This would be my first awards show—ever. I hadn’t really checked my nerves with everything else going on. Ryan looked over his shoulder. That’s when I saw Mike’s head flash in the background.

“Problem’s been contained,” Mike muttered. “Ten minutes.”

“Okay, thanks.” Ryan turned back to me. “You still flying back with me to Vancouver on Thursday?”

“What’s going on there? What problem?”

I could see him trying to decide whether or not to share. “Some overly enthusiastic fans got onto the set. They were mingled in with some of the extras. We had to take a break from filming to sort it all out.”

My skin prickled. “Are you in danger?”

“No.”

For some reason I didn’t believe him. “Would you tell me if you were?”

My eyes met his on the screen. “I’m not in danger, babe. I don’t need you worrying for nothing.”

I was just about to argue when Marie came in, carrying an enormous bouquet of red roses in a clear crystal vase. “Someone got flowers.” She beamed at me.

I smiled widely at him, deeply touched that he’d do something so sweet. “Ryan! God, they’re beautiful.” I shoved my nose into one of the open blooms, savoring the fresh smell. “Thank you.”

He appeared confused, then pissed. “I’d like to take credit, but I didn’t send you flowers. Who the hell is sending you flowers?”

I opened the card and read it out loud.

Dear Taryn,

I know you don’t know me but I am a huge fan and I hope these flowers brighten your day. I thought this might encourage you as well . . . “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Have a wonderful day lovely lady!

Jeremy

I suddenly felt sick. Ryan’s murderous glare was enough to make me go pale. “You don’t leave the house without an escort. Ever. Got me?” He yelled over his shoulder for Mike.

“I can’t live in fear, Ryan,” I muttered, annoyed that my once-peaceful oblivion was now convoluted by psychopaths and unknown birth certificates. I pushed the vase off to the side as if it were a ticking bomb.

I knew he was angry; that much was evident. “The shit is coming to your house, Taryn. To your damn door.” He dialed someone on his phone and seconds later, Mike rushed into Ryan’s trailer. After briefing him, Ryan asked for Marie. He made her read the card, out loud. “She doesn’t go outside without someone by her side—ever.”

I was mad, disgusted. Stupid flowers, sequestering me to my own home, making me feel as if I were a prisoner.

I was on the telephone with Andrea, who works for Ryan’s agent, ironing out my travel arrangements to L.A. for the MTV Movie Awards next week when someone pounded on the apartment door, startling the crap out of me.

I was relieved to hear Tammy’s voice answer back. I opened the door to see her standing there, visibly shaken. I had heard her down in the kitchen, but it was barely noon so I had no idea what had her so frantic.

“They just took Pete to the hospital,” she sobbed. “He dropped me off this morning so I don’t have a car.”

I yelled for Marie and grabbed my purse and keys.

“He fell off a roof. That’s all I know,” Tammy said as we rushed down the alley to my car.

Marie gave me a concerned look, knowing I was violating Ryan’s direct order.

“He said I don’t go out alone. He didn’t specify with whom.” I really didn’t care about my safety; I was more worried about Pete.

Tammy hopped in the front seat. “What’s going on?”

Marie climbed into the back. “Oh nothing. Just the usual whack-jobs stalking Taryn. Someone sent her roses yesterday.”

I didn’t want to think about it for too long or else I’d be inclined to run and hide in my closet with the baseball bat. “It’s nothing. Just flowers.”

“It’s creepy as shit,” Marie muttered.

I drove as fast as I could to the emergency room, knowing Tammy was beside herself. We were all fraught with worry. The three of us stormed through the automatic doors at St. Luke’s and into the large waiting room.

I saw the color drain out of Tammy’s cheeks when the girl behind the desk asked if Tammy was immediate family. Her fear for the unknown, thinking the worst, mirrored mine.

“Go.” I gave Tammy’s elbow a nudge for her to follow the nurse. Marie and I found an empty corner of the waiting room.

“God, I hope he’s all right,” Marie uttered, scrolling through her cell.

I shoved my keys in my purse, beating back my worry for Pete. Hopefully we’d hear something soon.

“Did you talk to Tammy this morning?”

She shook her head and concentrated on her phone. “What am I supposed to say to her? I guess I’ll just bow out of being in the wedding, since Gary seems to be hell-bent on staying a groomsman. You know what pisses me off? He hates weddings. We almost didn’t get married because he didn’t want a big wedding. You remember that? He’s doing this crap out of spite. I know it. I don’t know what I ever saw in him.”

“Doesn’t matter much now, does it?” I nodded at her thumbs, busy texting to Mike again.

Marie gave a wry smile and snapped her phone shut. “He’s pretty incredible. I’m trying not to mess this up.”

I gazed at the Weather Channel on the waiting room television. “I wish you could go with me to L.A.”

“Yeah, me too. I hate that you’re doing all of this world traveling without me.” Her eyes cut over to me. “I miss him.”

I could hear the longing in her voice. “Can I ask you something?”

She met my glance.

“What are your thoughts about managing the bar full-time?”

She looked away, shaking her head as if she didn’t like the idea. “You know, if you would have asked me that five months ago, I would have jumped at the chance. Now?” Marie shrugged. “I never thought I’d be twenty-eight and going through a divorce. Sometimes I want to run from this town and never look back.”

“I know the feeling.”

“Besides you and my dad there’s not much else holding me here.”

I nodded. “You and that bar are the only things keeping me here,” I said. “I can’t . . . I can’t be in two places at once and I definitely know I wouldn’t be able to trust the pub to just anyone. And you and Tammy . . . I can’t sell it. I won’t do that to you.”

“You can’t worry about us. You have to do what’s right for you.” She sat quietly for a moment. “We’d need to hire more staff to replace you. You know I can run the pub, but, honestly Tar, I’m not sure I want to anymore. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking myself wondering what I’m going to do next.”

I knew exactly how she felt. She and I had fallen into a rut where keeping the bar running after my father died was almost like a moral obligation.

“What do you want to do?” I asked.

She seemed reluctant to share. “Well, Mike mentioned that there’s a huge demand for female bodyguards. A lot of celebrities are using females in their security detail now. I don’t know. I’d have to learn self-defense and do some weapons training first but . . . He’s been trying to convince me to give it a try.”

“That something you’d be interested in doing?”

“Well, it sounds really intriguing and he’s even willing to train me, so . . . Gary said I was a bitch; might as well get paid to be a professional one.”

Surprisingly, I wasn’t overly stunned. Marie was lithe but fierce at the core. What did surprise me was her newfound fire for doing something completely different.

“You can be my bodyguard,” I teased jokingly, but as I said it, I thought about how cool it would be if she were.

“Well, yeah. I was actually thinking that. You seem to attract a whole lotta crazy.”

We both snickered at that until the realization that I had no defense skills of my own trickled in.

“I don’t know if Mike and I have a future,” she continued, shirking it off, “but with or without him there’s so much more world to see than just the inside of the pub. You’re traveling and seeing places, Mike has been all around the freakin’ globe . . . I just want—more. This thing with Gary? It’s been brewing for a long time. And now . . . well, I just want to cut my losses and move on.”