로그인“Because we’re only going for two nights.”“I need T-Rex for protection.”“T-Rex can’t protect anyone. His arms are short and he’s extinct.” Issa rolled her eyes.“He’s still strong.”“You also think the toaster has feelings.”“That’s different.”“How about one toy each?” Karl rested his elbow on his knee, clearly enjoying the show like someone who had paid for front-row seats.“Not enough,” Issa said.“Criminal,” Max said.I stared up at the sky. “Incredible. I haven’t even packed a bra yet and they’re already talking like their human rights have been violated.”Max had already started counting on his fingers. “I need T-Rex, my sword, a flashlight, my police car, my Arsenal jacket, my blue blanket, and binoculars.”“Where did you get binoculars?” I asked.“From the closet.”“Those are my opera binoculars.”“Now they’re jungle binoculars.”Issa immediately straightened her back. “I need Bunny, my white cardigan, my pink cardigan, glossy boots, pearl hair bow, little skincare, pretty n
I looked at him a few seconds too long.So I nodded.Karl’s face changed immediately, something in his mouth coming loose. The lines around his eyes softened.Then he stood. “Maximus,” he called. “Beauty Queen.”Issa spun around first. “I don’t like being called after the little man.”Max was already running. “He called me first because I’m the favorite.”“NO ONE IS THE FAVORITE,” I shouted automatically.They ignored me with impressive consistency.Those two small bodies shot toward the deck, short legs pounding over the wet grass, then up the wooden steps. Max got there first, of course, because he had the energy of a child born to make insurance expensive. Issa was two steps behind him, somehow still managing to tug at the edge of her cardigan and look offended by gravity.Karl had barely opened his arms before the two mini missiles crashed into his legs.“Whoa,” he laughed, half losing his balance. Thank God he had already put his glass on the low table. Survival instincts, appare
The upstairs shower had been running for two minutes when the front door opened.“If any one of you calls me impulsive,” Bianna’s voice came in first, “I’m putting kale on your pillows.”Theo appeared behind her, carrying two big New Seasons paper bags, one in each hand, his face full of aristocratic regret. His gray hoodie was damp at the shoulders from the light drizzle. “She bought four kinds of berries. Four. For two children who used blueberries as biological weapons yesterday.”Karl came in last, hauling one cooler bag from the butcher shop and a pastry box in his other hand. His hair had gotten a little wet, falling over his forehead in a way that was disgusting because it looked intentional even though it clearly wasn’t. His eyes immediately found me in the kitchen.I was standing at the stove, stirring a little sofrito in a pan, still wearing the cream silk blouse I’d worn to Northlake and house pants that were far more honest about my mental state. My hair was tied carelessl
At home, the first thing I did was throw my keys into the ceramic bowl by the door so hard the sound bounced through the foyer.Two little heads in the family room snapped toward me.Max sat cross-legged on the carpet, his navy T-shirt riding up a little over his adorably round little belly, one toy car in each hand. His black hair was a mess, as usual. His blue eyes, which were unfortunately far too beautiful to be separated from the source of their original sin, widened for a fraction of a second.On the couch, Issa was lying half-lazily on her back in a butter-yellow house dress and a thin cardigan that had somehow lost a button along the way. Her dark hair was pinned with two butterfly clips in different colors, because of course she considered symmetry something for people with limited vision. Her hazel eyes moved quickly from my face to the door, to my bag, then back to my face.The house was too quiet.No sound of Bianna from the kitchen. No Karl laughing out on the deck. No Th
His mouth stayed on mine.Not just stayed. It went deeper, more ruinous, more deliberate, like he was trying on purpose to wreck every single thing I could still classify as ordinary anger. My hands shoved at his chest, hard. One push. Then another. The expensive white shirt wrinkled under my palms, but Zach barely moved. Beneath my hands, his body only tightened slightly. His breath fell heavier across my face.“Let me go,” I hissed against his mouth.The words came apart between us, fractured and useless. He definitely heard me, and still chose to be an asshole.One of his hands came up.Then the other.His palms cupped both sides of my face, warm and steady, like my face was something that had once belonged to him and he was just crazy enough to believe that might still be true.His thumbs pressed near my cheekbones. The kiss shifted, went deeper again, and for one second I wanted to kill something because my body remembered too much. That dark cologne. The cold marble at my back. H
I still went to Northlake.Of course I do.Because apparently being a CEO meant you still had to show up, still had to keep an eye on what your team was doing to someone else’s systems, still had to make sure no junior analyst accidentally clicked the wrong thing and made an entire real estate company implode from the inside out. Even when every part of your body was screaming at you to turn the car around, go home, and pretend Portland did not contain a glass building occupied by your sister’s former fiancé.We’d crossed paths in the lower parking garage that morning.I got out of the car, looked at him for three seconds, then immediately started walking faster.“Bella.”I didn’t turn.My heels hit the concrete, laptop bag on my shoulder, coffee in hand, and my self-respect dragged me away like a best friend who knew exactly when to haul you out of a bar.“Arabella.”Still nothing.Because if I turned, I would see his face. And if I saw his face, I would remember the lounge yesterday
The morning after the party, the Gómez mansion woke up the way it always did: too much light, too much noise, and too many people who believed butter was a love language.I was only halfway down the stairs when the first explosion came from the dining room.“THAT’S MINE!”“NO, IT’S NOT! Tía Abuelit
Fiona started making her way down from the center of the room. Zach moved with her, calm, unhurried. Which was worse. I preferred reckless men. They were easier to predict.This one wasn’t.“Bella!” Fiona’s voice carried over to us, warm, happy, completely unaware she’d just lit a bomb in a room fu
I didn’t really breathe again until everyone finally started sitting down.The Gómez dining room that night looked like an ad for a rich family that was chaotic but still photogenic. Little candles in the center of the table. White porcelain plates. Crystal glasses. Flowers arranged a little too pe
Two in the afternoon in Oregon is always the color of a depressed rich person.Gray sky. Thin rain. Low fog threading through the pines. My glass house sits on top of the hill like a woman too beautiful to be honest, and usually that view is enough to make my head stop throwing glasses at the wall.







