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from her mother
and said, "No."
    "Can you at least think about it?"
    Megan kept going. "I’m still trying to figure
out how you tricked Shep into marrying you."
    "I’m sorry you feel that way about me. I’m
sorry."
    It would have been so easy to fall back on
being the bitch, so tempting to spew all the old animosities she’d
built up over twelve years. Instead, Megan turned back to her
mother.
    "The answer will stay no . I don’t
forgive you for what you did. You still haven’t admitted you kicked
me out over a man." Megan’s hand clutched the railing, and she
tried to calm the shaking in her limbs. "I’m here for the house and
the house only. I’ve agreed to your terms, and don’t ask me to do
more, because I will walk." And maybe there was a little pinch
around her heart when she saw her mother’s eyes start to
glisten.
    "I was hoping… " Nicole shook her head. "The
wedding will be here soon enough for you."
    Her mother turned and went out the door.
Megan flinched at the loud click it made. Jane came out of the
foyer. Megan had forgotten nothing was private or off limits from
gossip or eavesdropping in this place. She had better remember
while she was here, or the whole town would know by noon.
    "You’re not licking the spoon," Jane finally
said, after boring holes into Megan with her eyes. Then she nodded
her head and went back toward the kitchen.
    Twenty-seven more days of her mother, and of
Aiden. She wouldn’t last a week if this kept up. "That seems to be
my life story," Megan said to Jane’s retreating back.

Chapter 3
     
    What in the hell am I doing
here?  Megan asked herself the next morning as she poured a
cup of coffee. Diva Nicole had yet to awake, and the few quiet
moments were precious. Her elbows resting on the cold marble
island, she realized this morning was different. She wasn’t getting
the store ready for opening. She didn’t have to work out the
store’s budget. Nor did she have to worry about if and when the
next shipment of clothes would arrive. Megan hated the listless
feeling.
    She saw herself as a doer. Could she survive
sitting around, twiddling her thumbs, for the next twenty-six days?
Megan sighed. Her only option would be to help her mother prepare
for the wedding. She pressed a hand against her uneasy stomach at
the prospect. To be honest, Megan knew she was being judgmental.
Shep—God, she loved Shep. He was the closest thing to a father she
had, next to her own father. Shep was the one thing Aiden and she
still shared. If Shep was intent on marrying her mother, they’d be
married. The man had a will that only divine intervention could
stop.
    Megan welcomed the first hit of caffeine to
her system as more options filtered through her brain. She could be
a nice, loving, forgiving daughter. She had to take another sip of
coffee with the thought. It definitely wouldn’t be easy, but it
would make the month go by much more quickly. If she accepted that
option, then she’d have to admit the years of believing cynically
that leopards were unable to change their spots had finally made
her a disbelieving shrew.
    Megan clasped her hands around the warmth
permeating from the cup. Or she could continue the cold war and
wait out her month. The days would stretch before her as she waited
for the other shoe to drop. The only old-Nicole-like behavior she
had witnessed consisted of her mother making them eat at the dinner
table. She didn’t have any reason not to trust her mother. Yet
she’d been conditioned to distrust. Different leopard, but just as
many spots.
    The sound of shuffling slippers made her look
up. Shadows bruised the skin beneath Nicole’s eyes. That little
pinch started again, and by God Megan intended to ignore it. The
only responsibility she held was to herself. She had made sure over
the years it stayed that way, although somehow Lynne had snuck a
way into her heart. The pinch turned into an ache when Nicole said
a soft good morning. How long could she hold a