“How is it best to lie about who you’re seeing to everyone you know? I mean if you went to those lengths to keep us from knowing . . . are you certain about what you’re doing?”

Shannon took a few steps closer, now almost nose-to-nose with Gwen. “Oh yeah, and you’re so much better? Let’s see how great your decisions are after you have your baby!”

“WHAT?” Gwen shouted, looking appalled. “How did you . . . ?”

“You told me to let myself in this morning to get the new shoes you’d bought for Maddy. Megan had to use the bathroom. I saw all of those pregnancy tests lined up on your bathroom sink. So, don’t you two be lecturing Gage and me about hiding things. Looks like you’re doing a bit of that yourselves.” Finally, the anger left her voice, and she just sounded hurt as she added, “You told me you weren’t pregnant. You lied to me about that.”

“Looks like you’re not the only one,” Dominic said in a daze. Dropping his arm from Gwen’s shoulders, he put some distance between them before turning to stare at her. She looked almost green as she stared back with something that could only be described as guilt on her face. “You told me . . . the test was negative. Why—why would you lie about that?”

Gwen reached for his arm, but he stepped back quickly before she could make any physical contact. “It was,” she assured him in a shaky voice. “They were all negative, but then this morning they showed positive. I—I was going to tell you tonight.”

Dominic had no idea what was going on, but as he looked at the three sets of eyes focused on him, he just knew he had to get out of there and find a place where he could think—and breathe. Before he knew it, his legs were carrying him down the steps. He heard voices shouting his name, but he never stopped, never paused. He grabbed his bike keys from his pocket, grateful he had picked them up at the last minute. He’d thought that he and Gwen could go to the beach and talk. Now, he just wanted distance from the thoughts racing through his head.

*   *   *

“Gwen, I’m so sorry,” Shannon cried as Gwen sank to the floor when it became apparent that Dominic wasn’t coming back. “I didn’t know! I thought he knew you were pregnant.”

“I just found out,” Gwen said hoarsely. “I wasn’t lying. It was negative last week.”

As Gwen sat there trembling in shock with Shannon’s arms around her, Gage stepped forward. If he was offended by Gwen’s earlier words, he didn’t show it. Instead, he held a hand out to her. “Come on, ladies, let’s take this inside. Megan and Maddy will be home soon from their grandparents’ house and there will be a lot of explaining to do if they find us out here.”

Gwen stood and turned toward her apartment, but Shannon held firm to her arm. “No, sweetie, come to my place. I don’t want to leave you alone. I’m so sorry I said that. I can’t believe I did that to you,” she cried harder.

Gage motioned them toward the doorway of Shannon’s apartment but didn’t move to follow them. He grabbed Shannon’s hand. “I’m going to go, baby—let you two talk. Call you later, though. You good?”

Gwen turned to see her friend smiling at Gage, her eyes soft and filled with something that looked a lot like love. At that moment, she hoped with all of her heart that Gage proved everyone wrong and had just been waiting for the right woman all along. She’d never known Shannon to even date since finally breaking free from her disaster of an ex. The man hadn’t had a faithful or truthful bone in his body. Gage might have gone through a lot of women, but if Dominic and Mac had been friends with him for all of these years, then he was a good guy—he had to be.

“I’m good,” Shannon murmured right before Gage trailed a finger down her cheek before dropping a kiss on her lips.

Both Gwen and Shannon collapsed side by side onto her couch. “I owe both you and Gage an apology as well,” Gwen said. “I don’t know why I said all of that. I love you and the girls to death, but your personal life is none of my business. I’m sorry, Shannon. I truly am.”

Shannon scooted closer and dropped her head against Gwen’s shoulder. “We really outdid ourselves this time, didn’t we? I swear, I thought for a minute there we’d start throwing fists or something. I really care about Gage, and I guess I’m a little overly sensitive about our relationship. He’s the first man that I’ve connected with in such a long time, and I’m afraid of losing him.”

“How long?” Gwen asked, curious as to how she could have missed Gage coming and going from Shannon’s apartment.

“A couple of months,” Shannon admitted. “He just officially met Megan and Maddy a few weeks back for the first time.” Blushing, Shannon added, “I think you remember them telling you all about it at the zoo that day.”

“Ah yes, the whole ‘don’t—stop Cameron’ thing. I thought that all came out of nowhere.” Feeling a little hurt, Gwen said, “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”

“I hated keeping it from you, of all people. I just didn’t want anyone knowing in case I’d made yet another mistake. When you’re a single mom, people seem to have a lot of opinions about what you should and shouldn’t be doing, especially where men are concerned. I didn’t want everyone rolling their eyes and talking about me. Trust me, I’ve been there, and it’s not pretty.”

Gwen winced. “I guess I validated all of those fears with my little tirade, didn’t I?”