LITMIR.BIZ

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you to show up.”

      The implication stung, but Grant forced himself to shrug it off. “I would’ve met you there, but I wasn’t sure if your doctor’s office is here in town or if you have a practitioner in Raleigh.”

      Back when he was a kid, visiting his aunts along with his family, there’d only been a few established doctors in Spring Forest. They hadn’t needed medical services much during their trips, but he recalled one summer when his aunt Birdie had driven him to a small clinic in the older part of town for rabies shots after he’d gotten too close to a protective mother raccoon who didn’t appreciate a nine-year-old Grant wanting to hold one of her babies. He knew there was now a new medical practice located in a building off Spring Forest Boulevard, but he doubted that Rebekah would use a local obstetrician and risk running into someone from town.

      The muscles in her neck moved as she gulped. “Like I said last week, you don’t need to go to the actual appointment with me. I can meet you at Whole Bean Coffee afterward and fill you in.”

      She must’ve thought Grant was an idiot if she believed he would fall for that. Rebekah didn’t even want to be seen in the parking lot of Furever Paws with him. No way was she going to share a coffee in public with him where anyone they knew could walk by and overhear them discussing her pregnancy. If she was going to try and outplay him, then he’d just double down on his challenge.

      “Lunch sounds great. We can grab a bite to eat after we go to your appointment. Together.” He held up his keys. “Should we take your car or mine?”

      She did that sexy thing where she lowered her chin and tugged a corner of her lip between her teeth. Her hand gripped the driver’s door handle, looking as if she was ready to yank it open and jump inside to speed away. “Why don’t you just follow me?”

      “And risk having you ditch me at one of the intersections?” He gave her a wink before shaking his head. “No way.”

      “Fine.” She sighed then clicked a button on her keyless remote, electronically shutting the rear hatch of her car. “But get in quick and duck down so nobody can see you.”

      Grant tried not to smirk as he jogged around the front of the car to the passenger side. It was impossible for his six-foot-two frame to sink very low without jamming his knees into the glove box. Not that he would’ve actually hidden anyway. He understood that she didn’t want anyone knowing her personal business, but he’d be damned if he was going to continue playing the role of her dirty little secret. He said as much when she tore out of the parking lot, shooting up gravel as she fishtailed onto Little Creek Road.

      Rebekah made a slight chuckling sound. “That’d be a first.”

      “What would be?” Grant asked, finally getting his seat belt locked in.

      “You being my dirty little secret,” Rebekah said, the engine revving as she gained speed. “I would’ve thought it would be the other way around.”

      Something tingled along the edges of Grant’s nostrils and he tried not to sniff. “Why would you be the secret?”

      “Oh, come on, Grant. You’re the golden boy of the Whitaker family. I just work here.”

      Well, the fact that she worked for his aunts wasn’t the real problem bothering her right now. No, Grant heard what she wasn’t saying aloud—that he might not feel comfortable going public with their...fling? Relationship? He wasn’t really sure what to call their situation, but that wasn’t the issue. His only concern was her feelings and assuring her that he heard her. It didn’t matter how beautiful, intelligent or accomplished Rebekah was. There were always going to be some people who thought they shouldn’t be together because they were different. While he couldn’t deny that Rebekah’s feelings were likely the result of her own experiences, he also wanted her to know that he’d always been proud to be with her. “For the record, I have never thought of you as the hired help. In fact, I’m not the one who’s embarrassed to have people finding out about us.”

      “It’s not that I’m embarrassed about you.” Rebekah flicked her eyes at him before turning on her signal and pulling onto Spring Forest Boulevard. “It’s that I’ve worked really hard to become the director of an organization that does amazing things in the community. As a nonprofit, we’re governed by a different set of rules than regular corporations. That makes my job fall under more scrutiny when it comes to ensuring that everything stays aboveboard.”

      “So you’re saying dating me wouldn’t be aboveboard?”

      “First of all, we’re not dating.” Rebekah turned to him as her car idled at an intersection. Grant tried to ignore the pang of disappointment at her words, despite the fact that he’d been telling himself exactly the same thing these past several weeks, ever since their night together. “Second of all, as you know, there’s currently an attorney looking into some of your family’s past investments and I don’t want to risk any appearance of impropriety or otherwise suggest that there might be any conflicts of interest.”

      Ouch. He especially didn’t like the reminder that there were potentially some financial issues going on right now with his uncle Gator.

      The man had always been a financial whiz. That was why Birdie and Bunny had trusted him to manage the investments used to support their living expenses and the shelter’s overhead. Gator always seemed to know just how to deal with every shift in the market, using his intelligence and intuition to help his sisters and also to build his own personal fortune. But then something had gone wrong. Suddenly money wasn’t where it was supposed to be. When the storm hit Spring Forest and the shelter took heavy damage, the aunts discovered that Gator had let their insurance lapse and couldn’t provide a good explanation for where the money for the premiums had gone.

      The situation had seemed to get more tangled by the day, until the aunts had had no choice but to hire people to look into it. Now, Gator was nowhere to be found and some people in town were suggesting that Grant’s favorite uncle had gone missing to avoid being questioned about his alleged mismanagement.

      “Okay, obviously we’re not dating,” he readily agreed, trying to ignore the fact that there was a sour, mildew-type odor in this car that easily overpowered the scent of Rebekah’s flowery lotion. “I think we both made it pretty clear that night that we weren’t in the market for a serious relationship.”

      He certainly wasn’t—especially with someone who lived a two-hour flight away. The light turned green and Rebekah barely got out a nod before pulling forward, allowing Grant to continue.

      “However, with circumstances being what they are...” he glanced down to her still-flat stomach behind the seat belt “...don’t you think people are going to eventually find out that you’re pregnant?”

      She held up a finger. “If I am, in fact, pregnant. Remember, the doctor hasn’t officially confirmed it.”

      “Is there any reason to think you’re not?”

      The muscles in Rebekah’s toned arms stiffened as she gripped the wheel tighter. She opened her mouth as though to say something, then made a sniffing sound. “I’m not the only one who smells that, right?”

      The stench that had been slowly building inside the car was becoming unbearable, and Grant finally gave in and cracked a window. “Yes, I’ve been smelling it for the past five minutes but was hoping it was coming from outside.”

      She hit a switch and both of their windows whirred all the way down. Grant inhaled the fresh, warm air filtering in as Rebekah’s corkscrew curls whipped around her face. While lowering the windows improved things slightly, the scent still lingered.

      “It’s definitely coming from inside the car,” Rebekah said, pinching her nose as she slowed for a four-way stop. “What could it be?”

      “It reminds me of the time one of Aunt Birdie’s goats got into the henhouse and stomped on all the eggs before rolling around in chicken poop.”

      “But twenty times worse,” Rebekah

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