Angelina chewed on her lip, her dark eyes shadowed by worry. “I have this fear that he’ll wake up one day and think to himself that I’m not the one he wanted. That he’s trapped. That I pressured him into a relationship he didn’t want. You have to admit, I pursued him relentlessly.”

Lyric raised an eyebrow. Her opinion of the other woman just went up by several notches. She liked a woman who knew her mind and didn’t sit around waiting for what she wanted.

“It’s all about taking a chance,” Julie said. “I’ve thought the same thing about Nathan more times than I care to admit. I used to worry that he’d get tired of me and move on. But he convinced me to give him a chance, and really, there aren’t any guarantees. Men do stupid shit all the time. There’s a trigger when they hit middle age that they want dumber, younger and prettier.”

“Oh Jesus, Julie.” Faith groaned. “You’re not helping here.”

Julie shrugged. “Just telling the truth. The point is, you have to take a chance and you have to not only love your guy but you have to trust that he loves you just as much. What else can you do?”

“When you put it like that,” Angelina said ruefully.

Faith squeezed Angelina again. “You almost make me want to give you a cupcake.”

Lyric laughed at the disgusted look on Angelina’s face.

“I hope we haven’t bored you, Lyric,” Faith said anxiously. “I’m sure you’re used to a livelier party.”

Lyric held up her hand. “Don’t, please. This is great. Really. It was really nice of you to have me. I know you weren’t expecting us.”

Faith reached over and impulsively squeezed Lyric’s hand. “I’m so glad you came. It’s so interesting to see the woman behind all the gossip and realize you’re nothing like everyone says you are.”

Horror crawled across Faith’s face as soon as the words were out. She clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, that was stupid. I didn’t mean . . .”

“It’s all right,” Lyric said lightly. “Don’t apologize. Half of what they say is likely true and the other half is probably a variation of the truth.”

Julie’s eyebrows went up. “So you really had an orgy on your tour bus?”

Lyric hadn’t heard that one. “Sure, why not. I’m sure it’s written in the rule book somewhere that all rock stars have at least one on the bus per tour.”

She kept the hurt from her voice and wondered what demon possessed her to perpetuate the rumors. She figured if people were dumb enough to believe that crap, they didn’t deserve the truth. They probably wouldn’t believe it anyway.

“I totally made that up,” Julie said darkly.

Lyric shrugged. “You aren’t the first.”

Faith frowned. “That must be an awful way to live, Lyric. How do you stand it?”

What to say to that? She could leave her life at any time, but it wasn’t like a new life awaited her. Maybe one day she’d figure out what to do beyond her singing career, but the thing was, she loved to sing. She even liked the fame, the hoopla, the fans and the crowds. She wouldn’t apologize for that as many celebrities felt compelled to do. She’d worked damn hard to get to where she was and she wasn’t about to piss it away over false guilt.

“I like it. It pays well,” Lyric cracked.

She hated the sympathy shining in all their eyes. It was like they looked at her and thought, Oh, you poor thing. Whatever. There were millions of people who had it far worse than she did. What were a few rumors and a bad reputation next to starving in some shithole in Mississippi?

The people she grew up with were probably still there, dirt-poor in the same pissant town, married to the same shitty people and raising the same shitty kids.

“Julie, would you go out and ask the menfolk how much longer on the meat? I need to make the salad and bread,” Faith said, breaking the silence.

“I’ll go. I can’t sit in one spot for too long. Makes me crazy,” Angelina muttered. “My back is killing me.”

As soon as Angelina had left the kitchen, Julie leaned forward with a wicked grin and whispered, “I keep telling her she’s really having twins and that they missed one of the babies when they did the sonogram.”

Faith shook her head and laughed. “You are so evil, Julie.”

Male voices drifted through the screen as Angelina approached the door leading into the backyard. She paused for a moment to rub at her aching back. Micah was so sweet and attentive. If he knew her back was giving her problems, he’d be rubbing it. She was tempted to drop a hint because right now she’d give anything to have his hands soothing away the discomfort.

She was just about to go out when she heard her name. Then she smiled when she heard the guys give Micah a hard time about impending fatherhood. No matter what she may have thought in the beginning, Micah had embraced the idea of being a father with both hands.

He fussed endlessly over her. He went to every doctor’s appointment and drove her crazy with innocuous pregnancy trivia, some of which she was convinced he made up.

She went still when she heard Micah’s determined voice rise above the sounds of the neighborhood and distant lawn mowers.

“I want her to marry me, but I’m at a loss as to how to convince her that I’m not doing it out of obligation. I know she worries that she’s somehow trapping me into a relationship I don’t want, and it’s making me crazy.”

“Maybe you’re putting too much stock into marriage,” Connor said. “Angelina’s a great girl. If she loves you and stays with you, does it really matter if it’s official or not?”

Angelina could visualize Micah’s scowl perfectly.

“It’s not the marriage thing. It’s that she still has doubt. Not that I blame her, but I don’t like to think of her worrying that I’m not dedicated to her and Nia. They’re my life.”

“Maybe you should back off for a while,” Nathan said carefully. “She’s pregnant and vulnerable. From what I hear, their emotions are a mess when they’re pregnant. Maybe she feels pressured.”

Micah sighed. “Maybe you’re right. I don’t know. I’m pissed at myself for not seeing it sooner. I don’t deserve her after the way I acted. I love her, and more than that I don’t want her to ever think I don’t, that she’s not the most important thing in my life.”

“You can’t force trust,” Gray said. “It’ll come. The more she sees that you’re in it for the long haul, the more she’ll trust in the truth of your relationship.”

Angelina lifted trembling fingers to her mouth. Trust? Trust had never been an issue for her with Micah. She trusted him implicitly. There was no way she could cede absolute and total control in their relationship to him if she didn’t trust him.

The idea that she’d hurt him by making him think she didn’t trust him was painful. She loved Micah and it was for him that she’d hesitated in accepting his marriage proposal.

Now she wondered if she wasn’t doing more damage to the future of their relationship by holding back. If he ever doubted her love, it would kill her. It was the one thing she’d always given him unreservedly.

Micah was her future. She knew it without a doubt. She rubbed her hand over her protruding belly. Micah loved her. He loved their daughter. He wanted them to be a family. Micah had always wanted a family. Right now she was the one standing in the way of his happiness.

How stupid and shortsighted she’d been. She didn’t regret not relenting right away. She and Micah had desperately needed time to work out their issues and to find their way amid the tumultuous beginning to their relationship.

But for the last few months, Micah had done and said all the right things. He’d once told her that when she knew without a doubt that he loved her more than life and when she trusted him fully to cherish her gift of love, that was when he wanted her to marry him.