Lydia had no idea how long she sat there alternating between talking and wallowing in her sorrow at the loss of her first love. Was this the way it was for everyone who’d ever lost someone before their time? You think you’ve finally moved on, and then something happens to shake your very foundation. In this case, it was realizing that she’d let a day that had once been so vitally important completely slip her mind. Dusk was beginning to fall as she made her way on leaden feet back to her car. Looking at her watch, she realized that she was already late for her date with Jake. Not that she was really in the mood for it now anyway. He was probably wondering where she was, though. She pulled her phone from her purse, but there were no missed calls. Shrugging her shoulders, she put her seatbelt on and drove toward Jake’s house—or home as she’d come to think of it. Tonight, something about the whole scenario made her feel guilty. Maybe it was the weight of knowing she’d left Brett behind once again to find solace in Jake.

   She was a few houses away when she spotted Chris’s car sitting in the driveway behind Jake’s truck. You have got to be kidding me. What else do you have in store for me today, universe? After parking on the other side of Jake’s truck in the garage, she squared her shoulders and entered the house through the kitchen door as usual. She considered it a major stroke of luck that no one was in sight. She paused long enough to wash her hands and attempt to tame her hair as best she could. Her clothes were smeared with dirt stains from sitting on the ground at the cemetery for so long, but she couldn’t do anything about it. There was no way she’d make it to the bedroom without someone seeing her. Chris is going to enjoy this so much.

   Hearing voices from what seemed like the direction of the living room, Lydia moved quietly toward that part of the house until she was brought to an abrupt halt. The scene before her eyes was the absolute last thing that she needed on a night when she still felt so very raw. Casey was doing her best to show her parents the skills she’d recently picked up at her gymnastics class, which was adorable. What wasn’t as adorable was Jake laughing with his daughter as Chris stood nestled against his side with her arm around his waist. What in the hell?

   This was the last straw—she’d hit her limit for the day. Backing out of the room quietly, she retraced her steps and was back in her car in less than a minute. She was absurdly grateful that she still had her apartment and that was where she planned to spend the night. When she arrived, she went straight to her bedroom and curled up in a ball on top of the bed. It appeared that the world was intent on giving Lydia Cross a giant kick in the ass, and she didn’t plan to stay awake to see where the next hit came from.

Chapter Nine

   It wasn’t until Chris and Casey were leaving that Jake realized how late it had gotten. Lydia should have been home a couple of hours ago. Hell, they’d missed their dinner reservation as well. He’d been a little later than he’d planned getting home thanks to a last-minute conference call, so he had known they wouldn’t have a ton of time before they had to leave. Then Chris had shown up unexpectedly before he’d even gotten into the house. He’d braced for a fight the minute he spotted her car, but surprisingly enough, she’d been the most pleasant he’d ever known her to be. According to her, Casey had insisted on coming by to show him the new moves she’d mastered in her gymnastics class. And as usual, where his daughter was concerned, he’d lost all track of time. He loved seeing her little brow furrow as she concentrated on something that looked a lot like rolling around on the floor to him but it was clearly so much more to her.

   Now, he felt the first threads of unease because he had no idea where his wife was. She was always home before him in the evenings, so this was highly unusual. Pulling his phone from his pocket, he checked it for missed calls or texts and found nothing. He quickly pulled her number up in his contacts and waited anxiously while the other end rang and eventually went to voice mail. He left a message asking her to call him and let her know he was worried.

   Then he paced restlessly for another ten minutes before calling Mark. When the other man answered, he got right to the point. “Could you ask Crystal if she’s talked to Lydia this evening?”

   Sounding instantly alert, Mark asked, “Is there some kind of problem?”

   “I’m not sure,” Jacob admitted as he ran a hand through his hair. “She never came home after work. We had dinner plans as well that I thought we were both looking forward to. Chris and Casey stopped by, so truthfully, I lost track of time until they left.”

   “Hang on,” Mark said. Jacob could hear him questioning Crystal in the background before he came back on the line. “Crystal hasn’t spoken to her since work. She said that Lydia was finishing some stuff when Crystal left, but she said she was leaving in a few minutes. She just tried calling her and said it was going to voice mail.”

   “Thanks.” Jacob sighed. “I’m sure everything is fine. Maybe she got held up longer than she anticipated.”

   “Give us a call when you hear from her,” Mark said, sounding concerned. Jacob assured him that he would and disconnected.

   A half hour passed and by then he was beyond worried. He was at the point of calling the police and every hospital in town when he decided to drive by her apartment. He’d only been there once, but he still remembered the location. In fifteen minutes, he was blowing out a breath in relief when he spotted her car parked in front of her unit. On the heels of that came anger. Why in the world had she come here without saying anything to him? Didn’t she know that he’d be worried? She was hours late now and couldn’t be bothered to make a simple phone call?

   By the time he reached her door, he was pissed. Why would she suddenly after weeks of living together decide to come home on the day they’d decided to move forward with their relationship? If she’d had second thoughts, shouldn’t she have at least had the courtesy to call him? Hell, even a text would have been better than nothing.

   Filled with righteous indignation, he pushed the doorbell once, then a second and third time just to release some of his frustration. After what felt like hours, but was probably just several minutes, he heard someone moving in the apartment. He could imagine her looking out the peephole now, so he glared into the small circle. A bit of an asshole move, but whatever.