“You have gone way off the rails,” I tell that woman, brandishing a finger at my reflection.

It’s true. I came here because I wanted to prove a point. The point was that I’m over the stupid crush I had on Roman Bliss in high school. For the one year we overlapped, I was head over heels for him in a painful, incessant way, and I knew nothing would ever, ever come of it.

But the truth is that I’m not over that crush. It came roaring back to the life the first moment I saw him in the lobby that day. And a worse truth is that Roman Bliss is even more magnetic than he was back then. He sees me now, and I can’t blame him for it. I did this on purpose. All those nights I spent studying fashion and etiquette and how to be sexy—yes, I studied how to be sexy—they paid off.

Not only does he see me, but Roman has grown into a good man. He spends half his life checking in on his brothers and making sure the resort is running well. From what I’ve seen, they consult each other.

I snap my fingers in front of my face. His brother’s aren’t the reason I can hardly draw a breath.

It’s because all of this has been based on some seriously mistaken assumptions and a healthy side of lies.

I thought I had it justified to myself. I really did. But now there’s something else I need to justify: the way I feel about Roman. And then I need to figure out how I’m going to move forward.

A gentle knock sounds at the door. “You okay, Jenny?”

I stand up straight and reach for one of the towels in a holder by the sink and pat at my dry face.”Yes,” I say through the towel. “I just had to make a decision.”

14

Roman

“I’m taking over.”

My brothers look at me like I’ve uttered something completely ridiculous and in a foreign language.

I’ve summoned them all here for an early morning meeting. Beau is in a dress shirt and a pair of swim trunks, clutching an oversized coffee and probably still buzzed from whatever event he hosted last night. Charlie is in gym clothes, and he’s only stopped looking at his phone—undoubtedly at the spreadsheets on his phone—because I dove headfirst into the meeting with no preamble. It’s lucky Driver’s in town, because he needs to hear this, too.

Huck, the youngest and blondest of us all, rubs his hands over his face. “Why am I here again? Are you taking over my senior seminar, because I could really use—”

“I’m not taking over your classes.”