“So basically you rode into Dallas on your big horse to claim your lady and she threatened to kill you in your sleep and then fucked off.” Cecilia thought she was cute.

“No, that is not what happened at all,” I gasped as I stepped off the treadmill in the penthouse gym. “We discussed it and she declined my offer to stay here with me.” My stepmother snickered like this was the best comedy show ever. But was staying strong. All in all things had not gone terribly this first week. We’d done a couple more days of filming filler scenes and visited the construction site without too much drama.

“But things are going okay between the two of you?”

My stepmother did not like the noncommittal sound I gave her in answer.

“You know you could just tell her how you feel,” Cecilia nudged for the millionth time, and I shook my head as I trained my sight on the glimmering surface of the pool on the patio. The turquoise rectangle was still the one place where everything seemed to make sense to me. If my body cooperated, I knew how to get what I wanted out of that length of water. But people were unpredictable.

“Have you considered she’s just waiting for you to ask her out?”

“No, I haven’t because I was too busy fending off her promises to kill me.” I shook my head like she could see me, as I walked the length of the glass wall separating the living room from the outdoor area. “I want Alba to see a different side of me. And I don’t want to make things awkward for the filming with my feelings sitting like congealed word vomit between us for the next month.”

“That’s disgusting,” Cecilia griped disdainfully.

“Exactly, which is why I need to play my cards right. I have a plan. A strategy.”

“Strategy doesn’t work in romance, bro!” I couldn’t help my grin when I heard my little sister’s voice.

“What do you know about love, squirt?” I asked, as I heard the rustling of Zoe wrangling the phone from her mother.

“I learned everything I need to know from romance novels. If you want to get the girl, you have to do something unexpected, you have to surprise her.”

“Me showing up in Dallas with an offer to get her on a reality show isn’t flashy enough of a surprise for you then, sis?” I asked with a laugh.

“Oh please, how surprising is it for you to figure out a way to get people to do what you want?” my fourteen-year-old-going-on-eighty little sister fired off.

“Damn, burn!” That was courtesy of my stepmother.

“Okay, enlighten me, oh wise one,” I teased her, although I was kind of low-key curious and definitely desperate enough to use the advice.