I looked down at the notes I’d taken on my yellow pad, at the list of names and dates and places, and the truth hit me.

I can’t tell Whitney this. Not a single fucking bit of it.

I shoved it away and sat back in my chair. I was in my office, because according to Commodore, life and business must both go on, no matter that we had a funeral tomorrow and my father was being buried.

The Gables were burying both of their parents on Saturday. It gutted me to think of Whitney at the grave site with Rango’s cheating ass standing beside her.

At least she had her brother, no matter how much I didn’t like the motherfucker. But if some guy was trying to come at McKinley under circumstances like this, I would do anything I could to keep him away. There was nothing I wouldn’t do to keep my little sister safe, especially from a guy I thought had fucked her over.

And I had fucked Whitney over in my own way. I threw her out in the middle of the night. Barefoot. Because I’m a stupid son of a bitch who couldn’t trust her.

Not even I could blame her if she didn’t forgive me. I deserved to lose her, but I wasn’t going to let it happen without a fight. Especially not to a piece of shit like Ricky Rango who deserved her even less. I glanced down at the lined yellow paper and all the instances of his cheating that had been documented.

I won’t let him keep me away from her. I won’t let him win.

I grabbed a new notepad and started writing Whitney a letter. Now I just had to figure out how to get it to her.

Twenty-Seven

Whitney

Present day

“I knew I liked you,” McKinley says. “At first I thought you were the stoic, quiet type, but that was impressive.”

My cheeks heat with embarrassment that someone witnessed our encounter. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have—”

“Put that bully of a woman in her place? Don’t apologize on my account. That was long overdue, in my opinion. I’ve been terrified that Lincoln would somehow fall into her trap and not realize what she is before she conned a ring out of him. Besides, I’m the one who should apologize. You shouldn’t have had to deal with her here. That’s unacceptable.”

“It’s okay. I survived. She might think she’s scary, but there’s nothing that woman could say to me that hasn’t already been said.”

“Still, we promised you a safe haven, and I didn’t live up to that promise. I’ll have her banned from the premises until further notice. She’ll probably go crying to Lincoln about it . . .”

“That’s really not necessary. She’s a pest. She can’t actually hurt me. I can easily avoid her in the future, now that I know to call down and check to see if she’s on the books.”

“How about I just tell the spa coordinators that when it comes to Maren Higgins, we have no appointments until otherwise instructed. They’re already well aware of her freeloader ways. A couple months ago, she started coming in and trading on Lincoln’s name to get free services, but I shut that down as quickly as possible.”