The way she’d looked at him, the swirling colors in her eyes, even more chimerical in the shadowy light beneath the trees, her storm-drenched hair hanging down her back in thick waves of amber and honey, mahogany and chestnut. He still couldn’t decide what shade her hair was. If Luke was writing her character description for a role-playing game, he’d probably say auburn, her eyes hazel. But neither of those words did justice to the real thing.

That had not gone at all like he’d expected, and yet Luke wasn’t sorry his plans had been derailed. Like he’d told Julia, no regrets. Not about that, anyway. He couldn’t help wondering if he’d regret his decision to step back from his responsibilities by stepping into the game. The whole point of doing so, at least he kept telling himself, was to ingratiate himself with the reviewer. How he was planning to manage that when he kept getting sidetracked by Julia, Luke wasn’t sure.

It wasn’t like him to act so impetuously. He never made a change of plans without carefully thinking things through and analyzing the options. But in this case there hadn’t been time. More significantly, he’d allowed logic to take a backseat to impulse. He frowned, trepidation clouding his mind like mist rising off the lake.

“What’s your problem?” Vijay demanded.

Luke’s head snapped up. “Huh?” While his thoughts had been otherwise occupied, his feet had gone on autopilot and taken him to the control room.

Vijay eyed him. “And why are you hovering in the doorway?”

“I’m not hovering.” Luke crossed his arms, chagrined to realize he was indeed hovering.

“Do you think it’s a good idea for you to be in here right now?” Jay asked.

“Depends.” Pulling the door closed, he grabbed the seat next to Jay. “Where’s my sister?”

“She’ll be here soon. She’s dealing with a last-minute request from Mrs. W.”

“What kind of request?” Luke asked warily.

“Nothing you need to worry about. Don’t get your Mario underwear in a twist.”

“I haven’t worn Super Mario Brothers underwear since I was a kid.”

“Dude. I distinctly recall you wearing a pair in high school.”

“It was junior high. And it was only that one time.” Sometimes it sucked having a best friend who’d known you forever.

“Whatever you say, man.” Vijay leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms overhead.

Luke was only too happy to drop the subject. He sifted through the stack of papers on the desk. “Are these the completed itineraries?”

“They are. And the bonus lists, too.”

Craving a return to a sense of normalcy, Luke logged in to the resort’s management system he’d created and opened the program he’d developed to organize the data for the rom-com sim. He pulled the first page off the stack and began entering the information.