Mandy lifted her head. She stared at Caroline, thinking that somehow her roommate had managed to do it all so nicely and cleanly. She’d met a responsible, attractive man at her previous job, dated, gotten engaged, bought a great apartment with him, and was planning the perfect wedding.

While Mandy was pregnant with one man’s child and in love with another.

She’d never thought of herself as a difficult person, but she sure in the hell wasn’t making things easy on herself either.

“Do you mind if I try Damien’s cell real quick?”

“No, go ahead.”

Mandy dialed Damien’s number on her phone and held her breath. After six rings, she was despairing and preparing to leave a rather pathetic sounding message when he answered.

“Damien! Oh, good, I’m so glad you answered.”

“Mandy?” His voice sharpened. “Is something wrong?”

Relief and irritation intermingled. “I could ask the same of you! I’ve been worried sick. Where are you?”

“Chicago. I had some things to take care of.” He sucked in his breath quickly.

“Chicago?” Mandy frowned. He’d just winged off to Chicago, canceling their dinner plans, and nothing was actually wrong? She thought she might be angry about that.

“You were worried about me?” He winced, then said, “Oww, damn it, that hurts.”

Well, excuse the hell out of her.

“Stop moving,” she heard someone say in the background.

“What are you doing?” If it was kinky and involved a woman, she was going to become seriously unpleasant.

“Getting a tattoo.”

Oh. That seemed as unlikely as him taking a bad hair day off, but then she remembered the tattoo on his arm. How she had suggested he get it fixed to cover Jess’s name—before she had known his wife had died.

“Where?” She wanted to confirm what she suspected. Crumpling her napkin, she waited for his answer.

“Over my old one.”

Mandy closed her eyes. She wasn’t sure what it meant, but she thought it meant Damien was trying to leave the past behind. That he was trying to move forward.

Please, God, let moving forward include her.

Trying to make light of it, she swallowed hard. “Is it a demon?”

Instead of answering, he gave another wince. “So why were you worried about me?”

“Surely you’ve figured that out.” Probably everyone except Ben had figured it out. She felt she might as well be wearing a sticky note on her forehead announcing it. “It’s because I’m in love with you!”

And over the cell phone probably wasn’t the best way to tell him that for the first time.

“Shit,” he said, and she wasn’t sure if he’d been stabbed by a sharp needle or if her love caused him to swear. “You don’t mean that, you can’t mean that.”

Oh, the hell she couldn’t.