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I’d let out a gasp, then jogged all the way to the tip of the little island to keep myself from seeing him again. The man was horrible. Shitty. As bad as Ned, almost. And the fact that I found him physically attractive after knowing that made me ill.

Griffin showed up twenty minutes later, and I’d never been happier to see my grumbly brother and his buzzing outboard motor in my life. Unfortunately, my happiness drained away when Griff screwed up his face and yelled over the roaring engine at Blake as we crawled into the boat, “Didn’t I see you yesterday at the resort?”

Blake had thrown me a look and I knew he hadn’t wanted me to know that.

“Wait, what? You stayed at the resort?”

He’d kept his eyes on me when he shouted back to Griff, “Yeah, good memory.”

My brother did have a good memory, and he was never wrong about stuff like that. He knew faces.

Humiliation ripped through me. Had Blake been watching me at my job ahead of our start date? That’s part of what the Harringtons did, I knew. They shadowed employees at the businesses, though I didn’t know they did that before contracts started.

And shit, neither Griffin nor Eli knew Blake was preparing for a longer stay.

The only saving grace I could think of was that I hadn’t really shown my face at the resort this past week at all—I’d been holed up in my office, preparing for the meeting with this very asshole. I should have fired him right there, but the motor was so loud I’d have had to yell it—and then explain myself to Griffin. Plus, it was only a moment before we hit the little beach Griff had navigated us to a bit upstream, where Eli was waiting. Blake jumped out. He stood on shore and looked me in the eye as he said goodbye, and I knew my brothers—Eli, on the beach, and Griff, at the stern of the boat—could sense the tension between us.

“I’ll go back with you,” I yelled to Griffin.

Blake had lifted a hand to me, which I hadn’t returned. But I couldn’t just ignore him—Eli and Griff could already tell something was up. They were looking at me with expressions of confusion.

Finally, I brought my eyes back to Blake. At least I could admit through my anger and humiliation that hehadsaved me—possibly even my life. I could respond to that.

“Thank you,” I called out. “For pulling me out.”

Blake said nothing, just held my gaze a moment longer before giving a curt nod and walking away with Eli, his hip waders slung over his arm.

I hated myself for the tug of pain in my chest as I watched his back shift under his still-damp shirt. We’d had a moment, I knew we had, and how pathetic was it that the first person to spark those feelings in me in so long was a married man?

Asshole.

My stomach had churned wondering what Blake and Eli were talking about. But now, even though I’d cranked the ringer up on my phone, it was silent as I pulled on my shoes and a light jacket. No messages from Eli.

When I stepped out of my apartment, my insides were still a tumultuous hurricane of emotions. But I forced myself to breathe as I opened the ground-floor door onto the still-gorgeous morning. By the time I entered the patch of trees that lined the four-minute walk between the staff apartments and the resort, I’d cooled down enough to think a little more generously about the situation.

As the staff entrance of the Rolling Hills resort came into view, I wondered if somehow I’d misread the whole situation. Maybe Blake hadn’t been flirting. Lord knows I wasn’t exactly up on my skills in that department. I hadn’t even contemplated dating again since splitting with Ned, let alone put myself out there. I wasn’t sure I ever would.

When I jogged up the steps to the quieter west wing staff entrance, instead of going right inside, I leaned back against the wall, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. I needed a level head for this meeting. I could do this—I just needed a minute.

“You want to tell me what you were doing on a secluded island with a married man?”

A jolt of adrenaline shot through me as I opened my eyes. “Goddammit, Eli,” I said. “You scared me.” Then I pushed myself off the wall. “You know I would never do anything like that.”

“Oh no?”

“Not in a million years.” I wouldn’t. Even before everything went down with Ned, I wouldn’t have done that. But after? I’d have to be some kind of self-flagellating sociopath. I’d left home to live with Ned, back when my future was brighter than the sun warming my skin right now. I’d trusted him. Sure we’d been busy with work the past few years, doing fewer and fewer things together as a couple, but I never would have dreamed he’d cheat on me.

To my horror, I felt a lump forming in my throat.

Eli saw me getting affected; I could tell by the way he shifted as he leaned against the banister, his eyes darting sideways for a moment. Something almost softened in his expression, but I could tell he still wasn’t clear about what had happened between Blake and me.

Join the club.

“Eli,” I said. “Do you honestly think I would be messing around with a married man, after what Ned did to me?”

Eli knew exactly what had happened between me and Ned. He’d called only a few minutes after Ned broke the news to me. The door had just clicked shut when Ned left to ‘give me time to process’ when my phone had rung. I knew it would be Eli. That’s what it was like between us. That stuff they say about weird, psychic connections between twins was sometimes right on the money. Like how I felt it in my guts when he fell off his bike on the South Road Trail when we were ten, and he’d broken his left arm. Or when my partner of thirteen years told me he’d been seeing someone else.

Eli shook his head now. “I know you wouldn’t do anything like that. I don’t really know Blake though. I always thought he was a good guy, but Lila’s the one I had classes with. She’s the one who invited me to their wedding.”