Page 48 of Reckless Devotion

Mia:Wahoo!

Teddy:Baby number 3 inbound.

Mia:Unless it’s twins.

Chloe:I’m thinking that’s unlikely.

Mia:Tell that to my uterus.

Chase:Do I really need to be here?

Teddy:You wanted to be one of the girls.

Chloe:Yeah, this is part of the deal, Baby Walker.

Emily:Are you going to tell me who you were photographed with in the paper?

Chase:Just someone I’m working with.

Emily:Oh yeah, I look at all my colleagues like that…

Chase:Like what?

Emily:Like she’s sitting on a ballistic missile with a cold beer in each hand and hot dogs strapped to her naked body

Chase:I don’t even know what that means.

Emily:You know, boy stuff.

Chase:???

CHASE

“I need to sit this next one out, I’m too close to it.”

I hesitate outside the door, Pepper’s voice leaking through the open crack where it sits ajar.

“Does Sunny know?” a timid voice asks quietly.

“No, and she’s not going to.” Pepper’s response has some bite to it.

“But we’ve never done this without you,” a voice I’ve heard somewhere before replies.

“This guy is a real piece of shit, Kathy. He deserves it.” Another voice enters the fray—all female.

“I know this one is personal for you, Pepper. Perhaps we should wait until your trial is over?” another voice laden with sympathy cuts in.

“We’ll do no such thing—”

“Oh, hello!”

I spin around, my stomach bottoming out when I see a woman I recognize all too well. I don’t know her name, but she was part of the painting group that I got roped into modeling for, albeit she only showed up at the last minute. Loitering around Pepper’s door is hardly how I want to be found, and for the first time in years, I feel my face heat. The woman’s rosy-red cheeks fall to the open door and I see the beginnings of a frown form.

I muster up all the casual confidence I can manage and slam them into my explanation. “Didn’t want to disturb them, is all.”

“Uh-huh,” she says skeptically, adjusting the jaunty pink bow that sits on top of cropped bottle-blonde hair. “Well—” She bustles past me, flinging open the door. “Pepper, you have a man outside your door.”

I cringe as the chatter falls silent inside the apartment, bracing myself for the onslaught that is a fired-up Pepper Quinn. Except, the version of her that comes to the door is distinctly sheepish. This aside, it takes me a moment to notice what about her is so different. And then I realize that she’s devoid of the smoky little lines that usually tip the corners of her almond-shaped eyes. In fact, not a stitch of makeup resides on her striking features, and somehow she looks even more beautiful than usual, with her pearlescent hair piled up on top of her head in a claw clip