This was what was on my mind after I got past checking in at the front office and was walking down the hall toward Juno’s classroom.

But even if my headspace was taken up with all of that, when I turned the corner to the hallway where Juno’s classroom was, nothing would have made me miss the astonishing and totally unforeseen fact that Augustus “Auggie” Hero—hot guy, ex-military, current-commando, member of my immediate posse, man I was supposed to be dating since Lottie tried to fix us up months ago, man I’d broken down and had wall sex with not long ago and then ended that episode very badly—that Auggie Hero was holding up the wall beside the door to Juno’s classroom with his broad shoulders.

But his head was turned, and his black eyes were on me.

Now there…

Embodied in that man…

Was a true perfect world.

But I felt my heart start racing and that had nothing to do with the fact he was gorgeous.

What was he doing here?

God, God, God.

It was important to repeat that he was a current commando.

A commando who, for unknown reasons, was loitering in the hallway of an elementary school.

Was…?

God!

Was there some threat to Juno?

I rushed to him, my high heels echoing against the tile in the quiet hall, and I didn’t hesitate to grab onto his forearm that was crossed on his chest and lean in close so I could say low, “Is everything okay?”

He stared down at me.

Then he tipped his chin and looked at my fingers curled around his forearm.

He looked back at me when I squeezed his sinewy flesh and snapped, “Auggie! Is something wrong? Is Juno unsafe?”

At my question, his face changed.

In my panic, I hadn’t really registered his expression before, but now it couldn’t be missed that it was hyper alert.

I was already hyper alert but I did not take it as a good sign he’d gone hyper alert even if it wasn’t a surprise, considering all that had been swirling around the Dream Team for nearly a year.

That Dream Team being Evie, Ryn, Hattie, Lottie…and me.

The Dream Team’s men being (in order to the women) Mag, Boone, Axl, Mo…and as mentioned, Auggie was supposed to be (however was not) mine.

Like she’d tried to do for Auggie and me, Lottie had fixed up all the others. Since, there had been weddings, engagements, moving in and buying houses together in that mix.

My fixup just didn’t work.

And yeah, that was on me, because, again, my daughter had to deal with my family and the revolving door of women that Corbin introduced into her life.

She was not going to put up with that from me.

And it was important at that juncture to mention that all the drama that had been swirling around the Dream Team included death and dirty cops and kidnappings and stalking and shootouts, and it bore repeating…death.