I was pretty curious to know how VV sunk her claws into a semi-famous singer. But it’s really all because McGruff sunk something else into her. Another case of “I can’t keep my pants on despite my nose…or all common sense, logic, or reason.” Because really if he’d just taken a few moments to think he wouldn’t have gotten himself into a situation like this.

Who really knows what drew him to VV in the beginning, but I’m sure that the only thing really keeping him around now is the fact that she just might be carrying his child. For his sake, he really should get a paternity test (along with a few other tests if you know what I’m saying. Who knows what the woman is carrying besides the bun in the oven).

I still don’t really see this whole relationship lasting. It’s got an ice cubes chance in hell if you want my oh-so-humble opinion. But we shall just have to wait and see now won’t we?

Yup, so the pregnancy was out along with Liam’s identity. And there were certain words in that stupid article that had stung more than others. But it didn’t send Harper over the rails. She knew for a fact that Liam wasn’t with her just because they were having a child. He’d made that quite clear.

He loved her.

Bethelda didn’t have the power to take that away. No one did.

But there was a part that did infuriate Harper beyond all reason: Bethelda insulting Liam. “Not all that much talent to speak of” her ass.

“Forever” had been officially released almost three weeks ago and not only had it already cracked the top one hundred downloads on iTunes, but it was steadily climbing. Country music stations were getting frequent requests for it, and Harper heard it on the local station daily.

Those were the facts. Another fact was that Bethelda was probably suffering from gonosyphilherpes and it was beginning to affect her brain at this point.

Actually, Harper was still surprised that it had taken that long for someone to figure out who Liam was. Maybe it was because Bethelda’s minions hadn’t known what they were supposed to be looking for. How were they to know that he was a celebrity of any sort? Harper hadn’t known who Liam was when’d she’d gone home with him that first night…or after spending the weekend with him.

No, she hadn’t found out until six weeks later.

She supposed that was the power of the radio though. You knew the voice and the name, but not necessarily the face. Well, not until the name got a whole lot bigger. Kind of like Tim McGraw, or Keith Urban, or Taylor Swift. Liam’s touring mates were another prime example. If Isaac Dylan or Hunter Andrews walked into a bar, a lot of the people in it were going to know exactly who they were.

But Liam was gaining on recognition, and it was only going to grow as the video for “Beyond the Limits” was scheduled to be released in less than a week. Not only was Liam going to be singing right alongside Isaac and Hunter, but there was the association with Mason-Dixon…

And Kiki Jean Carlow, otherwise known as Harper’s least favorite person of all time…and yes, the woman had beaten out Bethelda.

Bitch was tryin’ to steal her man.

Liam had told Harper everything about that entire situation, everything that had gone down on the video shoot and before then. Kiki had apparently ruined the song for him and he wasn’t looking forward to the video being released in any way, shape, or form.

And after he’d told her about it, she wasn’t, either. Liam with another woman made her go about fifty shades of jealous. And they weren’t pretty shades, either. More like a wheel of the ugliest colors a person could think of, like rust or taupe or mold green.

But she knew what was going on, and there would be no surprises on her end. It was a fact that made her slightly guilty that she still hadn’t told Liam about the newest Bethelda article.

Though to be fair, he’d been in the air during a twenty-four-hour flight…and when he’d gotten back to Mirabelle they hadn’t exactly spent a lot of time talking. They’d spent hours getting reacquainted in other ways, which she hadn’t had a problem with in the slightest as she was a veritable hornucopia.

And good Lord did the man deliver in everything she’d needed. He left absolutely no doubt in her mind as to how much he loved her body or that he still wanted her just as much even though it was changing.

And was it ever changing.

She’d gained back the majority of the weight she’d lost, filling out her curves to the fullest. Her breasts were now in the DD range and the bump at her belly was no longer a slight rise. She was visibly showing and her clothing was no longer camouflaging the pregnancy. It was well past the point of the expertly draped dresses and flowy tops that she’d bought with her mother a few weeks ago doing the trick.

Obviously, as Bethelda had figured it out. And she was going to tell Liam just as soon as she got home. But really how was she going to have told him when she’d been at work all day and he’d been sleeping to get over the jet lag/time difference.

A time difference that had been the bane of her existence for the last two and a half weeks.

But she didn’t have to deal with that now. What she did have to deal with was the crowd of people currently at the Piggly Wiggly at five thirty on a Friday afternoon. And of course she had Liam on the phone helping her shop, because why wouldn’t she?

“So what’s today’s craving?” his voice rumbled low in her ear. He’d only just woken up and had called her while still lounging in bed.

Really, why in the world should she give a flying flip to that stupid Bethelda article when there was a sexy, scruffy, gorgeous man waiting for her to get home?

Yup, perspective. That was what she was learning. See, being rational was possible even while pregnant.

“Tacos for dinner, and Oreos for dessert.” She sidestepped the man in the Jimmy Buffett T-shirt who’d been blocking her path pretty much the entire time she’d been shopping. He had no regard for anyone else in the aisles shopping around him.

“With milk?” Liam asked, his voice magically pulling her away from her annoyance at Mr. Cheeseburger in Paradise. Asshole in the Piggly Wiggly was more like it.

Again, it was all about perspective.

“Is there any other way to eat them?” She grabbed the hard-shells and put them in the cart.

“You dunk them right away or lick the center first?” The grin in his voice was obvious.

“Liam, could you have made that sound any more inappropriate?”

“I could try.”

“Oh, I’m sure you could.” Harper propped the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she grabbed the cart again and started pushing, heading for the produce section.

“Do we have the ingredients to make fresh salsa?”

“Let me check.” He shifted in bed and the sheets ruffled through the phone.

While he went to the kitchen, she hunted for ripe avocados, because guacamole sounded like the greatest thing ever.

“That’s a negative, rubber duck. You’re going to need to get onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and lemon juice. Geez, woman, did you go grocery shopping at all while I was gone? You’ve got nothing here unless we’re going to eat peanut butter and jelly.”

“And this is why I’m at the grocery store. So shut it.”

“Did you just tell me to shut it?”

“Yeah I did.” She headed to the tomatoes and threw a couple into a plastic bag. “What are you going to do about it?”

“As soon as you get home I’ll show you. And it will be a very similar experience to how I eat my Oreos.”

A shiver ran down Harper’s back as a blush crept up into her cheeks. “Is that a promise?”

“You bet your sweet ass it is.”

“Language, Mr. James.”

“Oh, you like my mouth. And feel free to call me mister when you get home and I use it on you.”

Home. Home to him. God, how she wished all days were like this.