“I want a family with you, Mark. I want everything you do. All I was trying to say is that I still have my IUD in. That’s why we can’t start tonight,” she explains. “And we just got married. Can’t we enjoy some time alone first? Once we have kids we won’t have any time together, not for a long while.”

Mark’s eyes briefly round to saucer-size. He leans his forehead against Joy’s. “I’m such a jerk.”

“True, but a lovable one.”

“I’m sorry. I just assumed—”

She presses a finger to his mouth, halting his words, relieved to put this conversation off for another day. She then runs her fingers in his hair. “You know what I want more than kids right now? You, naked, in our bed, loving me.”

He groans low in his throat, then kisses her deeply. “Want to get outta here?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 6

BEFORE

Joy

Flagstaff, Arizona

Joy admitted it. She was bummed that she’d never see Dylan again. Not in person, anyway. She might see his name on the back of a CD jacket under lyrics written by, but that would be it. Unless she stalked him through Google, which she’d never do. Okay, she’d allow herself one browser search tonight and that would be it.

Joy squealed, wiggling her fists. She drove Jack Westfield’s son to Flagstaff. How sick was that? What a story she’d have to tell her kids one day.

If only. Her little adventure would have to be one more secret she kept to herself. It wouldn’t matter that Dylan was the son of a rock star. Mark wouldn’t be thrilled that she’d picked up a stranger at a roadside café. She wouldn’t be if their situations were reversed. Mark alone with a beautiful woman for five hours? A woman he’d flirt with the entire drive? Not that she’d flirted with Dylan. They just had the same interest: music. And there was plenty to talk about in that arena. Their conversation was just lively, that was all. Okay, so she might have been a tad starry-eyed once she realized who he was.

Joy’s stomach growled. Across the street a diner beckoned. Better to grab dinner now than spend the next hour driving around looking for a place to eat. She wasn’t familiar with the area.

Joy locked and armed her car and entered the diner. The hostess sat her at a window seat. Directly across the street, the neon blue martini glass above the door Dylan had gone through flickered against the darkening sky. A waitress brought her a water and took her order: German potato pancakes with a side salad, the diner’s special.