the devil. What she did to me and Nalia…” I shake my head. “What she did to the two of us was wrong. I don’t care how she tries to twist it or what reasoning she has for what happened. It was fucked.”

  “I agree with you.”

  “Christ, she left us alone for two days, and the only reason she even came back is because she found out the cops were at her place,” I growl, feeling pain slice through me at the thought of the woman who was meant to protect us leaving us alone to fend for ourselves when we could barely walk.

  “Nalia knows all of that. She doesn’t give a fuck,” he states quietly.

  “I fucked up. I should hav—”

  “You didn’t fuck up. You didn’t do anything wrong. She needs to find her own way and realize for herself that sometimes you can’t fix people, no matter how hard you try. And you need to have her back while she does that.”

  “I get that, but I want not one fucking thing to do with any of that.”

  “And I understand that, but—”

  “No, I know you and Mom have always been about forgiveness and second chances, but no.”

  “What about your other siblings?”

  “We’re cool. We talk now and then, but my relationship with them has nothing to do with her.”

  “All right,” he murmurs, and with that, I stand, take the envelope that I will never open over to my desk, and shove it into the top drawer.

  “I gotta head out,” I state as I turn and head into the kitchen and open the fridge, grabbing a bottle of water for the road. “I’ll be out of town for a couple days chasing a skip, but I’ll call and check in.” I watch my dad unfold from the chair and stand.

  “Make sure you call. You know your mom worries.”

  “I’ll call,” I agree, picking up my keys before heading for the door. Feeling my dad close, I open the door and grab my bag I dropped next to it earlier.

  “Be safe.” He pats my shoulder as he moves past me. Lifting my chin, I lock up then move to my ride while he heads for his bike.

  Kim

  “HARDER, PLEASE,” I WHISPER, running my hands up the smooth skin of his back, feeling his muscles bunch at my touch.

  “Slow, baby, you feel too fucking good,” he murmurs, licking and kissing up the column of my neck.

  Nice.

  No. More than nice. Perfect.

  Pressing my head back into the pillow, I wind my legs around his hips and tip my pelvis, sending him deeper, moaning in my throat when I do.

  “Goddamn, you’re beautiful.”

  My face softens and I slide one hand around his waist, up his abs, chest, and neck, stopping at the underside of his jaw to run my fingers along the sculpted edge there.

  “No.” I shake my head, swallowing over the lump forming in my throat. “You’re beautiful.” And he is, the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.

  Waking with tears in my eyes, I roll to my side and wrap my arms around my stomach. He’s still torturing me. Months later, the memory of him is still torturing me. “You need to get over this.”

  I roll to my back and watch the rain beat against the skylight as I blink away the tears in my eyes. A few months ago, Sage came to me and apologized for the way he treated me. I told him I accepted his apology, but I lied. The time that had gone by before his apology had given me a lot of time to think, and the more I thought about what went down, the more upset I got.

  Yes, he was wronged, but if he had felt even a fraction for me of what I had felt for him, he would have at least heard me out. He would have at least let me tell him about Kelly, but he didn’t do that. He made assumptions and said shit to me that I can’t get out of my head. Shit still hurts every time I think about it.

  Three weeks after that apology, he asked me to have dinner with him. I didn’t say, “Fuck you,” like I wanted to. Instead, I lied and told him I was seeing someone—that someone being my best friend, who also happens to be gay. Yes, I lied, but once bitten, twice shy. I may have fallen for the charms of Sage Mayson once, but there’s no way in hell I would do it again. But that doesn’t mean my heart has given up on the idea of him. Every time I see him, I remember exactly what I felt in those moments we had together.

  Letting out a long, deep breath, I sit up. Today would be the perfect day to do nothing but lie in bed and read. Unfortunately, I have a doctor’s appointment that I need to get to, and if I don’t get up now, I never will. Hearing my cell phone ring in the living room, I sigh. I’m sure it’s my mom calling to remind me about the appointment, since she’s the one who set it up.

  Apparently, the doctor I’m meeting with has helped a lot of people with diet plans and medications, so they can live a somewhat normal life. Putting my feet to the floor, I slowly get out of bed then frown when my cell stops ringing, only to start right back up. My mom can be persistent, but she’s never called, hung up, and called again when I didn’t answer. Going to the living room, I find my phone where I dropped it last night. I pick it up and see my mom isn’t calling. Chris is.

  “Hey.” I put the cell to my ear as I move to the cupboard and pull down a coffee cup.

  “We need to talk,” he says, and I feel my brows pull together.

  “What’s wrong? You sound freaked.”

  “I saw Sage last night.” Pressing my hand to the counter, I drop my chin to my chest.

  “Okay,” I reply quietly.

  “He… fuck. He saw me with Dale and…” I listen to him pull in a breath. “I tried to call you, but you didn’t answer.”

  “What happened?”

  “He saw me with Dale,” he repeats, but I still don’t understand why he sounds so freaked.

  “Okay.”

  “You’re not getting it!” he shouts. “He saw me with Dale. He saw me and Dale.”

  “Oh,” I breathe as reality dawns. My hand curves and tightens around the edge of the counter to keep me upright.

  “Yeah and….” He goes quiet, and I wait and wait, but he doesn’t continue.

  “And what?” My stomach twists.

  “He gave him a black eye, that’s what.” I hear Dale say in the background, and my eyes close.

  “Shit, I… I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” I knew I shouldn’t have lied. I knew I should have come clean, but it was easier to pretend I had a reason to stay clear of him than to deal with the fact he still affected me.

  “I’m fine. Don’t be sorry. This is good,” he tells me, sounding like he’s smiling.

  “What?”

  “I thought he was into you before, but I now know he. Is. Into. You. And, baby girl, I’m fucking thrilled this shit is finally done and out in the open.” He laughs.

  “Uh, did I miss something?” I question. “You just told me he punched you, and you know how he treated me. Why the hell would you be happy right now?”

  “No man has that much passion for a woman he doesn’t give a fuck about, and you’re still hung up on him. Don’t you wonder why that is? Don’t you wonder why, after so fucking long, a man that you spent less than twenty-four hours with is one you can’t stop thinking about? Don’t you want to try and figure that out?”

  “No.” And it’s not that I haven’t wondered the exact thing. It’s that I refuse to go back there again. I refuse to even allow the idea to enter my head. What we had was a fluke. Yes, he made me feel something for him during those moments, but afterward, he made me feel like shit. So no, I actually don’t give a fuck.

  “You’re a liar, but I still love you, and I hope—I really hope—that the next time he asks you out, you say yes,” Chris chimes in.

  “There isn’t going to be a next time,” I say, stirring the cream and sugar into my coffee and taking a sip.

  “We’ll see,” he mumbles, and I roll my eyes.

  Chris has been Team Sage since the beginning, but Chris is also a hopeless romantic who still believes in fairy tales and happily ever afters. Only, in his fairy tale, he’s the damsel in distress waiting for his white knight to show up. He didn’t want to go along with my lie, but he did for me as his best friend, something I now wish he wouldn’t have done.

  “How’s your eye? Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Nothing a little concealer won’t cover up,” he says.

  “I can’t believe he hit you.” I rub my forehead in an attempt to wipe away the headache that has started pounding there.

  “Dale had his tongue down my throat. He thought he was protecting your honor. It was hot. Not the whole me getting punched thing, but the part before, when he tore Dale away from me and growled ‘motherfucker,’ breathing all hard and shit.”

  “Oh my god, you’re so crazy.” I fight back a smile as I head for my room, setting my coffee cup down on my dresser.

  “If you’re really not interested, I wonder if I could convince him to join my team,” he coos, and I hear Dale say something, sounding pissed, which doesn’t really surprise me.

  Dale and Chris have been dating each other casually for a few years now. When they first started seeing each other, Chris wanted them to get serious, but Dale always had an excuse for why they couldn’t. Then, when Kelly left, Chris moved to Tennessee to be closer to me so that I wasn’t quote unquote ‘alone,’ and since then, Dale has had a change of heart. Only now, Chris is the one who isn’t exactly sure if he still feels the same way he used to, even though Dale is the only man Chris has ever been serious about. Gah! They are seriously like a soap opera.

  “If you can convince him, you can have him,” I mutter, then look at the clock and see time has caught up with me, like it normally does when I’m talking to Chris. “Come by the salon tomorrow when you get done dropping Dale at the airport. I need to finish getting ready to leave here in the next twenty.”

  “Shit, you’re meeting your new doctor today,” he says quietly, and I pull in a breath through my nose.

  “Yeah.”

  “Do you want me to go with you?”

  “No, it’s okay. You should spend some time with Dale before he goes home.”

  “He’ll understand if I leave him for a few hours to go with you.”

  God, I love my best friend. “Seriously, it’s okay, and make sure you put some ice on your eye.”

  “Will do. Call me when you get done with your appointment.”

  “I will.” I hang up and drop my cell to the bed, telling myself that I don’t care if Sage knows who Chris really is to me, but royally freaking the hell out that he does.

  Chapter 2

  Kim

  TAKING A BITE from the peach in my hand, I lean against the front counter at the salon and flip through the latest issue of Cosmo, not really seeing the words on the pages. My mind is on the appointment I went to yesterday. I didn’t know what to expect when I met with Dr. Jayne, but I didn’t expect to leave her office feeling as hopeful as I did.

  During my appointment, she told me about numerous patients of hers who have had amazing results using the tools she’s given them. She also told me that as long as I follow her diet plan and start taking the new meds she prescribed, I should see the same outcome. She explained that I won’t be better but I should feel better, which to me is the most important thing right now. There is nothing worse than feeling like you have the flu everyday and knowing there is no store-bought remedy or any amount of rest to fix it.

  Hearing the bell on the door ding, I come out of my head and watch Ellie as she walks in with a smile on her face.

  “Hey, honey,” she says, holding the door open for Hope, who spots me and runs over, her pigtails bouncing and a huge smile on her adorable face.

  “Kimmyyy!” she shouts, holding a black backpack out toward me. “Look what Uncle Sage got me. Isn’t it so cool?” she asks, and I look at the bag and notice the words “Detective Kit” scrolled across the front in large yellow writing.

  “Wow, that is cool,” I agree, getting down on my haunches in front of her and dropping my voice. “Who are you going to spy on?”

  “I can’t tell you. It’s top secret.” She sighs like she’s disappointed that she can’t tell me, and I fight back a smile.

  “Well, if you need any help, Detective, let me know.” I touch the top of her head then stand to my full height and raise a brow at Ellie. “I thought you were off today?”

  “I was, but Selma called and asked if I could come in and do her and Sejla’s hair for some big party they have to attend tonight,” she explains before she drops her eyes to Hope who is now sitting at my feet, going through all the gadgets and gizmos in her bag.

  “Don’t pull that all out, honey. Daddy will be here in just a little while to pick you up, and you don’t want to lose anything.”

  “Okay,” Hope agrees, shoving everything she has taken out back in and looking up at me. “Can you paint my nails?”

  “Of course I can. Go pick out your color,” I tell her, and her eyes get big with excitement right before she stands and skips off to the back of the shop, with her new backpack bouncing behind her on her back.

  “You spoil her,” Ellie mumbles, and I shrug, making her roll her eyes. “Is Frankie in?”

  “He’s in his office doing a stock order.”

  “Cool, I’m going to get my stuff set up. You okay out here?”

  “You know I am.” I give her smile then turn when the bell on the door dings again. The smile on my face slides away as Sage steps inside, looking as beautiful as ever wearing a pair of dark jeans and a long-sleeved dark gray cotton shirt that is molded perfectly to his frame. “Can I help you?”

  “We need to talk,” he says, taking a step toward the counter I’m still standing behind. Feeling my muscles get tight when he starts to get close, I see his eyes change, and he stops moving as his jaw clenches.

  “I know you know I lied and—”

  “I don’t give a shit about that,” he cuts me off, taking another step toward me. “I deserved that after the things I said.” He didn’t deserve for me to lie to him. I should have just had a backbone and been honest. “We need to talk,” he repeats.

  “We don’t have anything to talk about.”

  “You know that’s not true,” he says quietly, and it’s at that quiet tone I start to get annoyed. I don’t need this right now. I might not need it ever, but I definitely don’t need it right now.

  “Okay then, I don’t want to talk to you,” I state, and he opens his mouth to speak, only to close it as Hope yells “Uncle Sage!” while running through the salon at full speed right toward him. Smiling at her, he leans down and scoops her up into his arms.

  “What are you doing here?” she asks.

  “I came to ask Kim to have dinner with me,” he tells her, and my eyes narrow on him right before I put a fake smile on my face for Hope, who swings her head around to look at me.

  “You’re going out with Uncle Sage?” she breathes with wide eyes that I can see are filled with visions of a fairy tale in the making.

  “No, sweetie. I’m not.”

  “Oh.” She frowns, looking at Sage, who is looking at me with a somewhat amused, somewhat annoyed expression on his face. Oh well, he’ll have to get over it. Just because I no longer have a fake boyfriend doesn’t mean I want to go out with him.

  “Yet,” Sage rumbles, staring at me.

  “Yet?” Hope repeats, tipping her head to the side and studying him.

  “She’s not going out with me yet,” he says, pulling his eyes from me to look at her.

  “You have to do something heewowick to win her, don’t you?” Hope asks, and I press my lips together to keep from laughing, because I know she means heroic, but the way she says it is way too cute.

  “Something like that.” He gives her a squeeze before he sets her feet to the floor. The second she’s down, she comes over to me.

  “Can we paint my nails now?”

  “Absolutely. What color did you pick?” I ask, ignoring the fact Sage has now moved closer, causing his scent to fill my lungs.

  “This one.” She opens the palm of her hand, showing me the color, which is pink, of course.

  “Good choice. Go get in the chair, sweetie. I’ll be there in just a second,” I say gently, touching the top of her head, and she nods at me then turns to face her uncle.

  “You should bring her flowers. Mama always says yes when Daddy brings her flowers.” And with that bit of advice delivered, she takes off, leaving me alone with Sage once again.

  “Would that do it?”

  “What?” I pull my eyes from Hope’s back to look at him at his question.

  “If I brought you flowers, would that make you change your mind?”

  “No.”

  “So what would change your mind about having dinner with me?”

  “A million dollars,” I snap, and he stares at me for a long time before his lips tip up and he turns for the door.

  “All right,” he says, right before he pulls it open and steps out, letting the door close behind him.

  “Shit.” My eyes close and panic fills my stomach, because I know without a doubt I somehow just threw down the gauntlet. With a shake of my head, I move to the back of the salon, put a smile on my face, and paint my favorite girl’s nails.