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“Yeah, I’m fine. I had a glass and a half of wine with dinner more than three hours ago and nothing but Perrier since then.”

“You didn’t want to drink more than that? I’d have been happy to come pick you up.”

She smiled down at her steering wheel. “I don’t much like getting drunk. I don’t like acting silly, and I definitely don’t like feeling like crap afterward. My friends didn’t mind. I was always like that. And it’s not like I judge them or anything.”

“Of course you don’t judge them. You’re the least judgmental person I’ve ever met.”

Eve felt her cheeks flushing. She wished she didn’t get quite so giddy every time he gave her a compliment. To deflect from her inappropriate reaction, she said, “The truth is I’ve always wished I could be more uninhibited like them. I guess I’ve always been kind of a party pooper. It’s probably why I’m not all that sexy either.”

“Stop it,” Jude bit out, sounding almost angry.

She swallowed hard. “What?”

“You know what. I’m not going to sit here and listen to you telling such ridiculous lies about yourself. Especially when you know they’re not true.”

Her face was still burning, but her embarrassment had shifted to something less giddy. “Sorry.”

“Why are you even thinking that right now? Did your friends make you feel bad about yourself?” He no longer sounded angry. More bewildered and unhappy and vaguely protective.

“No. No, they didn’t. I was just being…” She groaned and rubbed at her face. “I don’t know why I said it. I know it’s not really true. I mean, it’s true I’m not naturally uninhibited, but I think with you I’ve been able to… to be…” She trailed off when she heard what she was saying.

What the hell was wrong with her? Yes, she was struggling emotionally to keep an appropriate distance with Jude, but that shouldn’t make her babble out all kinds of embarrassing confessions.

Jude waited to see if she’d finish her sentence. When she didn’t, he asked softly, “Is something wrong, Eve? Are you still okay with how things are between us?”

“Yes!” she replied immediately, hating the idea of him questioning her commitment to their marriage. “Yes, I’m good with everything. I’m just tired I think. And sometimes after an evening out having fun, I end up kind of blah. That’s probably all it is.”

“Okay.” He still sounded thoughtful. Almost wary. “Well, come on home then. We can talk about it more if you want, or we can go to sleep and talk tomorrow.”

Her preference would be to talk about it never, but she didn’t say that. “Okay.”

“Where are you now? Do your friends live in town?”

“Yeah. I’m at the Willow Grove apartments right now—you know those new ones on Highland they built a couple of years ago? I’ll just be twenty minutes or so.”

She was parked on the street in front of the apartment building, and she wasn’t really looking around as she talked withJude. But in the back of her mind, she was aware of headlights coming toward her. They were high, so they probably belonged to a large SUV, and it was moving too fast for the neighborhood.

“You’re sure you’re good to drive home? I really don’t mind coming to?—”

“Jude, please,” she said, still looking at the headlights approaching. Way too fast. They were close now. And they weren’t aimed in the right direction. “I’m—” She broke off her words with a sharp cry as she finally realized the headlights were coming right toward her. And they weren’t slowing down or stopping.

That SUV was going to hit her.

“Eve? Eve, what’s wrong?” She heard Jude’s anxious question faintly as the oncoming vehicle crashed into the front left corner of her parked car.

Eve never lost consciousness, but what followed was a confusing, chaotic blur.

Her airbag inflated and hit her in the face as her car violently lurched with the impact. For a minute it felt like she was going to be smothered by the airbag before it started to deflate.

She sat there for what seemed like a long time, completely unable to move. Her head hurt, but she wasn’t aware of anything else bothering her. She simply couldn’t make her body respond.

Soon there were voices from outside the car. A few people from the apartment building must have heard the crash and had come out. A man was asking her if she was okay, and she said something in response, but she couldn’t remember what she’d told him.

After a little longer, there were sirens and lights.

Someone finally told her to try to get out of the car, so she did.

She was evidently capable of walking because her feet took step after step. Someone faceless helped her over to a bench in front of the apartment building. They asked her a lot of questions, and she tried to give them the correct answers, although her mind was so fuzzy she wasn’t even sure what the right answers were supposed to be.

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