Page 28 of Every Time My Heart Breaks

So maybe Logan...

Logan wasn’t a restraining order kind of guy at all. He’d actually helped megetmy restraining order, and he was super nice. Logan should be promising.

Which was why Ishould’verushed through my visit with Lucy and picked out a pair of earrings already before hurrying on my way again to meet him, but… I just kept stalling.

Because Logan was freakingboring. He liked to build models of muscles cars, for God’s sake, and tell me every little detail about them.

So instead of heading toward the restaurant where Logan was waiting, I teased Lucy about her budding relationship with Vaughn and even feigned interest in him until I heckled her into admitting that she did indeed want him for herself.

“I think it’s going to be a happily ever after for us,” she confessed, then blushed and rolled her eyes. “I hope so, anyway.”

“Hell yes, it is,” I encouraged, gratified for her while simultaneously sad for myself. Then I opened my mouth to claim the next kid she had asmygodchild since she’d already broken my heart when she’d named twootherpeople as Ava Grace’s godparents.

Instead of model cars,Iliked to collect godchildren.

But someone rang her doorbell, interrupting me from speaking.

Lucy frowned and tipped her head curiously before moving toward the window of her bedroom where we were talking. “Huh. I wonder who that is. I wasn’t expecting…”

I followed her over and looked out as well, only to discover a very distinct red Mitsubishi with white racing stripes and a blue underglow parked out on the street in front of her house…directly behindmycar.

“Oh my God,” I breathed in shock. “It’s Dax.”

My body went strangely numb as Lucy whirled to gape at me in horror.

“Dax?” she repeated, clutching her kid closer. “You mean, the guy you just got a freakingrestrainingorder against?”

I winced and bobbled my head up and down stupidly.

I had gone out with Dax Freston maybe five different times, and two of those were merely meet-there coffees and a quick chat. But I hadn’t even let him get past a goodnight-kiss-at-the-door phase before he turned a bit too autocratic and domineering for my taste.

The dude acted as if he owned me, getting all bent out of shape after I smiled at a freaking waiter for too long, and he’d made more than one disparaging comment about the clothes I wore.

So I had cut bait and run, ending things on a clear, clean break with no misconstruing my feelings or giving him any sense of false hope. I plainly let him know I was done and wasn’t interested in anything else.

Except he hadn’t left.

He kept calling, he kept coming over. He even showed up at work once. Thank God I had been on-air at the time, and security hadn’t let him in to see me. The guy just didn’t know how to give up.

Sometimes, his messages were humble and apologetic, begging me to give him another chance, and sometimes they were rude and angry and nasty enough to make my eyebrows rise.

But he’d never been physically threatening or, you know,violent. Nothing like that.

At first, I assumed he’d get the point eventually and finally give up before moving on. But when he hadn’t, I’d finally let the family persuade me to get a restraining order against him. I had thought that was over the top and unnecessary, but I’d gotten one anyway to make the fam happy. And I’d been informed that Dax had been served with said papers earlier today.

I’d been so sure that would finally bonk him over the head with a healthy dose of reality and get him to leave me alone once and for all. But gaping at his car idling at the curb behind mine made ice-cold dread shroud my brain.

“What do you think he’s doing here?” I whispered to Lucy, not at all thinking right…

Because of the ice, you know.

Lucy rolled her eyes over my brain loss. “Gee, I don’t know,” she snarked back. “He parked right behindyourcar. Whatever could be his reason?”

“But how did he find me?” I hissed, still shaking my head and beginning to wring my hands.

“No clue,” Lucy growled, looking irritable. “But he’s breaking the law just being this close to you. Here…” She pushed her baby at me, forcing me to fumble to catch the three-month-old. “Stay back here with Ava and call the police if there’s trouble. I’ll get rid of him.”

“If there’strouble?” I squawked, the ice in me beginning to make all my limbs tremble. “What do you think he’s going to do?” He wasn’t violent. He’d never been violent. He was just an asshole who needed to learn how to give up on someone already.

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