In the end, I became exactly what I didn't want to be. An office assistant.

Perks of the job were still having a paycheck, period. That was about it.

I spent my days in very close confines with Lance and Brian, helping them process invoices, make copies, pick up phone calls and keep the coffee machine going. What sucked most about that, was that I couldn't drink any.

On fun days, I got to tag along with them to inspect the site, but I almost lost even that. One morning, while checking out one of the newer constructions, a vat of cement accidentally spilled before me and I had to jump back to avoid it.

"Are you okay?" Lance screamed, waving his arms around.

Meanwhile, Brian stood frozen with his jaw hanging.

"You know what? Maybe we should keep you in the trailer the whole time." Lance winced. "For your safety."

"First of all," I started, my brow plunging. "I'm not a porcelain doll that is going to break easily."

C'mon, I still trained regularly at the gym. With less enthusiasm, maybe, but I was hearty and I was damn sure Surprise was, too. After all, he or she was the child of a hero and a survivor.

"Second, I'm not going to sue you for tripping. That would be my own damn fault."

That didn't appease them and it took almost two weeks of pushing papers before they allowed me to breathe the crisp autumn air permeated with the scents of metal, concrete, plastic and paint, that had become so familiar.

Today was sadly one of those days when I was shackled to a desk. I slammed the stamp marking an invoice as paid out in red ink, with so much force it shook the desk.

Brian jumped in his skin. He'd been reading something on an iPad, his other hand busy with a cup of coffee. The hot liquid sloshed but he managed to settle it down and away from his electronics. If Lance had been at the office with us he probably would've reacted the same way.

"Sorry," I said, not meaning it at all.

"Er, please don't smash the office furniture to smithereens, they're rented."

I scrunched up my face. "I'll try not to."

Brian laughed. "I know I have no right to say this, but try to be patient."

"Is there still going to be anything left to build once I'm back from maternity leave?"

Shit, I still couldn't believe those words were coming out of my mouth.

"Oh, no one told you?" Brian scooted closer. "I thought you might have heard already, but Mr. B is in talks with the City Council to move his company here."

"Whoa." I turned to face him all the way. "Tell me more."

"That's all I know, actually."

I snorted. "You're a terrible gossip."

Brian grinned before continuing. "But if the plan goes well it'll mean he'll bring people over, who will need homes on top of the ones we're already building. And also there's no building big enough to fit the Bernal Industries headquarters, so someone will have to build it, right?"

"Oooh. Brian Levesque, you're a smart cookie." I rubbed my belly as though it were Surprise the one who was excited instead of me. "Thank God for my mom's cousin's husband."

He shook his head. "I still can't believe that. The world is so small."

"You're telling me. I can't wrap my head around everything that's happened since I came to this town. First, I almost died while moving here and now I'm getting married and about to become a Mom."

"Speaking of, there's something I've been wondering about," Brian said.

I motioned for him to continue. After all, he was technically paying me to chat and that beat dealing with paperwork any time.

Meanwhile, he looked around as though there were any possibility of anybody spying, and not as if we were in a refurbished trailer with two puny windows and two doors.

"You guys are gonna marry in winter, which means Dean's gonna be smack in the middle of hockey season, so he won't be able to be the best man." Brian scooted his chair closer and whispered the question that had been brewing in him, "In that case, who's gonna be the best man?"

I cocked an eyebrow. His logic was sound, too bad for him I didn't have the answer.

Pace and I had been so busy getting the house—and ourselves—ready for Surprise, we hadn't even talked about the best man. My maid of honor was set, and so were my bridesmaids, and that was as far as I knew about the wedding. That, and that Pace and I would start out pre-marital lessons with the local priest in a couple of weeks.

Thus, I evaded the question by asking another. "Why are you asking me instead of Pace?"

"He's been tight-lipped." The foreman folded his arms. "Shane also asked him and got nothing, and at this rate I'm afraid Hunter might be making a move."

Recalling the conversation we'd had at the bar months ago brought a cheeky smile to my face. Back then, I figured Pace was beloved by his friends, for all of them to have made him their best man at their weddings. Now that the roles had reversed, it was funny to think he'd struggle picking his own among such great friends.

I leaned back on my chair, folding my hands over the rise of my belly. "You guys will probably have to submit your applications for his consideration pretty soon if you want to stand a chance."

He narrowed his eyes, smiling at the same time. "Maybe I'll just challenge the guys to a duel and pick the victor that way."

"Ha! I like that idea."

I was about to throw around ideas of how to go about it when someone knocked on the door. Brian opened the door and at one look outside, he gave me a sour face.

"It's the competition," he said.

Which turned out to be the Sheriff. Hunter popped his head in and saluted me. "Hey! Sorry to pop in unannounced while you're at work but I was wondering if I could borrow a few minutes of your time."

"All of the minutes you want," I said, magnanimous, not even minding that my boss could see my plain excitement at prolonging my break.

Brian's mind must have still been on the previous topic, because before stepping out of the trailer he told me, "Remember, it has to be a fair fight. Don't fall for his earnest-looking face."

Hunter's eyebrows went up when I responded with two thumbs up.

"What was that?" he asked as he took a seat before me.

"Oh, nothing much." I did my best to appear innocent as I said, "Just wondering what to do with so many interested parties on the position of Pace's best man."

Hunter gasped. "You mean it's not me?"

Not based on what Brian had just said, which probably meant Hunter was also fishing for intel. I laughed. "Oh, you're good, Sheriff."

"That's why they pay me the big bucks," he said with a grin I couldn't help returning.

"Anyway, as much as I appreciate the distraction from my boring tasks, you're on the clock and there must be a reason why you're spending taxpayer money on me."

Hunter removed his hat and scratched his head. "If you ever want a job interrogating witnesses let me know."

"Thanks, I'd make a pretty convincing bad cop."

"So," he started, wringing his hat. "It's a bit upsetting talk and I don't want to make you indisposed."

I sat upright. "Is Pace alright?"

"What?" He did a double take. "Oh, yeah. He's totally okay."

Settling back down, I asked, "Don't tell me it's my family, then?"

"No." He waved his hands around, which sent his hat hurling in the air. We watched it fall but neither of us moved to retrieve it. Hunter turned back to me. "It's about the fire."

In Silver Grove, The Fire were words that had been pronounced almost as frequently as The Bears, especially as the two now went hand in hand. Not having a functional ice rink in town meant the St. Andrews high school team had to beg neighboring towns for ice time in theirs. The nearest option would've been Pembroke, where the Eagles trained, but everyone was willing to go the extra mile, as the saying went, and drive 100km more to an open arena if necessary.

But what could I possibly have to say about the matter that every mouth in town hadn't already spoken?

"I'm just doing a routine investigation about it because I don't think it was an accidental fire, so I'm going around town asking everybody for details."

"Oh?" I frowned.

For the first time since I met him, Hunter's mien made me realize he actually was a cop, that his tired Dad and great friend personas were his off-duty mindset and I wasn't dealing with that guy right now.

"Well, I was at Margaret's with my family when it went down, so I don't know what could've caused it."

"And I didn't expect you to, but there's something else I wanted to consult with you about." He leaned his elbows on his knees. "The fire is just the latest of strange things that have happened around town. More people than ever have reported lost wallets and I've had three credible reports of people who have claimed to have seen a shadow following them."

Shivers crawled up and down my body when I finally understood the reason why he was here.

"Which I believe is something that happened to you, according to witnesses." Hunter paused, just assessing me, before he said, "Can you tell me more about that episode?"

"I—I-"

I worked my mouth open and closed but nothing else would come out.

The easy answer was no, I couldn't. I didn't want to. Thinking about that night invoked all the terror I'd felt not just then, but at any instance where my mind morphed men's faces into my ex's. But objectively, I must have imagined it all. Rodrigo was far, far away from me.

"It's crazy," I said, my hand shaking as I pushed my hair away from my eyes. "I don't think what I saw was real at all."

"It might have been," he said, voice gentle.

"Maybe your three reports aren't so credible."

He smiled that flat smile people gave when trying to be nice, but without any mirth behind it. "One of them was Pace. From that night."

I shook my head. "He didn't see anything. He was at the diner when I ran in, scared out of my mind."

"What did you see?"

"I thought I saw someone I knew in the alleyway between Main and Bend street." I hugged myself against the cold the heating system couldn't chase away. "It was dark and I was alone. It was probably nothing, but my mind played tricks and I panicked. That happens often. I go to therapy for it so there, Pace is unfortunately an unreliable witness."

Hunter didn't get hung up on that, though. "Can you describe this person you thought you saw?"

"Yes but I'd rather not," I said, bile rising up my throat.

"I'm sorry, but I need to do my due diligence. There's enough reason to suspect there's someone messing around in Silver Grove and if that's the case, I have to put a stop to it before someone gets hurt."

I didn't know what to do with my hands. I wanted to smack Hunter, put on my coat to warm up, but also open my hoodie to dry the sweat pouring in buckets out of me.

In the end, I grabbed the stamp and pressed it onto one invoice after another as I told Hunter my tale. Starting by what had led me into the diner that night and walking backwards, just to give myself more time to stall from getting into the really scary stuff.

At the end of his visit, I was properly upset. Later that night, when I told Pace what had happened, I saw him truly angry for the first time. Not at me, but I wasn't sure if at his friend or at the reminder of what my life had been before meeting him.

Pace didn't speak the rest of the night. All he did was hold me tight until exhaustion finally let me fade away.

My last thought before falling asleep was that after this, Hunter was probably not going to be his best man.