“We still need to let everyone know we’re getting hitched. What time did the ceremony finally get set for?”

She stiffened for a split second before returning to cuddle against him. “Sorry, that still freaks me out. We’ve got an appointment for a week from Friday, at two.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Freaks me out a bit as well, if it makes you feel better.”

“We could wait until—”

“We’re not waiting, Tasha. This is important to me. We’re having sex and you could be pregnant already. I want to be married before I hear I’m going to become a father. Maybe that makes me some kind of weird toss-back, but you’ll just have to put up with my old-fashioned ways.”

She stretched up on her toes and kissed his nose. “You know what? That’s very sweet, and I promised I would marry you, but I’m saying there’s no rush because I don’t feel like I’m pregnant.”

Oh? “You have some mystical crystal ball you’re consulting, or did you get your period?”

A gasp escaped her. “Umm, that’s blunt.”

He snickered softly. “I thought you were used to it.”

Her cheeks flushed to bright red, and she wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I’m not talking about my period with you.”

“Bullshit. We’ve been over this. You want to get pregnant, we need to talk about it. I thought you were going to make me a chart? I know you’ve got one. You’ve probably been tracking for months.”

“Jesus, do you know how weird this is? To talk about my period with a guy? Yes, I’ve got a chart, but you don’t need to be studying it or anything. Just…have sex with me. That’s enough.”

Max debated which way to take this. She’d been fighting to maintain control in the strangest of areas. Maybe straight-out logic would be best. “Is your cycle twenty-four days? Longer? Shorter?”

“Max!”

Of course, teasing was good as well. “Hey, I’m up on basal temperature and all that stuff as well. I’ll take your temperature every day if that will help.”

She shook with her laughter now. “You, Maxwell Turner, are not a normal male.”

“So I’ve been told. But since we’re trying to get preggo, I figured I should do some research. For example, in the book What to Expect When You’re—”

She peeled out of his arms and sat on the edge of the bed, holding her stomach and laughing. “You’ve started reading baby books? Oh my God, you’re a brave man.”

“No, brave is when I ask if you’ve got PMS and don’t run to hide the knives.”

A loud shout burst from her. “Now you’re looking for trouble.”

“I think I found it.” He stepped on either side of her legs.

Tasha stared up at him. “You confuse me.”

He grinned back. “You make me hot.”

Neither of them seemed to be able to stop smiling and inside, he cheered. She seemed to have forgotten temporarily that she wasn’t interested in being more than friends. “You ass, is that going to be your standard answer when you want to win a fight?”

“Don’t see why not. It’s true, and it works.” Besides, it made her flush slightly every time he said it, and he was willing to use every weapon in his arsenal to get the upper hand. After flicking a glance at his watch, a happy idea overtook him. He pressed her back on his bed and buried his face between her breasts. In spite of having spent the morning packing, she smelled wonderful, a hint of jasmine rising on the air.

They’d been apart for far too long, at least twelve hours. “So…”

She wiggled under his touch. “So…what?”

“Are you, or aren’t you? Because we totally have enough time for a quickie, if you’re not having your period…”

She wasn’t, and they did, and he’d never been happier. Rolling with her on the bed in the midst of his college paraphernalia, it was like a homecoming and a hint at the future. Tasha seemed very willing to acknowledge the physical chemistry between them. Max wanted much more. The much more he was determined to achieve, one step at time, and luckily for both of them, each step was turning out to be very pleasurable.


“You’ve got to be kidding. I swear this is some kind of elaborate hoax you two have concocted.”

Tasha sighed into her teacup. Of all the people to have trouble with her situation, she didn’t expect Lila to be the one to freak so hard. Yeah, there had been a few warning grumbles when Tasha had shared that she and Max were dating, but she’d thought that was just from the initial surprise. Heaven knew Lila had heard her complain often enough over the past year that having a man in her life was a low priority.

Now that Saturday had rolled around it was less than a week before she and Max were supposed to make it official. She’d finally got up the courage to drop by Lila’s place and tell her their plans. “No, I’m not kidding. Max and I are getting married.”

“You can’t marry him!”

She raised a brow at her friend’s bold declaration. “I can’t? Why? Is he married already, with a passel of kids I don’t know about?”

Lila growled at her, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms. “If you’re not going to be serious about this…”

“I am being serious. Max and I have decided to get married. I want you to come and be one of our witnesses. It’s at two o’clock. Are you free?”

“You’ve been turning the boy down for dates for years, and now you’re not only dating, you’re getting married? Jumping the gun or what?”

Tasha sighed. Yeah, the tough questions were starting already, and she had only a few options. Either she told the plain and simple truth to Lila, or she lied her head off and pretended to be madly in love. She didn’t want to confess about the baby making to anyone—not even Lila. That topic was something that down the road neither she nor Max wanted trotted out at a Turner gathering. A bold-faced lie was also out of the question. Lila would never in a million years believe her to have fallen head over heels so fast.

Max had suggested a middle ground, and she’d thought it was a good idea. Unfortunately, Lila wasn’t buying.

“He’s not a boy anymore, as he very eloquently pointed out. When I finally agreed to date him, I realized we clicked. It doesn’t make any sense to wait around and make it a long drawn-out engagement and stuff. We’ve known each other for ten years.”

Lila wrinkled her nose. “Please, he was underage for most of that time.”

“You know nothing sexual happened back then.”

Her friend shook her head. “I don’t understand you. From wanting nothing to do with the Y chromosome to committing to marriage?” Lila narrowed her eyes. “You’re up to something, and I’m not sure why you’re not telling me the truth. You’ve had your damn head in the clouds for months. I figured it was stuff with your work or the house-building project. Now you want me to believe you’ve fallen in love with my cousin and that’s it?”

“Why is it so hard to believe?” Tasha scrambled a bit. Having to convince Lila was not on her list of things to do. She’d known it was a stretch—to hope for a quiet coffee break, a congratulatory hug, and then back on her way into a full day that included way too much work. While she and Max were keeping the wedding small and strictly businesslike, there still seemed to be a million things to do.

The fact she’d gotten her period that morning hadn’t added any joy to the day either. The complication of having to win over her friend seemed a little too much to take at the moment. “It’s happening. It’s real. I just want you to be happy for me.”

“I can’t condone this.” Lila glared at her. “He’s my freaking younger cousin, barely out of his teens.”

Tasha covered her wince as best she could. This was not going to be easy, not with Lila shooting back all the concerns she thought she’d finally convinced herself weren’t issues. Now she got to try saying her responses out loud, like she meant them. She hoped they sounded as convincing this time around as they had when she’d jumped into the relationship with Max.

“Oh, bullshit, you know he’s not a teen. He’s twenty-four, and he’s more mature than most of the thirty-year-olds we’ve been dating. If you pull off the blinders, you’d have to admit that he’s an adult, and a great guy.”

“There’s no way I’m admitting anything. This is simply way too weird.”

Damn it all. “Look, we’re not asking for your permission, I’m asking if you want to be my witness—”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t see why you’re doing this. Unless you guys had sex and you got knocked up or something, I see no reason for you to get married. Hell, even if that’s the case, I still see no reason for you to get married.”

The streak of pain that flashed through Tasha was real, and made her angry all over again. There was no way someone who wasn’t longing for a child could understand how much it hurt to have to spit out the words. “I’m not pregnant.”

“What the hell is going on then? And why aren’t you telling me the truth? I mean, one minute you’re sworn off guys and the next you’re getting married? How come I didn’t hear a word about your change of heart before now?”

Shit. “I just…”

“Just what? Didn’t think you could tell me? Didn’t think you should talk to someone before you made a life-changing decision?”

Tasha froze, her fingers clutching the edge of her cup. It was true. She hadn’t told Lila, not a word, about her plans for artificial insemination. All through the debating and questions, she’d clutched the idea tightly to herself and kept it a secret. Why hadn’t she disclosed her thoughts to Lila? The question had bothered her until she’d realized she didn’t want to tell out of fear Lila would try to talk her out of it.

Lila had always acted like she was the voice of reason, stilling many of the exciting new adventures Tasha wanted to try. Coaxing her back to far more ordinary paths. Some of the time Tasha was grateful, but there were times that she’d wondered if the safe route Lila insisted on was really the one to take.