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"That was then and this is now Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Just ere you doing, besides kissing?"

Tessa blinked "That's none of your business and tell me that's not the reason you hunted me down"

"No, Dana orried and called You've been gone all afternoon"

Tessa glanced at Chase as he finished loading the Jeep "Yeah, I know"

"Careful, Sis"

Tessa frowned at her "You were the one who said I should get to know him"

"Sure, so he wouldn't sue for custody But that—" she waved to the spot near the tree "—is more than I meant"

"Afraid I'll stain your reputation?" Dia was the first of her family to oppose her decision to artificially inseminate

That stung, and Dia knew the source "No matter what I've said in the past, Tessa, it's you I worry about You're vulnerable"

"Pregnancy does nother ar"

"It's the hom I'm worried about"

"You need a break, Dia Badly," she said, and left her sister standing on the grass, her expensive pu into the soft dirt Tessa stopped beside Chase

"I feel like a kid caught in the back seat of his daddy's car," he said

She slanted hi from experience?"

"Nah, Dad never let me use his car I had to buy my own and that didn't happen till I was in the Marines"

"Not in college?"

"Marines first, college came later" He shook his head, rueful "I'm the black sheep of the family, you know"

"You?"

He grinned "A fault you like?"