LOGINBrooklyn's POVHis door opened before I had taken three steps."Why did you point her to my room?"I turned around. He was standing in his doorway with his hand still on the handle and the question sitting on his face like it had been waiting since the hallway downstairs."She asked where your room was," I said simply."And you just showed her.""That's generally what happens when someone asks for directions." I kept my voice even. "She's a guest. She was going to find it eventually.""That's not the point.""Then what is the point, Emerson?" I turned fully to face him. "Your father wants you to spend time with her. She's here. She's in the guest room, not your room, which is exactly what you wanted." I spread my hands. "What is the problem?""The problem is that nobody asked me." He pushed off the doorframe. "My father makes decisions. Riley agrees with them. The Holloways agree with them. Everyone is very happy making arrangements for my life and nobody — " he stopped. His jaw shift
Brooklyn's POVPatrick's voice carried clearly from the entrance hallway."It's a wonderful idea." He said it with the warm certainty of a man who had decided something and was now watching it happen. "You two could use the time. Get to know each other properly."I stopped moving in the kitchen and listened without meaning to."They'll be married someday." Patrick said it the way he said most things — not as a question, not as a suggestion. Just a fact he had already filed. "Better to start building something now."James Holloway agreed immediately, the enthusiasm of a father who has been hoping for this outcome for longer than he's admitted.Mrs. Holloway said something warm and approving.And Riley said, "I think that's a great idea."I started moving again. Plates to the cupboard. Glasses in the rack. Normal things.I was not listening.I was absolutely listening.---I came through to the entrance hallway to collect the last of the glasses just as the Holloways were leaving. Riley
Brooklyn's POVA beat. One single beat where Emerson absorbed what I had just done.Then he exhaled slowly through his nose and shook his head with the expression of someone resigned to playing along with something they had not agreed to."You've completely ruined it," he said. His voice was flat but he aimed it at me rather than Riley which was the right direction. "The whole point was that she wouldn't know.""I'm sorry," I said again. "I assumed she already knew.""Why would she already know if it was a surprise?""I said I was sorry."He looked at Riley. Something passed over his face — the warmth he had been producing all evening, slightly more genuine this time because he was working with it rather than just displaying it. "Ignore everything she just said."Riley laughed.It was a real laugh. Short and surprised and it dropped some of the careful composure she had been maintaining since the hallway."That's really thoughtful," she said. She looked at me and then at him and there
Brooklyn's POVHe didn't answer.One second. Two. His mouth had opened and now it wasn't closing and nothing was coming through it and the silence stretched long enough to become its own kind of answer.I nodded slowly."Right," I said.I walked past him.He turned. "Brooklyn — ""It's fine." I kept moving toward the door. "Go back to your guests."I opened my bedroom door and stepped out into the hallway.And stopped.Riley was standing outside my door.Not close to it — not with her ear pressed against it or anything that obvious. Just standing in the hallway in the way people stand when they have arrived somewhere and then reconsidered whether to knock. She looked at me when I came out and something moved quickly across her face before she composed it.We looked at each other.I had absolutely nothing to say.Riley opened her mouth.Emerson stepped out of my room behind me.The three of us stood in the hallway and the silence had a very specific quality — the quality of something t
Brooklyn's POV"Go back to dinner," I said.He didn't move."Your fiancée might come looking for you again."Something crossed his face. "She's not my fiancée.""Your father seems to disagree.""My father disagrees with a lot of things." He held my gaze. "That's not what we're talking about.""Then what are we talking about?" I kept my arms crossed. "Because you have a dining room full of guests downstairs and a girl who spilled a full drink on me to test your reaction — " I paused — "and instead of being down there you're in my room asking me questions I don't owe you answers to.""You said I was messing with your head," he said simply. "I want to understand that.""I think you understand it perfectly.""I don't." He looked at me steadily. "Explain it."I exhaled. "You act differently every time, Emerson. That's it. That's the whole explanation." I shifted my weight. "One day you're putting a bracelet outside my door. The next day everything wrong in your life is my fault. One day yo
Brooklyn's POVI changed quickly.Dark dress off, folded over the back of the chair, replacement pulled from the wardrobe — simpler, less suitable for a dinner party but clean and dry and not covered in Riley Holloway's drink. I was reaching for the zip at the back when three knocks came at my door.I stilled."One second."I finished zipping, checked myself in the mirror briefly, and opened the door.Emerson.Still in his dinner clothes, jacket slightly open now, looking at me in that way he had when he was checking something without wanting to appear like he was checking."You changed," he said."That was the general idea." I moved to step past him. "I should get back — ""Are you okay?"I stopped.He was looking at me directly. Not performing concern the way people did when they felt obligated to ask. Just asking. Simple and straight and waiting for an actual answer."I'm fine," I said."The dress — ""Is fine. It'll wash out." I adjusted my sleeve. "I need to get back to the dinin
Brooklyn's pov "Here is the deal." Emerson leaned against the hallway wall, arms crossed, voice low enough that Daisy couldn't hear from the dining room. He looked completely relaxed, like he negotiated truces every morning before breakfast. "I stay out of your way," he said, "so you're free to
Brooklyn's pov "Time to feast."I heard Emerson say — cleats still on, grass-stained from soccer practice, heading straight for the kitchen like the fridge owed him something.I stayed on the couch and waited.The silence that followed was deeply satisfying."What the — " A pause. Then louder. "Why
Brooklyn's pov "I'm really sorry, Mr. Weston. I can't work for you."The words came out before I could stop them. Patrick turned from the hallway and looked at me slowly, the way someone does when they're deciding how serious you are."Brooklyn." His voice was calm. "You are contracted through th
Brooklyn's pov "Move!"Emerson shoved past me before I could even process what was happening. He threw himself over Daisy and me, arms spread wide, taking the full weight of the branch across his back.The crack was loud. Then silence.I scrambled to my feet, heart hammering. "Emerson — ""I'm fin







