With little more going for me than a lenient judge who assigned community service hours instead of jail, I had to get my life under control.

That meant distancing myself from friends who weren’t ready to come clean.

Fulfilling the mandated service hours at the animal shelter occupied my spare time and gave me a sense of purpose - a belief that I could do good in the world. And while the pseudo-friendship I’d developed with the shelter Director helped, it didn’t fill my loneliness.

Because my life options rarely presented themselves in a timely or convenient manner, I found myself torn between two dating prospects. One had pulled himself up from a sordid past, just as I was trying to do. He offered comfort and understanding, and didn’t balk at being my first ever committed, exclusive relationship.

The other guy made my heart happy, my legs weak, and elicited a flurry of sexual thoughts, but came along one commitment too late. Or were those the reactions of my usual non-committal self, believing the grass was always greener on the other side?

The more I learned about the new people in my life, the more I learned that first impressions shouldn’t always be trusted.

Everyone had a past.

Everyone had a mission.

And like usual, luck wasn’t on my side.

Untangling the good from the bad could mean risking everything.

But for once, I wasn’t only worried about myself. The result of my actions could bring harm to the closest person I had to a friend, the Director of the animal shelter, and her ridiculous pet goat.

Could my past prove useful for unraveling the deceit and lies crafted by the man I’d let into my heart? And would my actions ruin the best chance I’d ever had at finding true love?

Doing the right thing wasn’t my forte, but there was no time left to sort out my options.