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like he was a two-year-old.
    “Well, I’ve never experienced smallpox, either, but that doesn’t mean I want to run out and infect myself.”
    Carter chuckled, but Katie ignored him.
    “I’m serious,” she said. “You probably just haven’t met the right person, that’s all. One day you’re going to meet The Guy; the one you can’t stop thinking about, the one who puts up with you when you’re in full-on bitch mode, and who thinks you’re the most beautiful thing in the world, even first thing in the morning.”
    She tucked her hand under Ben’s and smiled when he kissed her temple. “Look at Nick and Jayne—they’ve seen each other through some really ugly times and they couldn’t be happier.”
    “Hardly a fair assessment,” Regan teased. “Life, in general, tends to work out for the almighty Scotts of this town, but for the rest of us who are mere mortals…”
    Katie grinned back at her, but Ben’s scowl only deepened. One day that man was going to have to grow himself a sense of humor. Regan picked at the label on her bottle, took a second to breathe, then shrugged.
    “Look, I’m sure when you decide to fall in love, it’s all unicorns and candy hearts, and everyone’s happy to promise the moon and stars. But things change,
people
change, and you can’t expect anyone to—”
    “Whoa.” Katie straightened up so fast, she knocked her head into Ben’s chin. “You don’t
decide
to fall in love, Regan, it just happens, and sure, things change, but you adapt, work through it. It’s not always easy, but once you open yourself up to it, there’s nothing better. Your turn’s coming, just you wait.”
    Regan’s snort was loud and harsh. She’d just as soon let her turn pass, thank you very much, and there was no way she was going to wait for anything ever again. She’d done enough of that growing up. Every month, she’d waited for those two days after payday when there was finally food in the house before the rest of the money went to paying down the tab at O’Malley’s. Every night, she waited for her mom to stop crying so they could both go to sleep. And every day for the last seventeen years, she waited for her dad to come back.
    “Thanks all the same,” she said, shaking the memories away. “But I think I’ll just stick with the way things are. I don’t expect anyone to put up with me when I’m in full-on bitch mode, and I have no interest in putting up with them when they are.”
    With a little effort, she tried to smile at Katie, but there was no denying it was a pathetic attempt.
    “Besides,” she joked, circling her face with a wave of her hand. “No one except me sees this first thing in the morning, because if anyone found out how much work it takes…”
    She didn’t hear exactly what Ben muttered, but it must have been bad to have Katie elbow him again.
    “What?” he grunted. “She’s like some kind of…I don’t know…like a prima donna or something! She won’t go out with a guy because he drives a Volvo, or wears khakis, or…I can’t even remember what was wrong with the last guy she went out with. She’s got more issues than
National Geographic,
that one.”
    “Ben!”
    Regan stopped the rest of Katie’s mortified cry with a lift of her hand. Keeping her voice low, so not to cause a scene at Jayne’s party, she leaned over the table a little and stared Ben in the eye.
    “You don’t know anything about me or my
issues,
Ben, and last I heard, you were still an insurance salesman, not a psychologist, so why don’t you do us both a favor and keep your Dr. Phil–wannabe bullshit theories to yourself?”
    Carter would have sprayed beer all over the table if Regan hadn’t shoved a stack of napkins at him. Katie squeezed her mouth shut, grabbed her husband by the sleeve, hauled him off his chair, and shoved him toward the living room.
    Silence fell over the room as Carter mopped up the rest of his beer, his eyes fixed on Regan, his mouth curved into one of