To say I was looking forward to returning to all of this would be a lie. At least the paparazzi and gossip rags were being somewhat nice, printing photos of our happiness when they caught Ryan and me out shopping a few days ago.

Ryan and I had a nice time wandering around, taking in some sights and spending some money on stuff we didn’t need but could afford. I was sporting a gorgeous an-tique diamond bracelet that Ryan spent a small fortune on and he bought himself a nice platinum chain with a stainless steel dog tag that had a tribal design on one side and my name engraved on the other.

But now I was sitting in the passenger seat of my car, Marie behind the wheel, since she picked me up at the airport, and the amazing time I had with Ryan sadly becoming another memory.

I watched the landscape zoom by once again, feeling a sense of déjà vu, and wondering if things would settle.

Going back to Mitchell’s Pub was starting to feel like a burden, and that was not good.

“Did you book your flight?” I asked, wondering when the other shoe was going to drop.

Marie glanced over quickly. “Yeah. Class starts July ninth.”

My mind flipped through the calendar, knowing I already had a problem, but I wasn’t about to let it halt her plans.

“You’re going to miss Ryan’s wrap party because of me.”

I felt my shoulders tense as I glanced over at her. “Mike needs to keep his big mouth shut.”

Marie barked out a laugh, “I know you’re supposed to be in Pittsburg at his parents’ on the twenty-second as well, which you failed to tell me about.”

“I wasn’t keeping it a secret.” Well, I was, but I wasn’t going to tell her until after she’d left.

She passed a slow-moving camper in the center lane. “Liar. You said you didn’t have anything firm until the Teen Choice Awards on August seventh.”

And therein was my problem, right in a nutshell. Since cloning wasn’t possible, something had to give, just like Ryan had said. “You need to worry about your schedule and leave me to worry about mine,” I growled, teasingly of course.

“I thought you were trying to go to Italy the week before that?”

“No. Ryan’s not sure if he’ll have to go to ll.A. earlier. He’s waiting to hear.” I dug around in my purse for my calendar.

“When are you coming back then?”

“July twenty-eighth.” Her voice did an excited upswing, making it sound like a question. I could tell she was treading lightly. She also knew that I had no one to fall back on.

“You’ll come back a lean, mean fighting machine,” I joked, trying to let her know I was totally supporting her decisions.

Marie gave me a weak smile. “I don’t have to go for this session, Taryn. I could put it off. Give it a year, maybe. I dunno. I know I’m putting you in a tight spot.” I adjusted my ring. “No. Definitely not.”

“Taryn, I’m rushing this. I don’t even know if Mike wants a relationship with me.

I’m fighting with Gary over who gets to keep the damn toaster and shit. I shouldn’t be making any big moves.”

“If this is what you want then you go for it now. Time to do what you want to do for once.”

“But—”

“But what? Are you going to doubt your desires because you’re unsure of Mike’s intentions? You want to be a bodyguard, knowing what it entails, then do it. And no buts. I haven’t

seen

you

this

excited about

something in years. You want to forge a new career path, then now is the time. You’re wasting your education and talents being stuck behind the bar.”

“I’m not stuck . . .”

“Yes, you are. We both are. It’s time for the next chapter.”

“I need an income, Taryn,” she countered.

“I can’t go without a job.”

I sighed. “We’ve had this discussion already.”

“Taryn, you can’t pay me a salary that I didn’t work for. You’ve already loaned me money for the lawyer. And it’s going to be a while until I see a settlement from my divorce so I can pay you back.”

“Marie, what did I say?”

She huffed. “It’s not right. You can’t keep bailing your friends out.”

I turned in my seat to look at her, keeping the fact that I was going to cash out some of my inheritance to cover things if I needed to.

The bar was making more money but not enough to cover several full-time salaries.

“You would do the same for me and you know it.”

“You’re going to have to hire another bartender or two and someone will have to be there to manage the place. And I can’t expect you to hire someone for only two weeks and then fire them when I get back. Cory is great, but you know as well as I do that he’s young and isn’t ready to take on that amount of responsibility. And what happens if I get down there and find out I can’t handle it? Mike said this is pretty intense stuff—like combat training, firing a gun while rolling on the ground and stuff. I mean, what the hell do I know about disarming someone or kicking someone’s ass? Last time I was in a fight was when we were in high school and I punched Sophie Lithgow in the face for calling me a slut.”

I laughed. “It’s a start. And that was clas-sic, by the way. She deserved that—calling both of us sluts.”

“Yeah, but I at least earned the title,” Marie boasted.

“No you did not.”

Then she gave me a crooked stare, insinuating that she did.

We were silent for another half mile when I finally said what was swirling in my thoughts. “Ryan sort of hinted again that I should sell the bar.”

Marie’s mouth popped open. “Why?”

“Because I can’t be in two places at once.”

She groaned softly. “You sure you want to do that?”

My knee-jerk answer was no, but I said, “I don’t know. I’m thinking about it.” She shook her head adamantly. “I don’t think you should sell it.”

I was thankful she said that. “Is it wrong of me to want to have a fallback plan?”

“Hell no! Look at me. Bastard locked me out of my own damn house! I barely escaped with the clothes on my back and now he’s threatening to smash our china that his aunt got us just so I don’t try to take it in the divorce. I don’t know where I would have ended up if you hadn’t taken me in. That’s not to say Ryan would do any of that nonsense to you. Honestly, I think you’d be just fine doing something else if you did sell the bar but the part of me going through a shitty divorce says you should keep your safety net.”