I’m ready for Alex’s bachelor party. His send-off. A true celebration.
He found the one.
Ariel, who was the first woman I noticed when we got to the island. She asked me to make love to her that first night.
I turned her down.
It took all my willpower, but I’m glad I did. She belongs with Alex.
I’m happy for them. Really, I am.
But all I want to do is drink until none of this hurts anymore.
I go to the minibar and pour two fingers of bourbon. Down it in one shot. It burns, but it doesn’t do shit to warm the hollow inside me.
I pace the room. I wish I had my phone to text Sienna. Tell her I’m sorry again.
But she asked for time.
And Jake? I left him on the beach to go after Sienna. God knows where he is now.
Maybe I’m the one who needs to disappear.
I think back to the first time I kissed Sienna on the beach.
She was distraught over Leroy, and I told her to go back to him. To try to work it out. Then I accompanied her to the airport…and we ended up fucking in the back of the car.
It was electric.
I knew then we had something rare—two hearts still aching from old wounds but drawn to each other with a pull too strong to fight. We weren’t just healing. We were falling. And what we were building was deeper, stronger, more powerful than anything we’d lost.
Then…
Enter Jake.
My first love. For many years, I thought he might be my only love.
Both are pulling at me.
Jake feels like home, like being wild and free.
Sienna feels like the future. I could build a family with her, father her children.
And here I am, stuck between two versions of myself. Two lives. Two loves.
I go to my window and look down into the courtyard.
People are beginning to gather.
The parties.
Time to fake it until I make it.
There’s a knock at the door. River’s voice follows it.
“Brett. You ready?”
I open the door. He looks sharp—black shirt, denim shorts, leather sandals.
