Briefly, she considered going home to Iowa. Her mother and father lived on a small farm, like almost everyone else of their faith. She could go back there, but she knew what she’d face. “I told you it was a mistake to go to LA,” her parents would say, and maybe she’d never summon the courage to stand against them and leave again. That community was so closed off from the rest of the world, it was like an alternate universe.

Besides, her sister and her sister’s husband had lost their house and barn in a fire, and her parents had taken in their entire family, which included five kids under the age of ten. Tia wasn’t even sure there’d be a place for her to sleep.

No, she couldn’t go home. She’d shrivel up and die if she had to weather their disapproval—the disapproval of the entire Mennonite community—on top of what she was going through already.

You’ll stay, won’t you? Maxi wrote.

She stared at those words. Certainly dealing with one temperamental artist would be easier than going back to LA, where the accident happened and there was a much greater threat of the paparazzi catching up with her. Easier than returning to her parents’ small farmhouse forty miles outside of Cedar Rapids, too.

Sure.

Thank you. I know it doesn’t seem like it right now, but everything’s going to be okay.

She sent a thumbs-up to make him think she believed that. But right now it didn’t feel as though anything would ever be okay again.

After putting her phone on the coffee table, she curled onto her side and put the ice pack on her face. She had a headache from colliding with Seth Turner, and the pain in her face seemed to radiate into her brain, but that was probably more from the nasal pressure and congestion caused by crying.

She was just drifting off to sleep when she heard pounding on the door. “Tia, it’s Seth.”

Her heart skipped a beat as she came back to full awareness. He knew her name and probably who she was—thanks to Maxi. But surely he didn’t expect her to answer. Even if he did, she wasn’t going to get up, let alone let him in. He could stand out there and knock for hours in the cold for all she cared. When she was feeling better, she’d get his number from Maxi and text him to work out a schedule. Then she’d go over to take care of Kiki when he was out of the house or busy working.

There was no reason their paths had to cross, not if they were careful.