But I’d exhausted all those options. According to the online agent I’d spoken to, they could have a tech come out to check my wires.

In three weeks.

Alice had really gone out on a limb for me. More importantly, my kids needed an impartial listener or someone to offer guidance. I could move to only text and email for a day or two, but I couldn’t be unavailable for three weeks.

My head swam, a reminder that I’d barely eaten all day. As my gaze moved from my house to the motorcycle and azure-blue muscle car in Ward’s driveway, I thought about his playful dig the night before. Rather than him hauling dinner to my place, it was long overdue that I went to his.

Not to mention, since I’d decided to stop resisting our connection, I didn’t have to pretend I wasn’t interested in seeing his home. I could give in to the curiosity I’d been suppressing.

But I wasn’t going to pull a him by walking inside without knocking.

After stopping home to drop off my computer bag, I locked my place and went to knock on Ward’s door. In the short wait, my thoughts bounced between his reaction and what cute greeting I could use.

Any idea I formed was gone—along with every last thought in my head—when someone opened the door.

Someone who was not Ward.

Not unless he’d shrunk, grown long, dark hair, and developed a curvy frame.

The woman standing in the doorway was stunning. Young and pretty, her plain tee and shorts somehow looked like the highest fashion. Even her bare feet were cute, as opposed to my swollen ones.

“Can I help you?” she asked, her lilting voice laced with an accent that I wanted to listen to for hours.

“I’ve got the wrong…” My lie trailed off when I looked over the woman’s shoulder to see Ward enter the room, pulling a shirt over his head as he moved.

When it cleared his face, his gaze landed on me, and he froze. “Mac, I can—”

Before he could finish his thought, I turned and ran. Well, ran as well as I could on shaking legs.

Which wasn’t very well at all. It also wasn’t very fast.

By the time I reached my door, Ward was already at my back. He boxed me in, making my heart race until I was convinced it would burst out of my chest and through the thick wood.

“Get away,” I ordered, going for firm and ice cold. Instead, the two words came out wobbly and soft.

Sad.

“It’s not what it looks like, baby.”

Baby.

God.

“How fuckin’ cliché. So that wasn’t a beautiful woman answering your door?”

“No, it’s—”

“And you weren’t just undressed?”

“Not like—”

My forehead thumped against the door. “Do you think I’m stupid?”

“Christ, Mac, no.”