Everyone was upset with her, and she didn’t blame them. It was Florida all over again. “I’ve screwed up,” she said to Allie via phone.

“Really? So it’s your fault that Ty was using?”

“It’s my fault that the whole world knows.”

“We make our own destiny, Holly.”

True enough. And she had a feeling she’d just made hers.

Pace slept in, and when he finally rolled over, he wished like hell that Holly was here with him. Warm. Smiling.

Naked.

The sun was pouring in the wide windows and it was nearly noon. He’d actually slept, really slept all night, no pain. He very carefully rolled his shoulder. Twinges, but he no longer felt as though someone was stabbing him with a sharp, fire-hot poker. Cheered by that, he headed toward the shower.

The house felt . . . empty. Other than a physical therapy session later, where he hoped to do a little throwing, something he was anxious to get back to, he had nothing going on.

A day off.

He could do whatever he wanted. Take a drive up Highway 1. Call the kids and coach them. Sit on his ass, if he wanted.

And yet all he really wanted was one carefully organized, slightly obsessive reporter who’d turned his world upside down.

And then left him.

No, he thought, getting into the shower, letting the hot water pummel him—she hadn’t left him.

He’d left her.

And he’d been wrong, very wrong.

“We had so many hits that our server crashed,” Tommy told Holly when he caught her by cell phone later that morning. “Plus three threatening phone calls,” he said proudly. “Oh, and I hear talk of a lawsuit from Ty.”

“And you’re happy?” she asked incredulously.

“Hell, yeah. Listen, no one’s going to sue, not successfully. And the threats are just icing on the cake. But I’d watch your back in dark parking lots for a few days, doll.”

“Gee, thanks.” She remembered how it’d felt to listen to all those messages, all the people she’d disappointed, people who had been her friends.

“Don’t worry, you’re protected. It’s a blog, for God’s sake. It’s an opinion.”

“I quoted the guys,” she reminded him. “All of whom said they weren’t interested in banned substances, and then the one who said he doesn’t see a problem with it. In Gage’s words, I put a big red circle around him.”

“Ty drew that circle himself.”

“And if he tests positive, he faces a suspension.”

“Maybe he’ll learn to play by the rules. Listen, Pace’s retest results came in, inconclusive. Thought you’d want to know, he’s in the clear.”

“Thank God.”

“Jesus Christ, Holly, are you listening to yourself? What’s happened to you?”