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“Not wrong.”

Megan held up a hand. “All right, all right. So I’m not good at taking emotional risks. That doesn’t mean I can’t be in the future. I just need to meet the right person, the one who makes me want to take that scary leap all for them.”

“I look forward to seeing it happen.” She laughed behind her martini, and Megan balked.

She turned and studied the room behind them. Beyond the sleekbar with the soft blue illumination and sculpted gray barstools, a more relaxed conglomeration of couches allowed for lounging and mingling over cocktails and small bites. There was a small dance floor, but honestly no one at Shakers ever used it. This was a place for Dallas singles to gather, carouse, and pair up. But Kelsey was right. She should maybe try to allow herself to feel something without allowing the terror to creep in. Who knew what might happen? Daily, she watched as couple after couple walked through the doors of her office, declaring their intention to spend forever together. Maybe Megan simply wasn’t the type, and that was totally okay. But she preferred to believe that she just wasn’t ready yet. One day, she’d find her own love story. Right?

“Let yourself off the hook,” Kelsey said. “You don’t have to be perfect all the time. You wanted a little action, and you got it with Eyebrow Arching Selena.”

Megan winced. “Action sounds so crass.”

“An amorous encounter then, Jane Austen? Do you feel better?”

Megan smiled. “Yes. I can live with an occasional encounter on my résumé.”

“My kinda girl. Oh, who’s she?” Kelsey asked, following a tall blonde as she moved across the room. “Hello.”

“That’s the deputy sheriff’s wife, so maybe no.”

Kelsey raised a nonchalant shoulder. “Says who? She just smiled at me, and it wasn’t the platonic kind.”

“Lord above, please help my friend Kelsey not go to hell or jail,” Megan said with a laugh. “But if she goes, maybe take me with her.”

Kelsey bumped her shoulder. “This is why we’re ride or die. You tell me what not to do but always let me do it anyway.”

“Like I can stop you.”

“True.”

“But damn, it’s also fun to watch. My own personal soap opera.”

Kelsey scrunched her shoulders and bounced her eyebrows. “Mine better be rated R.”

“Oh, trust me.”

Megan limited herself to one drink and took her leave, though Kelsey stayed behind for one more and who knew what else. Probably a little flirtation with the off-limits blonde. Megan hoped it would stop there but preferred not to interfere. The less she knew, the less she’d worry. She headed home, a two-block walk to the Union TowersCondominiums. She nodded to her doorman, Chip, who was expecting a baby soon.

“Any sign of the smaller version of Chip yet?”

He shook his head. “I keep checking my phone, ready to dash out of here.”

“Dammit. I’ve been anxious.”

“You’reanxious?” Chip said, opening the door for her. “I sleep twenty-five minutes at a time. I’m like a wired squirrel.”

“That little girl will be here before you know it.”

“Good. I don’t know how much more I can take.”

She rode the elevator to the sixth floor and let herself in to her favorite place on Earth, her two-bedroom apartment, professionally decorated to her carefully explained taste. The mostly white kitchen was complemented by the blue, gray, and cream accents throughout her soft but sophisticated living space. Dark woods anchored the room and made it somewhere she never wanted to leave. Her bedroom was to the left, and a second bedroom that she’d turned into her own private study, complete with towering, full bookshelves, jutted off to the right.

She immediately changed into an oversized striped button-up sleep shirt and panties and slipped beneath the cool sheets, exhaling from her day. It would be a busy one tomorrow, and as she closed her eyes, she went through a mental checklist of all on her agenda the next morning, her nightly routine. Sterile? Sure, but that’s how she’d found success. She put her job first, and she did it well. Nothing wrong with that. Some people drifted off dreaming of puppies, kittens, and rainbows. Megan put her ambition first. She really liked her life and had so much more to accomplish. She sighed, letting her muscles sink into the soft mattress, knowing sleep would claim her shortly.

Tomorrow was just one more step in her journey.

* * *

Allison sank into the worn-in chair behind her desk twenty seconds after arriving back in her empty classroom. The hard part of her day was behind her. She’d just dropped her fourth graders at their buses and various after-school programs, or handed them off to their parents. Today had been school picture day and thereby a whirlwindof hairbrushes, insecurities, refusals to smile, and nervous energy. She needed two minutes of quiet just to reclaim herself and remember that she was a person outside ofMs. Hale, what are we doing today?Ms. Hale, can I use the restroom? Ms. Hale, why do shoes squeak?She loved her kids and her job, but the life of a teacher was definitely an exhausting one. Her desk was a wreck, too, like she’d been to war with a band of angry mice.