“Sorry. I must have been more far-gone than I thought. Maybe I had a bit of heat stroke.” Rose flinched when her mother brushed the plate against her arm. On it was a delicious combination of scrambled eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Blythe narrowed her eyes at Rose, as if to say, what have I told you about drinking too much?

“We’ll have to carry on that conversation sometime,” she added to Bellamy, even though deep down she could tell there was something missing from last night—something besides her beer-fueled black hole—a missing piece in his version of events. No way had she been that drunk when he’d begun to tell her his pivotal thing. She’d been gazing into his gorgeous eyes when she’d seen the two fiery circles and then, just like that, she’d been in the midst of a battle?

It was feasible, even probable, that her unconscious had fashioned that intense dream from what he’d told her just before she’d passed out, and that her brain had linked it to one of her mom’s nautical stories of Nelson at war. But why had it seemed so real? Crazy real. As real as anything she’d ever experienced.

Who the heck was this guy? The more answers he gave, the more she questioned herself, her own sanity, her own feelings, what she wanted him to be. The closer she got to him, the more mysterious he became.

She needed to clear her head, damn it, otherwise, she’d go nuts before the day was out.

Her mom kept slipping into the living room to peer down through the window. After about the eighth or ninth time, she returned wearing a big sunny grin and blurted out, “Okay, you two, he’s here!” Gripping the back of Bellamy’s chair, she dropped her smile and suddenly looked flustered, chewing her bottom lip. “Okay, I know it’s going to be awkward—we all know what he’s done—but it’s important to me that you let me deal with it in my own way. I’m looking at you, Rose. I know you two don’t exactly see eye to eye—”

“Or anything to anything. The little shit.”

“But bear in mind this might be the last time we are all together as a family. Whatever Andy did, he did it because he was worried about me.”

“No, he didn’t,” Rose shot back. “He hired a PI because he’s a selfish little turd who’s—”

“Don’t. Please don’t. Not now, okay? You know I don’t ask for much—I never have—but I’m asking you this one time, please don’t say anything about it. Don’t provoke an argument. I need today to go smoothly, just this once. Let me take the best possible memory of you both with me. That’s all I ask.”