Chapter 1
Antonio
Four months later, I’m still thinking about Vegas and Jasmine. Which is probably why I keep putting myself through what has become excruciating gatherings.
I pull into the driveway of Meesha and Connor’s lake house at exactly seven fifteen. The cars already parked tell me I’m the last one to arrive.
I grab the bottle of wine from the passenger seat and head inside.
The front door is unlocked. I let myself in, calling out, “Meesha? Connor?”
“Kitchen!” Meesha’s voice floats from somewhere deeper in the house.
I find her pulling a salad bowl from the fridge. She turns and grins at me. “Only fifteen minutes late.”
I kiss her cheek and hand her the wine. We’ve had this easy relationship since my mother married her father. She’d called me her older brother right away, and I’d watched her nearly sabotage the best thing in her life before finally marrying Connor.
“Where’s your husband hiding? Did you scare him off with your cooking?”
“Very funny. He’s outside playing grill master.” She sets the wine on the counter.
I lean against the counter. “Need help with anything?” I pick up a cherry tomato from the salad and pop it in my mouth.
Meesha swats my hand away and hands me the salad bowl. “Take this out to the table. Everyone’s already on the patio. And behave yourself.”
“When don’t I behave?” I give her my most innocent smile.
She snorts. “You’re breathing, aren’t you? That’s usually when trouble starts. Patio. Now.”
I follow her through the house to the back, where French doors open onto a stone patio.
The table is set for seven, with white linens and candles that aren’t lit yet.
Beyond the patio, the bay stretches out, catching the last rays of sunlight.
The July heat has finally broken into a perfect evening.
Connor stands at the grill, beer in hand. Jaxon sits at the table with Jessa tucked against his side. Kamal leans against the patio railing, and beside him, in a flowing summer dress is Jasmine.
She’s laughing at something Kamal said, and the sound pulls me back to the lounge outside the gallery where I’d told her about my senior prom disaster.
How I’d been dancing with this girl when her best friend walked past, and my hand flung back at exactly the wrong moment, sending my finger straight up the friend’s nose.
Jasmine had thrown her head back and laughed, completely uninhibited in a way I’d never seen from her before. I’d wanted to kiss the curve of her throat right there, but I’d waited until we were alone.
Now, watching her laugh with Kamal, there’s something different. A softness I can’t quite place, but it makes the distance between us feel even wider.
Then she sees me and her laughter dies. Just like it has every time we’ve been in the same room these past months. My stomach drops the way it always does.
Before Vegas, I wouldn’t have cared. Would’ve probably ignored her snub, maybe even laughed it off. That’s who I was before Jasmine welcomed me into her velvety depths.
Now I can’t even kiss another woman without feeling like I’m cheating. Cheating on what? I don’t know. A one-night stand? A woman who won’t speak to me?
But my body doesn’t care about logic. It only wants her.
Four months. The longest I’ve gone without sex since I lost my virginity at fourteen. And all because some part of me has decided Jasmine belongs to me.
She gives me a tight smile. “Hi, Antonio.”
“Jasmine.” I set the salad bowl on the table. “How’s it going?”
“Good.” She turns her attention back to Kamal, who’s watching our exchange with entirely too much interest.
Since Vegas, we’ve seen each other several times at birthday parties, Meesha and Connor’s wedding, and Sunday dinners, but she has essentially treated me like I’m radioactive.
The woman who screamed my name when she came, traced the tattoo on my ribs with her tongue, and fell asleep in my arms won’t look at me.
“Antonio!” Connor waves his spatula at me. “Just in time. Grab a beer from the cooler.”
“Finally, someone who appreciates my timing!” I clap Jaxon on the shoulder as I pass. “Meu irm?o, are those shorts? Actual shorts? Did Jessa finally break you?”
“It’s summer.” Jaxon shifts. “I can wear shorts.”
“Can you, though? I’ve seen you wear a three-piece suit to a barbecue.” I grin. “Next thing you know, you’ll be wearing flip-flops. Jessa’s turning you into a real person.”
Kamal laughs from across the patio. “Remember when he wore a suit to paintball?”
“Shut up,” Jaxon responds.
I turn my attention to Kamal, who’s still standing too close to Jasmine for my liking. “I see you’re monopolizing the best view.” I gesture at the lake, but we both know I’m not talking about the water.
He raises an eyebrow. “Just enjoying the scenery.”
I grab two beers from the cooler and open both. “Here, meu amigo. You look thirsty.” I hand one to Kamal, forcing him to step away from Jasmine to take it.
“Thanks,” he says dryly, catching my maneuver.
Jaxon and Kamal had been a duo since elementary school. Then some teacher paired the three of us for a group project freshman year. Seventeen years later, we’re still stuck with each other. Sometimes I think that teacher deserves stock options from JAK Innovations.
I join Connor at the grill. “How’s business?” Connor asks, flipping a steak.
“You mean since last month when you asked the same question? Revolutionary. JAK Innovations is single-handedly transforming mobile gaming. Also, we’re now selling bridges.” I take a drink. “How was the honeymoon?”
Kamal has moved back toward Jasmine, saying something that makes her smile, and I fight the urge to walk over there and spill my beer on him.
Actually, scratch that. I want to punch him. Which is loco considering Kamal is my business partner and best friend. But he’s also touching her elbow, leaning in too close, and she’s letting him.
“Perfect. Meesha loved Bora Bora. I’m pretty sure she wants to move there.” Connor follows my gaze. “You think they’ll get together?”
My hand tightens on the bottle. “Who?”
“Kamal and Jasmine.” Connor flips another steak. “We both know he’s into her. Tonight might be the night he finally makes a move.”
The bottle pauses at my lips. “Over my dead body.”
Connor stares at me sharply. “What?”
“They’re not together,” I say, trying to sound casual. “He’s not her type.”
“Not yet. But look at them.” Connor gestures with his spatula. “They’d make a cute couple.”
I watch Kamal lean closer to her, and the muscles in my jaw lock tight. “She’s just being polite. Besides, Kamal’s already working his way through half of Winter Bay’s female population. What’s his count this month? Three? Four?”
Connor chuckles. “You’re keeping track?”
“Hard not to when he brings a different woman to every company event.” I take another long drink. “Jasmine’s too smart to fall for his player bullshit. She needs someone monogamous. She needs someone with personality. Someone who can make her laugh.”
“Someone like you?” Connor’s tone is too knowing.
“I didn’t say that. I’m just saying she can do better than Mr. Casanova over there.”
Connor starts loading steaks onto a platter. “Right. Because you’re completely objective about this.”
“Completely,” I lie.
“Grab that chicken, will you?”
I help him carry everything to the table. Meesha has everyone sit down. I end up directly across from Jasmine.
The sun is almost down now, turning the lake golden. Meesha lights the candles. We pass dishes and fill plates, and everyone starts talking.
“So, how’s the new game doing?” Meesha asks.
Kamal grins. “Hit twelve million downloads this morning.”
“The Korean market loved it,” I add. I’m the lead developer at JAK Innovations. “We’re already working on the sequel.”
“Which means Connor’s investment just got even more ridiculous,” Jaxon says, raising his beer to my brother-in-law. “Remember when you gave three broke college kids a million dollars?”
Connor laughs. “Best decision I ever made. Well, second best.” He smiles at Meesha.
“Smooth,” she says, smiling.
“This is why I stay single,” I say, glancing toward Jasmine. “No one to suffer through bad lines.”
Meesha snorts. “Yeah. That’s the reason.”
Connor was fresh out of the NHL with an injury and wanting to invest his earnings. We were three college freshmen with a mobile game idea and no money. He took a chance on our business, and it was the best thing to happen to any of us.
A random group project in high school had somehow turned into a billion-dollar business partnership. Jaxon handled the business side, Kamal the finance, and I coded and designed like my life depended on it.
My mom had worked two jobs to get me here from S?o Paulo. Failure wasn’t an option.
The conversation flows around me. Connor’s latest real estate acquisition. Jessa’s promotion to principal of the elementary school where she teaches. Jaxon’s newest car. I contribute when required, but my attention keeps drifting to Jasmine.
I make jokes, tell an elaborate story about a disastrous meeting with Korean investors that has everyone laughing—everyone except Jasmine.
She’s barely touched her food and is quieter than usual. And she keeps her gaze fixed on her plate.
Something’s wrong. This isn’t just about Vegas. This is something else.
Then Meesha uncovers the salmon, and Jasmine suddenly looks sick. She presses her hand to her mouth and bolts from the table.
“Is she okay?” Connor asks as the bathroom door slams.
“She hasn’t been feeling well,” Jessa says, exchanging worried looks with Meesha.
Five minutes later, Jasmine returns. “Sorry about that.” She slides back into her chair, avoiding my gaze.
“Here,” Connor offers, already pouring her a glass of wine. “This will settle your stomach.”
“Thank you, but no alcohol for me.”
Meesha laughs. “Oh my God, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were pregnant.”
The table erupts in laughter.
I chuckle along with everyone else.
Then Jasmine’s eyes meet mine for the first time in months, and in that split second, I see panic. She refocuses on her plate, and I wonder if I imagined it.
“Jasmine?” Jessa’s voice cut through the laughter. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” Her hands shake as she sets down her fork. “I need some air.”
She stands abruptly, her chair scraping against the stone patio.
“Jas, wait!” Meesha reaches for her, but Jasmine is already moving toward the porch steps.
I’m on my feet before conscious thought kicks in. “I’ll check on her.”
“Antonio—” Jaxon’s warning tone barely registers.
“What?” I’m already moving. “I’m just making sure she’s okay. You act like I’m going to kidnap her.”
“With you, anything’s possible,” Kamal mutters.
I ignore them and follow her down the steps and onto the driveway.
Jasmine is halfway to her car when I catch up. “Jasmine, wait!”
She spins around, keys clutched to her chest. “I need to get home.”
“Let me drive you.”
“No!” The word comes out almost hysterically. “No, I need...I need to be alone.”
She climbs into her car, and every instinct screams at me to stop her. But pushing Jasmine may make her run faster. Instead, I watch her back out, then jog to my car.
I slide in and pull out, following Jasmine’s taillights at a distance. I’m not following her exactly. I’m just... making sure she gets home safely. Like a totally normal, not-at-all-obsessed person.
My father would call this typical Da Rocha stubbornness. You get an idea in your head, Toni and God himself can’t talk you out of it. He’d said that the last time we spoke, two months ago. He wasn’t wrong then either.
At least my older brother, Tiago, inherited the same trait. His entire music career is built on that stubborn refusal to quit. Maybe it’s genetic.
Or maybe I’m just an idiot who can’t let go.
She drives slowly, signaling every turn. I stay two cars behind, telling myself this isn’t creepy. This is concern. Friendly concern.
The light ahead turns green just as Jasmine reaches it. She accelerates through the intersection, then an SUV comes out of nowhere.
It barrels through the red light doing at least fifty, slamming directly into Jasmine’s driver’s side door. The sound of crushing metal and shattering glass fills the air. Her car spins once, twice, then flips, landing upside down in the middle of the intersection.
Time stops. My heart stops. Everything stops except the sound of my ragged breathing.
I’m out of my vehicle before my brain processes what I’m seeing. “Jasmine! Querida, please! Please be okay!”