A Crush in the Storm (Love on Ceto Island #3)

Chapter 1

KAI

For as long as I can remember, New Year’s Eve is a night of possibilities.

Cities to explore. Parties to attend. Women to meet.

I’ve spent the last five New Year’s Eves in New York, Tokyo, London, Paris, and Rome respectively, which explains why I’m in a foul mood now, stuck on Ceto Island working behind the bar at my family’s resort as we host a wedding.

It sucks.

Though it’s not all bad, as I see Sadie chatting to my younger brother Walker near the dessert table.

As the resort’s housekeeper, she isn’t working tonight, but Sadie is a helper.

She steps in without being asked, which explains why she’s setting out desserts that Emery, my eldest brother Weston’s new girlfriend, concocted for the evening.

West is going to gain fifty pounds if he stays with Emery.

Her food is sublime, one of the few bright spots in this crap night.

I stuffed ten of her mini smoked beef rib pies and five tiny mango pavlovas between serving drinks to the thirty guests.

My brothers, West, Linc, and Walker, made me swear I’d stay away from the bridesmaids, and any single female guests.

They know my reputation. They don’t know it’s worse.

Can I help it if women find me attractive?

I know that makes me sound like a douche, but it’s true.

Dad used to say the Spade boys had been blessed with our granddad’s genes—bluey-green eyes, loose curls the colour of salted caramel to chocolate, great smiles, broad shoulders—and we make the most of our god-given looks.

At least, I do. I’ve done a lot of odd jobs over the years in my travels, but bartending is my go-to, and that means I meet a lot of women.

But as I watch Sadie throw her head back and laugh at something my doofus brother has said, the twang in my chest is solely reserved for her.

She’s the one that got away.

Not that a relationship between us could’ve been sustained even if we had lost our heads and given into temptation ten years ago, but whenever I return to Ceto Island, there’s a frisson of something between us that hasn’t been doused no matter how many miles I put between us.

Sensing my gaze, her head turns towards me and our gazes lock. Her eyebrow arches in a silent challenge I have no hope of interpreting, but with five minutes until midnight, I know what I have to do.

Get Sadie alone.