And if she scowls at me, or says something cutting, I hold onto it like a treasure. Pathetic, I know. But I’ve known for 13 years that she only wants Gavin. She thinks she loves him and she has the opposite feelings for me.

Gavin says he’s envious of me for two seconds at a time. I’ve been envious of him for a decade and a half.

If I had known when I was 12 how hard it would be to undo all the things I’ve done, I never would’ve started down this path. I didn’t know that once you lose someone’s friendship or respect, you often lose it forever. I didn’t know once you start on a path it sometimes feels impossible to step off. Jessie has disliked me for so long, I don’t know how the world would look if she didn’t.

“I’m going to fix this,” Gavin continues. “It’s gone on long enough. Just because Dad said you were boring, barren of personality, and lacking a sense of humor—”

“Don’t hold back.”

“Doesn’t mean he’s right.”

“Obviously.” I raise an eyebrow.

Gavin grins. “Tomorrow morning, after I sleep off this hellacious case of jet lag, we’re heading into Love Town USA and breaking out the fun Will that’s been hiding for twenty years.”

“I’d rather not.” I have an international business to run and a merger to complete.

“If you don’t, I’ll go have fun without you,” he threatens. I think about the fun he’d find. Breaking my two-hundred-million-dollar deal in the process. He’s got cold feet and Jessie has her arms wide open waiting for Gavin to run into them.

I’ve loved Jessie for as long as I’ve known her. The thought of her and Gavin together hurts worse than the thought of losing two hundred million dollars.

“What time in the morning?”

Gavin thinks for a minute. “Ten.”

“Fine. We’ll have some fun.”

“That’s the spirit.”

I hold up a finger. “On the condition that you don’t do anything stupid, don’t mess with the process of the merger by talking to Alan Duporte, you don’t break it off with Lacey while she’s in Uganda, and you consider that maybe your own issues stem from Dad saying you were the stupid, fun-loving, irresponsible one.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Gavin says. He saunters out of the kitchen.

I make another espresso. I still have at least four hours of work to do tonight.

And I need to make a strategy on how to prevent Gavin from tripping and falling into Jessie’s arms.

4

Jessie

I’m about to take the first sip of my large triple shot iced mocha with extra whip cream and a cherry on top when I see him.

Gavin.