I grinned through my tears. “Yeah, he would.”

“He’ll stand with you in this, no matter how it turns out. But the first thing you need to do is take a pregnancy test.”

I nodded. She was right, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to know yet. If I found out I was pregnant, I’d need to tell Mason right away. Selfishly, I wanted the two of us to have more time alone together without planning for a baby. I hardly saw him as it was. But even more than that, I’d always thought about pregnancy as a positive, happy thing. When I found out I was having a baby—either now or in the future—I wanted my tears to be from happiness, not worry and sorrow. I’d spent my entire life knowing I wasn’t wanted by one of my parents, so it was important to me that any child of mine be loved and cherished from the very moment I knew for sure about his or her existence. I needed some time to wrap my head around the possibility first.

“In the meantime, it might be a good idea to start taking prenatal vitamins.”

“Oh, crappy doodles.” I felt like I was about to hyperventilate. In a matter of minutes, this was getting too real.

“I can give you some of mine in a bag so that Mason won’t ask you any questions until you’re ready to talk about it.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding my head like a fool. “Good idea.”

“It’s probably nothing. You’ve been careful since you got home, right?”

“Yeah.” I teared up again.

Neely Kate pulled me into a hug. “Don’t worry. It’s going to be okay, either way.”

“What’s going to be okay?” Joe asked, sounding worried.

I jumped, bumping my head on Neely Kate’s. We’d been too wound up in our conversation to notice his approach. He was standing right in front of us, dressed in a Fenton County Sheriff’s Department uniform of a khaki button-down shirt, a black tie, and pants. His badge was pinned on his left chest. I’d never seen him in a uniform before, not even when he was with the state police. I had to admit that it caught me off guard. Joe looked good in a uniform. Really good.

“Nothing,” Neely Kate answered, glaring up at him. “It’s none of your business, Joe Simmons.”

Joe’s face hardened with determination; he was obviously not about to be deterred by my bulldog friend. “You’re wrong there, Neely Kate. I care about Rose, so whatever concerns her is my business.”

She hopped off the bench faster than I would have thought possible for a pregnant woman with grievous morning sickness. She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Don’t you dare try to tell me you care about her, you boll weevil!”

His eyes flew open in surprise. “Neely Kate. I thought we were friends.”

“We were friends until you told Rose she had to dump all the people closest to her because they weren’t good enough for you and your family.”

He groaned. “That wasn’t me, Neely Kate. That was my father. You have to know I didn’t agree with him.”

She shook her head. “Be that as it may, I know you’d prefer for Bruce Wayne to be out of her life, and I won’t even get started on Jonah.”

Joe had the good sense to blush a little.

“And you can blame your daddy all you want, but we all know he didn’t do a darn thing to force you to play slip-and-slide in the sheets with that red-headed witch.”

His face turned a dark shade of scarlet.

“And it sure was you lettin’ your family treat Rose like she was a leper.” When his eyes widened, she jabbed a sharp-nailed finger into his chest. “Oh, yeah. She told me all about it, you two-timing, hypocritical, high-falutin’ snob.”

He held his hands up in surrender. “You’re right.”

Her finger stopped mid-jab and the anger fell off her face. “What?”

His hands lowered to his sides. “I said that you’re right. About all of it. Rose and I may have been broken up, but I still betrayed her by sleeping with Hilary, and I will regret that until the day I die. You have to believe that.”

Neely Kate snapped back to attention. “Don’t you dare think you can get off that easy by batting those puppy-dog eyes at me and telling me I’m right.”

Joe chuckled. “Do you want me to tell you that you’re wrong?”

She squinted at him, anger rolling off her like heat off pavement in August. “Don’t you play those games with me, you fast-talkin’ scumbag. You hurt Rose, one of the sweetest, most loving women I’ve ever met. You do not get to do that, and then expect everything will be okay because you’ve had the sense to apologize.”

His smile fell, replaced by a more serious expression. “At the risk of aggravating you more, I have to say you’re right again. I love her, despite what you think, despite how I’ve behaved. I love her.”

“If you love her, you’ll leave her alone and let her be happy.”

“Is she really happy?” He waved to me. “She’s sitting on this bench crying.”

“Did you ever stop and think that she might be crying over you screwin’ up her life, you moron?”

I finally stood. “Both of you stop.” I took a deep breath. “Is there something you need, Joe?” I was aggravated with myself for having waited so long to intervene, but I’d been too shocked by their show to do a plum thing about it.

He scowled. “Yeah, I need to know that you’re okay, and before you tell me it’s none of my business, let me remind you that we’re friends, per your new rules.”