“You’ve got to tell us your secret of staying so resistant to him, so we can pass it on to our friends,” Nicola said.

Heather worked to keep her smile intact even as a picture of her father coming back from one of his business trips all smiles, with false words of love, slammed into her.

Her “secret” wasn’t one she would wish on anyone else. It was better that all of them believed love was real, that they held onto hope rather than cynicism.

But she knew they wouldn’t let her off without giving them an answer, so she said, “Well, despite the fact that he isn’t hard to look at and he makes me laugh, he’s also really irritating. And way too possessive.” At the perfect silence that followed, she turned to Lori and Sophie and said, “No offense. For all his faults, he can be a really nice guy.”

“For all his faults?” Sophie echoed with wide eyes.

“Way too possessive?” Lori looked around at the other women, before turning back to Heather. “Are you sure we’re talking about the same Zach Sullivan?”

Heather couldn’t believe they’d miss something that obvious about him. “Haven’t you noticed that mine is practically his favorite word?”

Nicola started choking on her sip of wine and as Chloe patted her back, she told Heather, “Chase and I tried the friends-with-benefits thing.” She looked down at her belly. “Pretty obvious how well that worked for us, isn’t it?”

Heather wasn’t sure if that was supposed to make her feel better or worse about her agreement with Zach. But before she could decide, Nicola said, “Cover your ears, girls,” to Lori and Sophie, before telling Heather, “Marcus and I skipped the whole friends thing and went straight for the benefits. It was just supposed to be a one-night fling.”

“I still can’t believe you fell asleep on him during your one-night stand,” Lori said.

Nicola shot her a mock frown. “Can’t you at least pretend that you don’t know all the details of my whirlwind romance with your oldest brother?”

Lori rolled her eyes. “We’re Sullivans. It’s our code to know absolutely everything about each other. Right, Soph?”

Sophie took a sip from her glass of sparkling grape juice. “Unfortunately, yes.” Just as Lori’s mouth opened, likely to say something incriminating, Sophie beat her to the punch by telling Heather, “I seduced Jake at Chloe’s wedding and ended up pregnant. But it turned out he’d been in love with me for as long as I’d been in love with him, so it all ended up working out.”

Heather was overwhelmed not only by how open each of the women was being with her—and each other—but also by what they’d told her about the other Sullivans. Each of their one-night stand and friends-with-benefits attempts had turned into long-term relationships and marriages.

Oh no...what was she doing?

And just how far over her head was she really?

“Zach’s racing for Tommy’s team tomorrow in LA, isn’t he?” Lori asked.

“I hate it when he does those races,” Sophie admitted. “At least when Gabe is running into burning buildings, I know he’s facing danger to help people. But if Zach crashes, it’s just for fun. I swear I’ll never forgive him if he gets hurt in one of those stupid races.”

Sophie’s concerns echoed the ones Heather had been trying to push away ever since Zach had mentioned the race.

Lori dismissed it with a simple, “Zach is indestructible.”

Maybe it was the wine, maybe it was the way just thinking about him made her endorphins shoot off into the stratosphere, but Heather wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out Zach actually was indestructible.

Unfortunately, she was pretty sure that she wasn’t...and when the day came that friends-with-benefits turned to just-friends, or to nothing at all, she was no longer sure she’d be walking away from that crash in one piece.

Even if Zach could, all too easily.

Chapter Twenty-four

Monday morning came too bright and early for the little sleep Heather had managed. She told herself it was one too many dark chocolate brownies that had kept her awake, rather than the way the bed already seemed too big without Zach holding her as she slept.

They’d only spent two nights together. She couldn’t possibly miss him already, and shouldn’t be on pins and needles over worries about him getting hurt in the race that morning.

An hour later, after checking in with her staff and accepting their congratulations on the successful fundraiser, she settled in behind her computer in her office. Atlas immediately took his place on the big dog bed in the corner and closed his eyes to take his morning nap. But instead of draping herself over Atlas the way she usually did, Cuddles stood in the middle of the room and gave Heather one of those pathetic little whines she’d started last night when she realized Zach wasn’t back yet.

Heather scooped up the puppy and gave her a kiss on her muzzle. “Don’t worry, he’ll be home soon.” When the puppy still looked sad, she found herself echoing Lori’s words from the night before. “Zach is indestructible. He’ll be just fine. How about we watch him win the race together?”

She kept the puppy on her lap as she clicked on the live streaming link he’d emailed her. A bunch of men in colorful racing suits were walking around the fancy cars, but it wasn’t hard for her to spot Zach. He was taller, broader, a thousand times sexier than any of the other drivers.

Her heart beat a little faster just watching him run one big hand over the body of the car, and thrill bumps lifted across the surface of her skin as if he were touching her instead of the vehicle.

Cuddles let out a soft yap that made Heather think she could see Zach on the screen, too, and it made Heather’s stomach hurt to think of how the puppy was going to react when Zach gave her back to his brother.

There was no way for the young dog to understand that she shouldn’t have let herself get so attached to him, that she shouldn’t have made the mistake of falling in love with him.

Good words of warning for all females everywhere.

The drivers got into their cars and Heather gripped the puppy tighter, burying her chin in the super-soft fur on top of Cuddles’s head as the cars zipped away from the starting blocks. Zach was in the Sullivan Autos car, of course, the now-familiar blue and gold logo a blur as he pushed the pedal to the metal.

She couldn’t believe how close he got to the other cars as he did one lap, then two, then three. He wasn’t in the lead yet, but something told her he was simply biding his time, taking it easy the way it always looked like he did, before going all in for the win.