Part Two
Eslin
Let’s get everyone caught up, shall we?
I’m currently living in the aftermath of a full-blown emotional natural disaster—epicenter: Las Vegas. Casualties: my grip on reality and everyone’s relationship status.
My boss? Secretly married.
Our future team captain, Luca? Also secretly married.
And me? Secretly falling for a man I absolutely, definitively, cannot have—yet somehow find myself in dangerously close proximity to on a regular basis.
And the best part? No one knows about any of it.
Except me, of course.
I’ve officially become the keeper of everyone's secrets. A human vault of messy, high-stakes drama. And suddenly, what used to be a dream job is starting to feel more like a liability with benefits.
Meanwhile, my job as a therapist makes it a little easier to keep quiet about my feelings for Grant, too.
I’m trained to listen more than I speak. To hold space, not fill it. To stay neutral, no matter what storm is brewing under the surface. So I keep my face calm, my voice steady, and my feelings buried under layers of professionalism and practiced restraint.
It’s ironic, really—helping everyone else make sense of their emotional chaos while quietly drowning in my own.
What I would give to drown in that man’s bath water.
It makes no sense that Grant and I can’t be friends.
No matter how much we try to avoid each other—or how strategically unavailable I make myself to dodge any accidental run-ins—we somehow keep ending up in the same places.
Circling the same conversations. Avoiding each other is becoming impossible.
And honestly, running into each other was even more inevitable. Especially since I’m Marlow’s friend now. Sure, technically her employee too, but above all, her friend. Which means crossing paths with Grant was likely going to be part of the equation.
So instead of pretending he doesn’t exist, or constantly looking for exits and rehearsing neutral smiles, I make a choice.
I decide to be Grant Mills’ friend. Just his friend.
Because it makes sense.
Because I’m a professional.
Because I can handle it.
And maybe because I could really use a few good friends right now, too. Especially as the leaves turn and the holidays approach. I don’t like being alone.
And since I respect Marlow too much to let this completely inappropriate, entirely inconvenient attraction to her father ruin the bond we’re building, I make the only choice that feels halfway sane.
I decide to take them both. Marlow and Grant.
Just. Friends.
Nothing more. No mixed signals. No lingering looks. Just boundaries, maturity, and deep, controlled breathing when Grant Mills walks into a room.
I’ve got this.