“Why?”

“You stuck your neck out for a dog.” His eyes briefly met hers. Just long enough for the heated intensity of them to make her shiver. He ground his teeth, jerking his gaze away all too soon. “That man could’ve hurt you.”

She shrugged, her lips tugged up in a half smile. For a moment, she could almost believe he cared about her. But she wasn’t deluding herself. It was obvious to her that Logan was in love with his law partner—her best friend Kate—despite Kate being in a collared relationship with Jaxon Deveroux. It was Rachel’s job as a reporter to dig deeper than the surface and examine subtleties. Maybe other people couldn’t see it, but whenever Kate was in the room, Logan’s eyes, filled with longing, tracked her every move.

Petting the dog, she peered out the passenger-side window at the miles of browning grassy fields. Logan didn’t feel anything more than a little lust and a whole lot of disgust for her. No one really understood her, and she couldn’t blame anyone because she rarely gave a person the chance. She realized she put people off with her brash manner and her singular drive to be the best of the best professionally, but it had never bothered her.

Until now.

And she didn’t like it one bit. He meant nothing to her, and she meant even less to him. So why had a ball of disappointment settled in her belly?

“If I believe in something, I don’t let anything stand in my way.” Needing a distraction, she switched on the radio. “Mind if I put on some music?” She settled on a popular song and sat back in her seat.

He huffed out a laugh. “Uh, I’m pretty sure Britney Spears doesn’t qualify as music.”

She whipped her head toward him. “I like Britney Spears, so sue me.”

“Believe me,” he said, his lips turned up, “if I could sue you for liking Britney Spears, I would.”

Annoyed, she folded her arms, the sudden movement startling Walter awake. He perked up his head, looked around, then put it back down again and resumed his nap. “If you’re so particular about what we listen to, why don’t you choose the music then?”

Smiling, he leaned forward and turned the dial, stopping on classic rock. Obviously satisfied with his choice, he sat back and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel to the beat.

“Who is this?” she asked.

“The Who.”

“Yeah, who is this?”

He laughed. “The Who. That’s the name of the band.”

Weird name for a band, but she liked their sound. “Oh. Never heard of them.”

His brows furrowed as he slid her a look of incredulity. “How could you not know of The Who? Where do you live? Under a rock?”

She chuckled to herself. He wasn’t far off. Since going out into the world on her own, she’d tried to learn as much about pop culture as she could, but even now, more than ten years later, she always felt one step behind everyone else. “I didn’t really get to listen to popular music until I moved out of my parents’ home to go to college.”

Living on campus had been an eye-opening experience for her. From fashion to speech, she’d mimicked the girls around her. No one had ever guessed she’d spent her years growing up in an extremely religious household, covered from head to toe—even in the sweltering heat of summer. In her small community, women popped out baby after baby and were expected to cook and clean while the men worked and attended religious services. Her family and the members of their church were cut off from modern technology like music, computers, and televisions and restricted from reading anything not approved by the church leaders. And since her father was one of those leaders, he expected a model family that adhered to all of his rules.

Within a few months of leaving home, she’d added a couple of notches to her bedpost and drooled over Ryan Gosling, just like her roommates. She’d read classics such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Pride and Prejudice. She had gotten drunk and smoked pot. Skipped class. Took naps before going out to the bar at ten o’clock on a school night. But she also spent plenty of her time pretending she knew about things like everyone else. Pretending to be someone she wasn’t. It had been exhausting. Even now, she kept her past hidden away as if it was a dirty secret.

Confusion remained on Logan’s face as if he couldn’t understand how anyone could have gone through life without hearing The Who. “Didn’t you have a radio in your house?”

She shrugged. “My parents kept an emergency radio in their closet, but it never occurred to me to use it.” Contrary to the way she lived her life now, she’d always followed her parents’ rules. She hadn’t known any different until that fateful day when she’d learned that ignorance wasn’t bliss and knowledge was power. “Other than that, they had a CD player, but they only played classical and religious music. We didn’t even have a television.”

But although she’d seen some family programming at other people’s houses, the awe of it hadn’t permeated until she’d snuck into her cousin’s den and caught her uncle watching a report about the fallen Twin Towers. She’d heard about the terrorist attack, of course, but seeing the reality of it and hearing the victims’ accounts of what they had gone through had changed her irrevocably.

He turned down the radio’s volume. “And now you’re a television reporter. What do your parents think of that?”

She recalled her father’s angry words and her mother’s cries when she told them she was leaving for college to become a journalist. According to her sisters, they still had hopes that she’d leave her career and “return to God.”

Swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat, she put on the brave face she’d worn for ten years and shoved down the feeling of rejection. “My parents don’t approve. I speak to a couple of my sisters, but we’re not close.” At Logan’s frown, she jumped to defend her family and clarify the situation. As sad as it made her to no longer have a place in her family, she couldn’t blame them for their beliefs or the way they chose to live their lives. “Don’t get me wrong. They’re not forbidden to associate with me, and my parents would never refuse to welcome me into their home, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.”

It was bad enough that she wore clothes that didn’t cover her shoulders, but to choose a career over family was something her parents could never understand. That’s why she’d made it easy on them and stayed away. Legally changed her last name and created a public bio that made no mention of the parents who believed by leaving home to have a career she was living her life in sin and would spend an afterlife in hell.

Logan turned and looked at her, his eyes flashing with pity. She hated that look. That’s why she’d kept her past hidden. She hadn’t suffered tragedies like her friends Kate and Danielle. She’d been loved. Who was she to complain?

“How many sisters do you have?” he asked, surprising her with the question. She would’ve thought he’d ask why, if she was so brave when looking for a story, she was such a wimp when it came to her family. And she really didn’t have the answer.

Relieved he hadn’t asked anything more personal, she smiled as if it didn’t hurt to think about what she might be missing by choosing to live her life on her own terms. “Five sisters and two brothers. I was the fourth child.” She shifted in her seat, angling her legs toward Logan. His gaze dropped to the exposed skin of her calves before he returned his attention to the road. “What about you? Are you close with your family?”

He coughed, his voice coming out a bit raspy. “Yeah. I’ve got a big family too. Four older brothers.”

“You’re the baby?” She shook her head. “I’m surprised. I figured you for the oldest ’cause you’re so bossy.”

He grinned. “You think I’m bossy, you should meet my brothers. They’re navy SEALs.”

Five Bradford brothers? Judging by Logan, her hormones would go on overload if she ever found herself in the same room as all of them. Strange that he would go into a different arm of the military from the rest of his brothers. “You were in the army, right? What did you do for them?”