He scrunched his face up, but I could see he was smiling. “You live in a weird house.”

“I wonder what Julio would say?” I said, and he chuckled. These perfect, somewhat mesmerizing strands of hair tumbled into his face, and he looked hotter right now than he’d ever looked before, especially with that warm orange light streaming through the big window, casting all kinds of golden highlights across his face. He looked like a work of art created by one of the old masters. He should be framed and hung on some great museum wall for all to see, and to be honest, it perturbed me that I was thinking about him like this.

“I—I’m going to check on Zac and Lisa, I’ll be quick. If you go up the other staircase, it leads to a roof terrace,” I shouted over my shoulder as I rushed down the stairs. I glanced over the railing to the TV room below, where Lisa and Zac were sitting happily. I watched them for a while, a tiny lump forming in my throat. It was rare to see Zac so chilled, and it made my heart feel like it was going to burst.

When I was satisfied that all was well, I started back up the stairs, and that’s when it hit me. It hit me all at once and my intestines twisted themselves up like a lasso.

“Crap!” I started running. There was something up there that I didn’t want him to see. Didn’t want anyone to see.

I raced up the stairs and burst onto the roof terrace, immediately scanning it for Jake. But he wasn’t there. “No, no, no!” He could only be in one place now—the one place I didn’t want him to be. I raced across the rooftop and threw the door to the hot tub room open. Only, it was too late.

My heart sank. It fell into my feet, crawled out of my toes, and pooled on the floor below me and then, I wanted to die of embarrassment.

I wished I could rewind. Go back in time and stop him from coming up here.

10