SHANE’S TEXT REPLAYS IN MY head over and over as I search my purse for my car keys before moving to the laundry room that connects to the garage to see if they are hanging on the rack of keys. They’re not. My body vibrates with anguish and my heart lodges into my throat over the need to get to Zander so I can walk him through this.

And to pick apart every one of his uncle’s nuances so I can make the claims I want to make about why he can’t be approved to foster.

I know I’m breaking my promise to Shane about not reacting off the information he feeds me when it comes to Zander, but . . . it’s one of my boys. I need to be there. If it were Shane in distress I’d do the same thing.

“Sammy!” I yell, not sure if he’s in his office off the main floor or outside doing any of the various things he does that continually remain a mystery to me. I’m smart enough to know Colton has conveniently had him staying around the house lately to keep an eye on me. That doesn’t sit well with me. “Sammy. Do you know where my keys are?” I try to keep the panic out of my voice but it’s no use because I need to get to The House ASAP.

“Everything okay?” he asks as he jogs down the hallway toward me, the concern in his tone matching the look on his face. And I realize he thinks I’m in labor, hence the slightly panicked widening of his eyes.

“Yes. I’m looking for my keys.”

“Do you need me to run to the store for you?” he asks, his eyes narrowing.

“No, thank you. I need to get to The House,” I tell him as I cross my arms over my chest and just stare.

“Sorry. You’re not supposed to be going anywhere. Colton sa—”

“Did he hide my car keys?” I ask, voice becoming shriller with each word. Reality sets in that I’m not being forgetful with pregnancy brain like I thought when I couldn’t find my keys, but Colton actually hid them. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I yell, throwing my hands up, my misdirected anger aimed at Sammy.

“He wanted to make sure you stayed safe,” he states quietly, knowing not to cross my temper.

I start to walk away from him, mentally trying to figure out how to get there, when I turn back around. “Drive me then.”

Sammy startles at my directive, considering I have never asked him for anything let alone demanded him to do something since Colton and I have been married. “Let me call Colton,” he says as he goes to step away.

“No.” He stops and turns to look at me like I’ve lost it. The funny part is I have and can’t bother to care that I have. “I’m as much your boss as he is. I’ll take the blame, Sammy, but one of my boys needs me.” I know I’m putting him in a horrible position—piss off the husband or face the wrath of the pregnant wife—but at this point, I don’t care. All I can think about is Zander.

“Rylee,” he says, my name a resigned sigh.

“Never mind,” I say as the idea hits me and I start to walk past him to where Colton keeps his stash of extra keys. “I’ll just take Sex then.” By the way he sucks in his breath I know I’ve just delivered the coup de grace by threatening to take Colton’s baby. My husband may be a generous man, but when it comes to his beloved Ferrari, that’s another story.

My mind flickers back to the last time I asked to get behind the wheel. Nice try, sweetheart, but the only place you’re allowed to drive me is out of breath on the hood. I can still see his telltale smirk and the salacious look in his eyes, before I begrudgingly moved away from the door of the driver’s seat.

That was three years ago. I’m smart enough not to come between a man and his car, but I sure as hell know how to use it as leverage to get what I want.

With the weight of Sammy’s presence at my back, I open the middle drawer of the desk and make a show of rifling through it to prove my point.

“I promised Colton I’d make sure you stayed here.”

“I’ll deal with him if you drive me, Sammy. Not taking me is ten times worse for my health and the baby than taking me. Happy wife, happy life,” I say with false enthusiasm. “And if not, voila!” I turn around with the key dangling between my fingers.

Our eyes meet momentarily before his dart back to the key fob. “Fuck,” he mutters under his breath through gritted teeth. That single word can mean so many things, but right now for me it means I’ve won.

Power to the pregnant woman!


I enter The House with my key, not caring if I’m going to be in trouble or not, because judging by the strange cars in the driveway, someone is here already. I feel thankful seeing Jax’s and Kellan’s cars on the street. I know they are more than capable of handling the situation, but it’s Zander. My Zander. The boy I’ve spent endless hours with to heal his broken heart. The boy who soccers me.

When I clear the great room, I hear startled gasps. The boys look up from doing their homework at the table and run over to me with Racer following excitedly on their heels. Auggie sits back with a soft smile on his lips as I’m greeted with desperately missed hugs and a mind-spinning spew of words as they all try to tell me what’s been going on with them at the same time. Tiny hands run over my belly and tell me how much bigger it seems, and ask when is the baby going to come because they can’t wait to meet him. Because in a house full of boys, they know the baby has to be a boy. A girl is not an option. My heart swells and hurts simultaneously because although it’s only been a few weeks, it feels like I’ve missed years of their lives.

I bite back my anger toward Eddie for taking this away from me. The incessant chatter, the sticky hands, and the dirt-smudged smiles. The things that make my world go round and my heart happy. Hell yes, I’m pissed at him, but right now I’m with my boys and don’t want his vindictiveness to tarnish the small amount of time I’ll get with them.

Later I can stew. Later I can I punch my pillow in anger. But right now, I’m going to soak this up and ignore that I’m going to miss every single thing the minute I have to leave again.

“Rylee?” Kellan says as he clears the hallway, eyes wide, and grin welcoming.

“Hey. Sorry I didn’t call but—”

“You’re here for the same reason as Shane, who keeps calling, saying he’s going to be here any second, yeah?” His voice is deceptive in tone—not letting the boys on what his eyes are telling me—but it’s clear he’s concerned about Zander too. At the mention of Shane, the noise starts up around us again from the boys, excitement that their older brother is on his way to roughhouse and tell them stories about how cool college is.