We didn’t crawl out of bed until well into the afternoon after I’d finally convinced myself that I couldn’t sleep any longer. Feeling positively disgusting, I asked Ethan if I could take a shower. He let me borrow a shirt of his along with a pair of boxers, and then he sent me into the bathroom while he threw my clothes in the washer for me.

I took my time in his shower, trying to come to terms with what had happened last night. I’d had sex with Ethan. It had been mind-blowing sex, the best I’d ever had. He’d made me feel like the most beautiful woman on this planet. I was ashamed of what pregnancy had done to my body, but he’d pushed my worries aside, like they were nothing.

He’d taken the time to show me that I was sexy in his eyes. Plain old Caley was sexy and cherished.

The warm feeling from last night hadn’t left me. I felt as if I was practically glowing with happiness. For the first time that I could remember, I didn’t despise my body. My stretch marks no longer felt like they had neon signs and flashing lights around them, making them stand out even more than they already did.

In one night, Ethan had helped me learn to love myself just a little bit.

Once I finished with my shower, I climbed out and dried off. I dressed in my borrowed clothes and ran one of Ethan’s combs through my hair to get the tangles out. Once I felt human again, I left the bathroom and headed back into the bedroom.

Ethan was sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at his phone with a frown. I stepped closer, curious to see what was wrong.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

He turned to look at me as he slid his phone into his pocket. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“What was up with your phone?” When he gave me a questioning look, I explained, “I saw you frowning when you were reading something.”

He shrugged. “Danielle texted me.”

My mouth popped open in shock. With everything going on, I’d completely forgotten about the girl who had set all of this in motion.

“I forgot about her,” I admitted. “Bad time to ask, but have you ended things with her?”

He rolled his eyes. “No, I’m still taking her on dates while sleeping with you.”

“I had to ask,” I said, ignoring his sarcastic tone.

“I wouldn’t do that to you,” he said simply.

“What did you tell her?” I asked. “When you ended things, I mean.”

“There really wasn’t much to end. I just told her that I wasn’t feeling it, so I thought it would be best if we went our separate ways.”

“I’m sure that went over really well,” I muttered, feeling slightly guilty over the fact that Danielle had gotten the short end of the stick because of me.

“She was…upset,” he said, his tone making it clear that upset was an understatement.

“Will she be a problem for you?”

He shook his head. “Nah. She texted me to see if we could hang out as friends, but I told her no. She didn’t have a meltdown.”

“Good,” I said, relieved. “We don’t need to add more tension to our already precarious situation.”

“It’ll be fine,” he assured me.

“I keep telling myself that. Maybe if I say it enough times, it’ll come true,” I joked.

He stood. “I’m starving, and I’m sure you are, too. Food is pretty much nonexistent in this house, but we could go grab something in town, if that’s okay with you.”

Go out—as in, be around other people who might recognize us. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” I said.

“We’ll be fine, Caley. We’ll go to the diner down on the end of town. It’s usually not busy,” he said, trying to persuade me. “If you see anyone you know, we can leave.”

“Uh…” I said, still not sure if it was a good idea.

“Look, friends have lunch together all the time. No one will think anything of seeing us together.”

My stomach growled right at that moment, and I sighed in defeat. “Fine, but I don’t want to stay long.”

“We won’t. I promise.” He smiled reassuringly at me. “Once your clothes are done, we’ll go. I’m about to die of starvation though, so I’m not sure I’ll make it that long. I can hear the burgers already calling my name.”

“Somehow, I think you’ll make it,” I joked.

While we waited for my clothes to finish washing and then drying, we cuddled together on his bed, watching television. I enjoyed it. The thought of leaving this house and facing the rest of the world didn’t appeal to me at all.

Eventually, my clothes finished drying, and I was forced to get dressed. When I walked out of the bathroom, Ethan was waiting for me.

“Finally. I thought you’d taken up permanent residence in my bathroom,” he muttered.

I stuck my tongue out at him, not wanting to admit that I’d purposely taken my time in getting ready to delay the inevitable. I couldn’t put it off any longer. Hungry and terrified, I followed him through his house and out the front door.

“We can take separate cars,” I said as he locked the door behind us. “It will look better that way.”

God, everything about Ethan made me feel like he was my dirty little secret, which I guessed he was. I hated that it was this way between us. I feared he would think I didn’t want people to see us together because I was ashamed of him, but that wasn’t the case. I just wanted things to move forward in my life.

If Joey somehow found out about Ethan, it would all be over. Joey would explode. After our talk yesterday, I wanted to keep things civil. It seemed possible with the way he had acted, but if I threw Ethan into the mix, I wasn’t so sure.

“Fine by me,” Ethan said, completely unbothered by the idea.

I sighed in relief, feeling silly that I had worried that he’d be offended by my suggestion.

We climbed into our cars. Ethan pulled out first, and I followed behind him. As we drove through town, I couldn’t help but look at the people walking the streets. I wondered what they’d think of me if they knew I’d spent the night with a man who was not my husband. I was sure they’d call me a whore. People were awful that way. They judged carelessly, ripping someone apart without remorse. They didn’t care if they had the whole story or not.

When we pulled into the parking lot of the diner, I looked around to see if I recognized anyone. Stuffy’s, a hole in the wall that made some seriously awesome burgers, was on the opposite side of town from where I normally traveled. I’d stopped here with Joey a few times, but because of the distance, we didn’t eat here a lot. The parking lot was barely half full, something I was very much thankful for. I glanced at the cars parked around me, looking for any that were familiar. I relaxed when I saw none.

I parked a few spaces down from Ethan’s car and climbed out. He was waiting in front of his car as I made my way over to him. When I reached him, we walked side by side across the lot. He opened the door for me, and I was instantly assaulted by the smells coming from within. This place was fat-girl heaven. The smell of burgers cooking on the grill and fries meeting their delicious end in the grease of the deep fryer was like a welcome mat, begging me to come in.

My stomach rumbled loudly, earning a smirk from Ethan.

“I told you this would be a good place to eat.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, too focused on the smell to pay him any attention.

I reached the counter first and ordered a cheeseburger with fries. Before I could pay, Ethan pushed me aside and added a burger of his own to the order. He paid for our food, completely ignoring my protests.

The cashier smiled at him in a way that made me want to scratch her eyeballs out as she handed him our cups and his change. He thanked her, clearly not catching on to the way she was looking at him, and headed over to the fountain drink station. He handed me a cup as he started filling the other. I glanced back at the cashier to see her still watching Ethan, a disappointed look on her face.