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paths had never crossed outside of town.
    Cal had tried to avoid her when she moved to town nine years ago, to ignore her, to ignore her pull.
    But he couldn’t ignore it any longer.
    Not after she had touched his chest when she ran into him at her bookstore and he had felt like he had been shocked.
    Not after she had stared up at him, mouth hanging open, eyes wide, looking adorable.
    Not after he had seen how she was with Tommy.
    Not after he had looked into her crying eyes, wide with wonder, after Betty had laid it out for her, stirring feelings of possession and protectiveness in him.
    And definitely not after she had shown him she could serve attitude. The sassy kind, the good kind, the kind that makes a man’s dick go hard instantly.
    No, he couldn’t resist her pull any longer.
    Which meant that he was done.
    Done with other women.
    Done with settling for less when he knew what he wanted and who he wanted it with.
    Done with trying to avoid her.
    It also meant that she was done, although she didn’t know it yet.
    Done with her male acquaintances one or two towns over.
    Done with trying to cover up her reactions to him.
    Done with hiding.
    He was going to make her feel safe enough to let out her true self. Tommy would help him. He was a good kid and he had a good read on people. He liked Ivey a lot and had told his dad he should ask her out on a date. So Tommy would be more than happy to help his old man.
    Cal was going to be the man Betty said he was. The kind of man who Ivey needed beside her. And Ivey was definitely the woman he wanted beside him. And not just for a fling. He wanted her. He had wanted her since he had first laid eyes on her nine years ago.
    Now he was going to claim her.
    He knew he had to go slow, but couldn’t give her a chance to run either. She was jumpy as hell and would shut him down faster than he could blink if he let her. So he had to do this smart and play the intense attraction he knew she had towards him, but also knew she didn’t know what to do about, to his advantage.
    Surprise her. Keep her on her toes and then strike.
    Starting tomorrow.

Chapter Four
    Pain
    Ivey
    Pain comes in so many different ways, can mean so many different things.
    When you’re six years old and realize that your father prefers watching football over coming to your school science fair.
    When you’re seven years old and you see your father hit your mother across the face so hard she falls to the floor.
    When you’re eight years old and he does the same to you.
    When you’re ten years old and you hear your father raping your mother after a violent fight. When after, you hear your mother crying in the bathroom, threatening to kill herself and your father doing nothing about it. When you go to comfort her the next day, to do something, anything to make her feel better, and she doesn’t respond, just looks at you with dead eyes without really seeing you. When you realize she is too far gone, that her pain is so all consuming and absolute that she has checked out, and it scared the shit out of you.
    When you find out your high school boyfriend has been cheating on you and really only ever asked you out as part of a bet and the whole school is laughing in your face about your stupidity.
    When you get a phone call in the middle of the night letting you know that the only person that has ever loved you is dead.
    When you’re lying on your kitchen floor with blood between your legs knowing the life you created is bleeding out of you.
    All these things describe pain.
    Pain so deep it eats away at you.
    Until there is nothing left.

Chapter Five
    The Truth
    Ivey
    The next morning I felt a big blob of anticipation and dread in my stomach, knowing I had made up my mind last night and now I had to follow through with it.
    Macy came into the store every Saturday—and days between but always on Saturday. If I was busy, she helped me out in the store stocking or shelving books, working the cash register, whatever I