“I can’t believe he hasn’t asked yet,” Rhett said, tilting his beer bottle towards his mouth.

“Yeah, that would be on the top of my list if I met a single mom,” Curtis Brown, Rhett’s teammate, agreed. “How did this child get here?”

“It just hasn’t come up. Besides, he’s not about to ask super-personal questions when we’ve just met,” Malinda defended herself and JC.

“It’s been two months!” Gina cried.

“Wait, it’s been two months already?” Curtis looked back and forth from Gina to Malinda. “What are you waiting for? What is he waiting for? How can he not be curious?”

Rhett studied Malinda’s face carefully, searching for an answer. “You don’t want to remember.”

Malinda confirmed the statement with her silence. She didn’t have to say anything. Rhett seemed to know her better than Gina at times.

“So… how is the little squirt doing, anyhow?” Curtis broke the slightly uncomfortable silence.

“She’s good. She had her last exam today, so she’s spending the night at Emily’s house. The whole mess of them is over there, actually. I’m so glad they’re out of elementary school now and off to the middle school. Then maybe that girl will stop being such a bully; she’ll be the little man on campus too.”

“What girl?” Gina asked.

“Ashley Erikson.”

Gina almost choked on her Smirnoff Ice. “Erikson? As in, Tony Erikson? Jake’s best friend?”

Malinda touched a finger to her nose. “Now you see why I dreaded those PTA meetings. I probably could have said something to her parents a thousand times, but I didn’t want to face that crew again.”

“Understandable.”

“Changing the subject,” Curtis warned. “When do we get to meet this pop star man of yours?”

“Well, the group is going on a break, Justin’s gonna work on his solo CD, a lot of people have been pressuring JC into making one, but he’s not sure. He said he’ll have lots of free time till he has a real clear idea of his plans.”

“So can I get an answer to that? When is he coming?” Curtis pressed.

“He’s not, I’m going there,” Malinda beamed.

“And just what was so personal that you had to take the phone in the other room when he called?” Gina demanded.

“Nothing! I just couldn’t talk with the three of you staring at me with them dumb-ass grins on your faces. How can I carry on a conversation with that?”

“Right, right. I bet it was some freaky talk.”

“It better not have been!” Rhett said defensively.

“What are you, her daddy?” asked Curtis.

“Who’s yer daddy?” Gina hollered.

“Who’s your baby? Who’s your buddy? Yeah who’s your man?” followed the Toby Keith song as performed by Curtis Brown.

“In the name of all that is holy, please don’t ever do that again,” Rhett shut him up.

Malinda looked around at her friends and grinned. This was the kind of night she lived for.

“Good morning sunshine!” came the voice over the telephone.

“Good morning yourself. What are you doing up so early?” Malinda rubbed her eyes.

“I wanted to wake up when you did.”

“Well isn’t that sweet of you.”

JC chuckled. “I don’t know if that was sarcasm or genuine. I hope it was the latter, I can’t tell from your tone of voice.”

“This is my ‘I just woke up’ scratchy voice thing.”

“And a sexy voice that is.”

“Shut up.”

“Okay, I’m done. How did Laurel’s exams go?”

“She says they went okay, and I’m sure she did very well. She and her friends are all very smart. I’m glad she hangs out with the right kids.”

“That’s good. Guess what?”

“Do I have to? If I stall around long enough will you just be so bursting with excitement that you’ll tell me anyway? Because I can do that if I really, really want to,” Malinda rambled, all the while stretching and cracking her joints and knuckles.

“Damn you woman,” JC grunted. “Twenty-seven days.”

“Until…?” Malinda pretended she had no idea what he was talking about.

“I’ll hang up this phone right now.”

“Sorry, sorry. I know there’s twenty-seven days. We can’t wait. Are you sure we’re not going to be in your way? Absolutely positive?”

“Why do you sound like you’re trying to get out of it?” JC teased, only slightly nervous that she was.

“Oh, no! No way. I just don’t want to interfere. I know you’ve got that song for the movie that you’re working on, and who knows what else will come up by then.”

“I’m almost done with the song, and I’m sure you’ll find something to do in case I need to take care of anything.”

“If you say so,” Malinda lilted.

“Oh, I do,” JC returned.

Malinda raised her head from the pillow to read the clock. “Oh, it’s time for me to get ready for work. I should have been in the shower already.”

“Mmm, the shower, you say?

“Oh! You… just shut up. I’m going now,” Malinda laughed.

“Alright. I’ll be busy all day, so I’ll have to talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

“That’s fine. Talk to you tomorrow.”

“Have a good day sweetie,” JC hung up the phone, promptly picking it up again and calling his friend. “Joe, I have no idea what I’m doing,” he spoke the instant he heard the male voice answer.

It took a minute for the voice to respond. “What you’re doing is waking me up far too early for a day that I’m actually free and thus should be using to sleep in.”

“No, you should be helping me straighten out my life.”

“That’s what a shrink is for.”

“That’s what you’re for.”

“Oh come on man, it’s only eight-thirty.”

“Wrong. It’s almost nine, and you should be getting your ass out of bed about now to tend to your child anyway.”

Joe Fatone heaved a sigh that made the curtains flutter. “What is the problem with you and Malinda today?”

“You say it like I call you like this every week.”

“You do!”

“Hardly.”

“Yes you do. You call me almost every time you talk to her.”

“Whatever. Are you gonna listen or not?”

“What is it?” Joe sat up.

“Well, you know I invited her to come and stay here for a few weeks, right?”

“Yeah?” Joe drawled in an ‘is-there-a-point-to-this?’ way.

“Well, she’ll be here in about a month, and I’m just getting nervous.”

“Oh no, JC is nervous about Malinda. Alert the media. None of this is a news flash.”

“Would you shut up? You know I feel like a complete moron in this situation. I never know if anything I’m thinking is right. We’re always flirting and talking about things the way people who are dating should talk about, but I don’t know if we’d be classified as dating.”

“So you’re not dating yet. You’re doing that whole getting to know each other thing,” rolling his eyes, Joe filled in the blank.

“Okay fine, but what are we doing when she gets here?” JC jumped up from his chair.

“Why does it have to have a name?”

“It doesn’t!” JC flung himself back onto a couch.

“How far do you see this relationship going, JC? What do you want out of it?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’d like it to get serious.”

“I’m talking the M-word, buddy. I know you told me not to marry you off yet, but I think you’re freaking out all the time because you’re thinking about it. Would you want to marry her?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. If that’s what she wants.”

“Oh man,” Joe slapped a hand to his forehead. This was hopeless. “Listen, man. Call Chris or something. You’re killing me. I could still be sleeping.”

In the background JC heard Brianna start squalling. “Not anymore.”

“No, but I could have had five more minutes had you not called.”

“Suck it up. You gonna come out here when she’s here?”

“Most likely. I’ll bring the baby, but I don’t know if Kelly can make it.”

“Alright. Talk to you later.”

“Right. Bye,” Joe ended the call, leaving JC to ponder his life on his own.

“All passengers in rows one through seven may now board the plane. All passengers in rows one through seven may now board.”

“C’mon honey, that’s us,” Malinda swung her bag up on her shoulder and rose from her seat, pulling her suitcase out from underneath it. Laurel followed, popping the handle out of her suitcase and dragging it behind her.

When the pair reached row six, Laurel clambered into her window seat while Malinda slid the two suitcases into the overhead compartment. She then sat down next to Laurel and they waited for the captain to go through his spiel. Malinda pawed through her bag to get Laurel’s Discman, and instructed her once again to wait until she was told she could use it before pulling out her own CD player and a book.

Once the plane was out of Buffalo and headed for Charlotte, Malinda started to fully accept the truth of what was going on. She was really on a plane to go visit JC at his home. This was no joke, no fairytale. With each stop and plane change, the realization hit harder; Charlotte, St. Louis, and finally, LAX.

Malinda gripped Laurel’s hand and dragged her suitcase with the other hand. She scanned the pick-up area for the limousine JC told her he’s have waiting for them. After a few false starts toward other black stretches (this was Los Angeles, after all), she finally spotted it. The long white limo accompanied by two drivers, one with the ‘Gracie’ sign. The women in question hurried towards their ride, delighted when one driver put their things in the trunk and the other opened the door. Laurel slid in first and squealed with excitement. Malinda climbed in after and almost died when she saw her surroundings. She rolled down her window ever so slightly as the limo pulled away and began the journey.

Almost twenty minutes into the trip, the divider was rolled down and the chauffeur in the passenger seat turned around.

“There’s something I’ll never understand about people who ride in limos. Why is it that they never take a good look at their driver?” he took off his cap and sunglasses, and grinned through the window.

Malinda smiled coyly. “Why is it that a man in a uniform looks so damn good? Come back here.”

She sat breathless as the limo coasted to a stop on the side of the road, and JC got out. He let himself in the back seat, where Laurel pounced on him almost immediately, nearly cutting off his oxygen supply with the death like grip she had on his neck. Once she let go, JC turned to look at Malinda, who hadn’t moved since the car stopped. Never taking his eyes off her, JC slowly slid down the length of the seat until he was right next to her, and took her hand.

“I can’t believe you’re actually here,” he breathed.

“I’m here,” she answered. “So believe it.”

“You’re gonna kiss now, aren’t you?” Laurel broke in.

“Hopefully,” JC said. “You want to go sit up front so you can see the city?”

“Yeah!”

JC stuck his head through the divider. “Hey Johnny, Laurel’s coming up front, so don’t pull back into traffic yet.” Johnny consented, and opened the doors for Laurel. Once he was behind the wheel again, he caught JC’s eye and gave him a little wink.

Laurel waved and started to raise the divider. “Have fun.”

“I’ll try.”

“That’s not very confident sounding.”

“Well, I don’t know if you’re going to kiss me.”

“And who says you can’t try to kiss me?”

“Who, indeed,” JC mumbled as he cupped her cheek. He brought his lips to hers in the most delicate of kisses he’d ever given. She didn’t protest in the slightest way, only pressed her lips harder against his. They both explored the kiss eagerly, it being their first real kiss. Only after JC moaned against her lips did Malinda allow the tiniest sigh to escape. They continued like this for some time; JC letting out the occasional groan and Malinda whimpering in return. As with all first kisses, the proverbial sparks flew and fireworks exploded, and all the rest of the world just disappeared. It was just JC and Malinda, lost in both space and time. JC tightened his grip around Malinda’s torso and she grabbed fistfuls of his hair. He began to rub her back, first over her shirt, then he ventured underneath. Elated that she let him, he nearly lowered her to the seat to see what else she’d let him do. Instead he kept himself under control, allowing his hands to have all the joy at touching Malinda’s skin, the warm contact ripping a shuddering groan from his throat.

When they finally pulled apart, JC was frightened to see Malinda’s cheeks sparkling with tears. He rushed to apologize for doing something wrong, but she interrupted.

“No, no, you didn’t do anything. It’s just that… I’ve never been kissed like that; I’ve never felt all that passion behind a kiss. It was like I couldn’t get enough, like I couldn’t stop it if I tried. Not that I would stop it if I could,” Malinda sighed. “That was wonderful.”

“You’re beautiful,” JC breathed, and moved in to make her feel helpless again. This time things got a little less innocent. JC lost his jacket and two buttons in the battle before Malinda stopped herself and pulled away.

“Sorry,” she panted. “I didn’t mean to get carried away.”

“You most certainly don’t hear me complaining.”

“No, I don’t, so it’s your fault.”

“It is not!”

“Holy cow! This is a house?” came Laurel’s cry from up front, announcing their arrival at JC’s Hollywood Hills home. “This looks like the Galleria Mall.”

JC chuckled, “It’s not that big. You should see Justin’s house.”

Her interest piqued, Malinda looked up as she stepped out of the limo. What she saw caused her to gawk similarly to her daughter. Maybe it was because she lived in a working-class town, maybe it was due to living in that little apartment for so long, or maybe it was because she was still in awe of the whole idea that she was there, but Malinda was sure she had never, ever, seen a house as big as JC’s

“Can we see Justin’s?” Laurel played the ‘adorable little girl’ role, slipping her hand into JC’s.

“Mooch,” Malinda accused, taking JC’s other hand, and allowing him to lead them up the walkway.

“Welcome to my somewhat humble abode,” JC entered the security code at the door and pushed it open, gesturing for Malinda and Laurel to enter.

“Show me my room, show me my room,” Laurel tugged at JC’s hand.

“Alright, come on up here,” JC aimed her up the stairs and turned toward the left, traipsing across the balcony that looked down onto the foyer. When he reached the door of choice, he told Laurel to close her eyes. “My neighbor helped me with this. Okay, that’s a lie. She basically did the whole thing herself.”

JC flung open the door and ushered the two into the room. Laurel opened her eyes and shrieked when she saw great care had been taken to match her room at home, down to all the various shades of blue and green. She recalled the conversation she had overheard where Malinda was describing their bedrooms to him.

“I love it!” she cried. She hopped up on the bed, giving it a few test bounces. “Where’s Momma sleeping?”

Malinda’s sidelong glance caught JC’s hint of a grin before he could wipe it from his face. “I’ll show you that too. Ma’am?” he held out an elbow to Malinda.

The three retraced their steps out into the hall, where they crossed into another room after Malinda was instructed to close her eyes. He guided Malinda to the center of the room before allowing her to open them. She gasped as her eyes fell upon the oak four poster bed and all the violet and white curtains and bedspread. A gentle breeze fluttered the curtains open, showing Malinda that her view was not limited by a window. She pushed the draperies aside and pushed the French doors open wide, stepping out onto the little terrace. From here she could oversee the pool, which was made to look like some hidden spring, surrounded by rocks and mini cascades.

“Wow,” she breathed. “This is all… it’s just… beautiful.”

“Well if Momma’s room is so great, what does yours look like?” Laurel said to JC.

“Nothing special, really. Let me show it to you,” JC again led them down the hall before reaching his room. He paused for dramatic effect, only to show them just how plain his private space really was. His bedroom was the exact mirror of Malinda’s, except it was decorated in tame grays and blues. It reeked of relaxation. The only thing remotely flashy was, because it was a copy of Malinda’s room, the terrace, also overlooking the pool.

“Well this is boring. What’s the matter with you?” Laurel chose not to use subtlety. “That pool looks nice though. I wanna go swimming!”

“Don’t you want to eat something?” JC asked. “Or take a nap?”

“Swim now, eat later, swim again!” Laurel responded and galloped down the stairs, where their bags had been brought in. She grabbed her suitcase and practically, despite its size and weight, carried it over her head to her room, informing them that she’d be ready in a minute.

Malinda looked over at JC. “Swimming it is then. I wanted to take a nap.”

“You can take a nap on one of the rafts. Come on,” he ushered her to go get her bag and get dressed, while he did the same in his own room.

“JC, this is friggin’ ridiculous. Why don’t you just go buy a bottled water company? I mean, come on. You’re stockpiling this crap like it’s an endangered resource. This shopping list gets more and more extreme every week. Who needs three million bottles of water? Are you bathing in it? No wait; you must be filling the pool again.”

“Um, JC’s not home,” Malinda slowly entered the kitchen, where a fiery-haired woman was placing bottle after bottle of water in JC’s refrigerator.

The woman jumped at the sound of another female voice. “Oh! Oh, I’m sorry, you must be Malinda. JC told me you were coming, he was all excited. Oh, I’m Madison Torres, I live next door. Well, if you can call it next door. I do JC’s shopping for him.”

“I see. He’s out with Laurel right now, and they’re stopping to pick up Joe from the airport.”

“Oh, so Joe made it out here? Did he bring the baby? Laurel, that’s your daughter, right? From what JC’s said about her, she must be a doll.”

“She can be,” Malinda cracked and both women laughed. Together they put JC’s groceries away and settled out on the patio for a drink.

Quiet barking announced the arrival of the men and Laurel. Malinda turned in her lounger to Joe Fatone carrying a baby in his arms.

“Ah, I see you’ve met Madison. Good,” JC struggled to maintain control of the wriggling puppy in his arms. “And you remember Joe, and that’s his daughter, Brianna.”

Joe held the child out to Malinda, who smiled when Brianna started to talk to her.

“Doggy.”

“Yeah, that’s a nice doggy. Whose doggy is that?”

Brianna pointed to JC. “Doggy.”

“It’s JC’s doggy?”

“Yep.”

“Did he just get that doggy today?”

Brianna nodded, then found herself distracted by Malinda’s hair clip.

“I wonder why he suddenly got a doggy,” Malinda continued.

“Isn’t he cute?” Laurel couldn’t hold back any longer, and she took the chocolate Labrador from JC. “We haven’t picked a name yet, though.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah, I was thinking something that involves chocolate, like Hershey or something.”

Malinda continued to eyeball JC while Laurel continued to rattle of name possibilities, and eventually Joe stepped in, taking his daughter back from Malinda.

“Come on Laurel, over here where’s there’s more grass for him to run around,” he said. “You too, Madison.”

“But I want to –“

“Madison.”

She took her lemonade and raised it to both JC and Malinda in a goodbye. Joe followed her after muttering to JC, “I told you.”

“A puppy?” Malinda asked.

“She was just so happy –“

“So you just buy her a puppy?”

“Well, I –“

“Let me ask you something. Is your name on her birth certificate?”

“No.”

“So what right did you feel you had to buy her a puppy? Now she’s gonna want to take it home –“

“I told her we can just keep it here and she’ll see him when you come out here.”

That made Malinda pause in shock. “Isn’t that a little presumptuous? Who’s to say we’ll ever be here again?”

“Well, I would hope you would be. I mean, I don’t think anything major is going to happen anytime soon,” JC thought for a minute. “Okay, okay, you have a point. It wasn’t my place to buy her a puppy. Joe tried to tell me. He said that was kind of a family thing. But you should have seen her face when we walked by the pet store. And then when she saw him. I just couldn’t say no.”

Malinda shook her head. “All these years I tried not to spoil her too much, and you blow the plan in four days.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, no, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to attack you like that. But a puppy is a little family-ish. And telling her she can see him when we come back? What if you and I decide we don’t want to see each other again?”

JC pushed a few loose strands of hair behind Malinda’s ears. “Are you trying to tell me something?”

“No, I’m just saying.”

“Well, how about we worry about that if the time comes. Nothing about what I’m feeling for you right now leads me to believe I’m never going to want to see you.”

“That’s good,” Malinda tipped her head to kiss JC, her arms wrapping around his waist.

“This whole relationship thing with an honest attachment is new to you, isn’t it?” JC brushed his thumb over Malinda’s lips.

“K.B.”

“Pardon me?”

“The puppy. When I was growing up, my neighbors had a chocolate Lab. I used to play with her and walk her, and whenever they went out of town, we watched her. A lot of the time we just kept her at our house. It was like her second home. If she got out of her yard, we’d find her sniffing around our door, waiting to be let in. When she got older, she got messed up tendons in her hind legs, and it got so bad she refused to walk. She wouldn’t go outside, it got so bad she would hold it all day and only go out to go to the bathroom once or twice a day. Eventually they had to put her down. And that was her name. K.B.,” a tear slid down her cheek.

“Did that stand for anything?”

“They had a daughter who died. When they bought the dog, they gave her the daughter’s first and middle initials.”

“I see. So how about K.B. Junior?”

“Junior for short.”

JC gazed at Malinda before kissing her softly again. “You’re beautiful,” he took her hand to go give the puppy his name.

“Malinda?”

“Are you stalking me?”

“Your door was open, and I could see your shadow on the curtains,” JC stepped out onto Malinda’s terrace to join her. “Is anything wrong?”

“No, I just couldn’t sleep, so I decided to come out and enjoy the night.”

JC slipped behind her and pulled her hair up off the back of her neck, his fingertips grazing her skin, causing her to shiver. Once he had exposed her neck and shoulders, JC dipped his head to leave a trail of light kisses to her flesh. This, too, sent a chill down her spine.

“Are you trying to seduce me?” she managed to whisper.

“Is it working?”

“It might be… It just might be.”

“Does it help if I do this?” JC whispered in her ear as his hands slid down to her waist. He bunched the hem of her tank top in his fingers to give his hands free roam underneath. Malinda melted as his hand spanned across her stomach, turning her around.

“Yeah… yeah that helps.”

“Yeah?” the two continued to murmur and sigh against each other’s lips, their kisses growing deeper, more exploratory. JC slowly backed toward the doors to the bedroom, Malinda blindly following. She fumbled to close the door behind her and the pair stumbled toward the bed. JC gently pushed Malinda onto it, breaking the kiss long enough to walk over to close the bedroom door. He returned to her quickly, picking up the kiss exactly where they left off. Easily he found himself the dominant one, Malinda hesitantly responding to his every touch.

“Oh God I want you,” he rasped as they shifted positions, JC now supporting his weight on one forearm as his body leaned over Malinda’s.

“I… I want you too.”

That was all JC needed to hear. His fingers began their descent down the length of Malinda’s body. She gasped as he found her most heated flesh and his fingers found her center. He played the sweetest symphony as she clung to him.

JC strained against the sweatpants he had on as he felt Malinda give herself up. He needed this woman in ways he couldn’t understand. Pulling his hand away from her, he used it to find her hand and guide it to himself, letting out his breath in a slow exhalation as her fingers wrapped around him.

It had been such a long time since Malinda had been with a man, she wasn’t sure if she’d know how to please him. But when JC’s eyelids lowered to half-mast and his mouth struggled to form words, she knew there were some things you just never forget.

“Malinda,” he finally managed to whisper. “Oh God…” He had slid his pants down past his hips and Malinda had long since let him remove her boy-shorts. They now were each on the brink of fury as they guided him to her. Malinda bent her knees to create a more comfortable cradle for JC, and he nudged at her.

Malinda gasped at the sharp pinch that accompanied JC’s entry, and suddenly she was back in high school, being forced to do something she didn’t want to do.

“Wait,” she gasped. “Stop.”

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” JC’s caring eyes peered into Malinda’s. In the moonlight he could see her fear. “What’s the matter, sweetheart?”

She could only shake her head. “I… I can’t. I can’t do this. Not yet.”

“Okay. That’s okay. That’s fine,” JC pulled away slowly. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

It’s too late for that, she thought. “It’s just that… it’s been so long, so it hurt. And because it hurt, it reminded me of…” Malinda’s voice faded out.

“Of what?” JC pressed gently, finding Malinda’s boy-shorts in the folds on the blanket and handing them to her.

She sighed heavily, “I knew I’d have to tell you this someday.”

“If it’s too hard on you –“

“No. You’ll have to hear it eventually.”

“Okay. Do you want to go back outside?”

“No, I’m fine here,” Malinda snuggled into JC’s arms to begin her story. “Are you comfortable?”

“Yeah. Go ahead when you’re ready.”

“Alright. Well, the whole thing started when I was a freshman in high school. There was this new guy in the senior class, Jake Pawlak. He was gorgeous, all the girls wanted him. But he liked me. And being just a freshman, I wasn’t about to turn that down. So we hooked up, and we ended up dating the entire year, even after he became psycho possessive, demanding; even after he made me have sex before I was ready to. And when I didn’t want to. It always hurt me; he was always rough with me. Sometimes he hit me if I tried to stop him. That’s what I thought of just now when it hurt.”

“Oh, Malinda,” JC reached up to brush away the tears that were forming on the edge of her eyelid.

She shook her head. “Let me finish,” she whispered, and took a deep breath. “I’d been on birth control, a secret from my mother, of course. The pills I was taking were making me nauseous and sick all the time, so I switched to a new prescription. I tried to tell Jake over and over that I we couldn’t do anything until I finished with the placebo pills, but he never listened. In May, just before Jake’s senior prom –which he was gonna take this lowly freshman to— I found out I was pregnant. He freaked out when I told him, and needless to say, I wasn’t going to that dance anymore. By now I had no one to back me up, because he’d kept me away from most of my friends. He denied being the father, even though everyone in the world knew we had been together all year and I was never seen with anyone else. He went to his mother, and they both threatened to ruin my reputation if I pushed for a blood test. He was on the baseball team, and he said he could get the entire team to say they were ‘using’ me,” Malinda made air quotes with her fingers.

JC’s brow furrowed; he wanted to go back in time and punch the bastard right in the eye.

“What sucked the most is by now I had lost all my friends. Gina was the only one around for me. She was smart enough to have her older brother find out what school Jake used to go to and why he suddenly showed up at ours for his senior year. It turned out he had done the same thing at his old school and they kicked him out. The problem is, it was a small private school, so it was a lot easier to nail him. Our school was too big, and I… I was too scared to fight any harder.”

“You didn’t do anything about it?”

“No, I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything,” Malinda sighed. “I finished off the year, took the next year off. I had Laurel in January, and then in September I went back as a sophomore. It was still hard, being a year behind all my friends while I was trying to win them back.”

“So whatever happened to the asshole?”

With a shrug, Malinda replied, “He went away to college, and I’ve only really seen him a few times since. He used to pay this ceremonial visit every few Christmases. His buddies are still around, and one of them has a little sister who goes to school with Laurel and always picks on her. I’m sure whatever attitude she has comes from him.”

“Oh, sweetheart,” JC pulled her to him and she buried her face in his neck, letting her tears from that part of her life flow freely for the first time in years.

“I haven’t told anyone about this since I met Rhett and Curtis, and Rhett and Gina are the only ones who know the whole story anyway. I let most people just think I got pregnant and he disappeared. I don’t tell them about the hitting and the threats and all that. I don’t feel they need to know the details.”

“And those are details I’ll keep locked in my heart. I’ve felt for some time that there was something you were holding back from me. The way you cried when we first kissed in the limo, the way you never even offered anything about where Laurel came from. I’m glad you were finally able to open up to me,” JC stroked her hair until she regained her composure.

Lifting her tear-streaked face to his, Malinda joked, “I’m sorry I spoiled your little plan of seduction. Up until the end there, I wanted it just as bad as you did. Maybe next time, huh?”

“Oh definitely. Are you tired?” JC asked when he saw her yawn.

She nodded. “Reliving the past has a way of exhausting you.” JC started to rise from the bed, but Malinda laid a hand on his arm. “No. Stay with me.”

It was the strong need to protect and care for Malinda that made JC’s choice a difficult one. If he stayed, he’d have to try extremely hard to make sure he didn’t start anything she didn’t want to finish. On the other hand, he didn’t want to leave her alone after what she had just unloaded on him. In the end, he knew he’d made the right decision in staying when he heard Malinda’s contented sigh as she enveloped herself in his arms. Soon he closed his eyes and fell asleep to dream.