To my shock, Summer agrees on my behalf.

  I try to remind her we aren’t dressed for dinner, and we’d have to schlep all the way to Fate and back again…but I see how she’s staring at Carter and I know that there’s no getting through to her sensible side.

  “You look perfect,” Cooper says to me.

  Oh god. Of course he would say that while staring at my boobs. I close the blazer over the silly gold midriff bustier and cross my arms.

  The decisions are made, contact info exchanged and plans are set without consulting me. I guess we’re packing up the booth and going to dinner at the twins’ house.

  “You can put my sister down now,” I say to Carter.

  To my horror, she quickly kisses Carter’s cheek before he sets her back on her feet.

  Shaking my head, I lend her my shoulder to help her hobble back to our booth before everything melts.

  “We’re supposed to be wooing them out of their money, not finding dates for ourselves,” I remind my sister.

  “Why not both?” Summer laughs.

  I sigh and look longingly over my shoulder at the Bryant representatives—the deepest pockets at this stupid event.

  To my consternation, Cooper catches my eye. He waves and smiles.

  I give him my best scowl.

  Before I turn away, I catch the wink.

  And the way that wink makes me feel is wrong, wrong, wrong. So very wrong.

  chapter

  three

  Cooper

  There’s a story behind Harmony’s body language around me.

  And I’m starting to sense that it’s more than natural shyness.

  That fact is clearer now that the Mosley sisters are at our house, away from the clamor of the business expo.

  Aunt Gabby’s intimate sitting room, where our aunt once entertained everyone from hip-hop stars to diplomats, has me relaxed and focused on Harmony’s little quirks.

  She’s a little high-strung and shy, obviously. But there’s more to it. Something in her eyes is haunted and distrustful.

  First, she declines my offer to help her with her coat. Independent person; I get that. But then, she goes stiff and moody when I offer to make her a drink.

  “She hates my guts,” I say to Carter as we hang back while the ladies have a side conversation by the bar.

  “Irrelevant,” Carter says. “This is business.”

  “You’re one to talk,” I snort, sipping my bourbon on the rocks. I savor the sweet bite of that first sip of the night.

  “What do you mean?”

  I roll my eyes. “Carrying her like she’s an invalid.”

  “She could have bruised her ankle way worse if I’d let her keep walking in those heels.”

  I let it go and stare at Harmony across the room. There’s lots of whispers and hisses happening over there.

  “She’s walking fine now, so let’s not perform the superhero act again, eh?” I say.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, cool it with the romantic shit. I think Harmony feels pressured and I don’t want her thinking I could start making demands in exchange for funding their project.”

  “Neither of them think that,” Carter says.

  “We’ll see about that.”

  Finally, Summer says something to Harmony loud enough for me to hear.

  “No talking until you’ve had something to eat,” she tells her sister.

  We’ve got this part handled.

  “This way, ladies,” I say, leading everyone through the main kitchen and out to the back patio. “Welcome to my happy place.”

  The spacious, newly installed outdoor kitchen gazebo is the perfect conversation starter as the four of us nibble on appetizers and make small talk. This kind of vibe is where I shine. But Harmony is still tight-lipped and on edge.

  Trying to break the ice, Summer says, “Ever since we were kids, she’s always wanted a swimming pool in the backyard.”

  “It’s nice,” Harmony says, looking away as I beam at her, for the umpteenth time today.

  Summer prods her. “This looks a lot like the one you pinned on your vision board.”

  Now we’re getting somewhere. “Vision board, huh?” I say. “Interesting.”

  Harmony finally adds, “I went to college on a swim team scholarship,” she says.”

  “Cool! You’ll have to come over and show me how to do the breaststroke,” I say earnestly.

  Harmony blushes a deep red.

  I don’t know why my brother looks as horrified as one would if I’d requested a sexual favor. “It’s the hardest stroke to master,” I get out before Carter cuts me off.

  “Let’s eat!”

  Everything I say is embarrassing. Sometimes, having a twin is worse than raising a teenager.

  “You said this was your happy place?”

  Our bellies full of dinner, Carter and Summer have wandered down to the koi pond to enjoy the sunset.

  Harmony seems to warm up to me now that she’s had something to eat—and changed from her revealing outfit into dressy trousers and flowing tunic. She looks a lot more comfortable now, and that makes me happy.

  I make a mental note to keep her comfortable and well fed. And to build her a pool one day.

  I let her pick a comfortable seat on one of the couches by the pool, and I sit two cushions away to give her space.

  “The whole house is my happy place, actually. After our parents died, Aunt Gabby took us under her wing. We spent a lot of time here as kids, and she always looked out for us,” I say. Harmony leans toward me, listening.

  “When Carter and I inherited this house, I wanted to gut the place and modernize it, but Carter said we shouldn’t spend so lavishly. So we agreed we could each pick one major splurge. Carter went hiking on the Appalachian Trail.”

  “Ew, no thanks,” Harmony mutters.

  I laugh, and I’m in full agreement. “My splurge was the pool, the patio, and everything you see back here.”

  “It’s perfect. It’s my dream backyard.”

  “Cool.”

  She looks around and sighs. “We didn’t have much after our dad left. Our mom raised four kids on her own in a small apartment. I decided a long time ago that I wanted lots of kids and a huge backyard for them to play in. A pool, swing sets, a tree house, a trampoline. Everything we couldn’t have.”

  “And a mother-in-law suite?” I add, winking.

  “Well, that might not be necessary. She just started dating someone and I don’t know much but I do know she’s taken care of very well. Very well.”

  “She sounds like a great lady and deserves a comfortable life.”

  I love watching Harmony’s face when she talks about her mother. My heart squeezes at the memory of our parents and Aunt Gabby. Our family might be comfortable, but it’s suffered a lot of loss and a lot of fractures. I can already see myself turning this house into a place full of family and friends, rather than a show place for celebrities and people I don’t care about.

  Sorry, Aunt Gabby, for what I’m about to say.

  “I loved our aunt, but I’d like to gut the place and redo it. I could do with a few less cupids, you know what I mean? And I’m all about a nice water feature, but a moat? Really?”

  Harmony laughs so hard she has to set her glass of pinot on the coffee table. “Oh my god! I’m so glad you said that. I was so freaked out by the cupids! No offense, but I thought the Playboy Mansion and the Versailles of Florida had a baby. I almost made Summer turn the car around and leave.”

  I am dead. I’m laughing so hard I can’t breathe.

  “I shouldn’t have said that!” Harmony cries, leaning in and grabbing my hand. “My mouth got away from me!”

  “Stop it, I love your mouth.”

  Immediately she snatches her hand back.

  The air is thick between us as we sit there, watching each other.

  “Tell you what. You get me a return on my investment, and you can be the first to take a sledgehammer to the cupid fountain,” I tell her. “In fact, you can help me DIY the whole place.”

  “But what would your girlfriend say about me hanging around your house in a sexy utility belt?”

  If she’s trying to make me less aroused, she’s having the opposite effect. Now, I can only imagine Harmony waltzing around my house in nothing but that and a hard hat.

  “No girlfriend. And I’m inviting you as a friend,” I tell her.

  Her genuine smile breaks me in half.

  “Friends,” she says.

  We fist-bump each other, and I’m happy Harmony is comfortable with me.

  “Let’s go find the others and sign the contract.”

  chapter

  four

  Harmony

  Tonight has turned out better than expected.

  I made a new friend where I didn’t expect to make one.

  Then, everything goes to shit.

  Cooper checks the hall to look for Carter and Summer. I check the sitting room before circling back.

  Where are those guys?

  Suddenly, the hall light flicks on, and what do I see?

  Cooper and Summer alone together, in the hallway, looking like they just got caught with their hands down each other’s trousers.

  Okay, that’s not literally what I saw.

  But something is happening here because Summer is covering her mouth, and Cooper is wiping his.

  At the other end of the hall is Carter, who’s just thrown on the light. He looks as betrayed as I feel.

  Wow.

  My own sister.

  This is certainly…something.

  “Carter?” Summer squeaks, looking shocked at being discovered.

  “Summer, what’s going on?” I ask.

  Summer turns to me.

  Why do I have to ask? I saw everything I needed to see.

  I don’t know what else to do, so I run.

  I run down one corridor and then another, then duck into the sitting room from before.

  “Harmony!” Summer calls out me.

  “Leave me alone!” I shout. I finally collapse at the first sign of chocolate—which sits in a crystal bowl by a fringed, tufted sofa, the perfect spot for a dramatic sobfest.

  “There you are,” she says, all breathless and concerned.

  “There you are,” I imitate, wolfing down chocolate dinner mints.

  What ensues is a typical sisterly argument.

  She accuses me of being terrible at comebacks. I tell her to shut up. Eventually, I let her sit down and explain herself.

  She’s still insisting that the kiss was an accident. I shove another mint into my mouth.

  But then she goes on to tell me that she kissed Carter earlier, and things got awkward so she went to the bathroom. When she came out, she thought Carter was standing there. But it was Cooper. So she kissed him “again.”

  “I wanted to crawl into a hole when I realized who I’d kissed.”

  “He sure didn’t though, did he? He was beet red.” Cooper liked the kiss. Why wouldn’t he? Most people prefer Summer over me.

  I don’t know if she remembers when my prom date hit on her after she laughed at all his jokes all night. True, she rejected him. But still, I ended up abandoned at prom and had to ride home with Summer and her date.

  Then when I found out my ex-fiancé cheated on me, Summer confessed that he had once drunkenly passed out in her bed.

  She hadn’t done anything untoward, except behave like the effervescent, vivacious opposite of me. Men love her. Dogs love her. Strangers gravitate toward her everywhere we go.

  “Cooper was embarrassed for me, and he pushed me away!”

  “Sure he did,” I scoff.

  “Harmony, look at me!”

  Eye contact. Yuck.

  But when I look at Summer, I see my baby sister and best friend.

  I need to hear her out. I know in my heart of hearts she wouldn’t hurt me, not on purpose. She would never go after a guy she knew I really liked.

  But I have to tell her how I feel.

  “You have the entire world eating out of the palm of your hand. So maybe try to understand why I assumed the worst when I walked in and saw you in flagrante delicto with Cooper.”

  She snorts. “Listen, I don’t know what ‘fragrance diablo’ is, but I’m pretty I sure didn’t do that!”

  I blink at her and think back a few years. “It’s never your fault. Is it?”

  “Oh, sis. No. Don’t go there.”

  “I went there,” I say. “I can’t help it. My brain went there.”

  “Harmony, I promise you. Cooper is not interested in me.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Babe, I think I know when someone is interested.”

  “That’s true.”

  “More importantly, Carter and Cooper are committed to partnering with us,” she says.

  “Really?” Even after that scene? I doubt it.

  She nods. “There’s just one tiny detail we have to hammer out.”

  Already, I don’t like the sound of that.

  “What is it?”

  “Let’s go find the guys and review the contract,” Summer tells me.

  It turns out, Cooper and Carter have been looking for us. They stand in the doorway, and I wonder how much of our conversation they overheard. Little sneaks.

  Oh god, I hope I don’t have chocolate in my teeth.

  Cooper swiftly takes me by the arm and we exit without Carter and Summer. I don’t know why he’s suddenly being so physically forward with me, but he walks with such urgency that this must be about giving Carter and Summer a moment alone.

  Cooper’s lips are moving; he’s saying something about showing me the contract in his office. But I can barely hear him over the crackle of electricity that rolls through me with his hand on my lower back, escorting me from the room.

  chapter

  five

  Cooper

  I don’t like how we left things.

  I skim a rock across the lake, the circles illuminated in the misty, pre-dawn light.

  The lake is where I do my best thinking.

  We have a contract with Harmony and Summer. They will open a shop in Gold Hill, with our backing. We toasted with champagne. Everyone laughed about Summer mistaking me for Carter.

  I made it abundantly clear to Harmony that we were friends and nothing more.

  Everything should be fine.

  And yet here I am, unable to sleep or concentrate on anything until I do some good thinking.

  I don’t know Harmony well, but I’ve seen the hunger in her eyes.

  I’ve also seen how she defers to her more outgoing, younger sister.

  Harmony goes along to get along, for everyone’s benefit.

  But after the hours we spent together, just talking, I know she deserves to have a voice.

  Hell, I knew she had strong opinions when she threatened to karate chop me for staring at her like a dummy at the business expo.

  Her opinion deserves to be heard. And I wish she would say it more.

  She doesn’t want to open the shop in Gold Hill. I saw her hesitation when they signed the paperwork. I saw the look on her face when I shat all over her town when we first met.

  I’m an idiot.

  There’s only one solution to this. And I think it’s a terrible idea, but Carter needs to listen.

  We must honor the girls’ wishes, even if we don’t like it.

  And if their dream fails? It’ll ruin everything. Carter and Summer’s budding romance, and my friendship with Harmony. That’s the risk.

  Behind me in the distance, the door to the main kitchen creaks open and closes again. Carter’s found me.

  What’s he doing up at this hour?

  Regardless, we need to talk.

  Carter’s leg is driving me crazy.

  He sits next to me on the bench, his knee bouncing away. It does that when he’s nervous.

  The First National Bank of Fate lobby is quiet except for my brother, me, and a row of tellers doing their morning tasks. A door labeled “bank manager” stands ajar; the aroma of brewing coffee and the whoosh of emails come from that office.

  My twin and I crunched the numbers and decided early this morning that we can’t ask the girls to put their store in Gold Hill. And we’re going to back them, whatever they want to do.

  The only problem is they’re not answering our texts. So we’re straight-up ambushing them at the bank.

  We’re here to intercept Harmony and Summer before they make the biggest mistake of their lives, which we initiated. They think they’re about to apply for a bank loan for the remainder of the funds they need for a Gold Hill store. But we can’t let that happen. We need to cancel the contract and convince them to let my brother and I finance the whole damn thing, right here in Fate.

  I can’t take the bouncing of Carter’s knee anymore so I pace the lobby while I wait for Harmony and Summer to show up.

  “What time did they say their meeting was?” I ask Carter.

  “I didn’t ask. It’s supposed to be sometime today.”

  “So you’re saying I could be pacing for hours,” I snap.

  I need coffee. I need sleep. Mostly, I need to see Harmony.

  Everything will work out once I see her.

  Just then, a well-dressed woman who looks like an early-60-ish version of Harmony glides through the entrance. She nods at one of the tellers as she moves through the room like she owns the place.

  One of the tellers calls out, “Good morning, Ms. Mosley!”

  My ears perk up. Mosley?

  I turn to Carter. He heard it too.

  The well-dressed woman heads straight to the office of the bank manager. “Brenda!”

  “Hi Donna! The girls will be here in a few minutes but I wanted a moment to visit with you.”

  “Aren’t you sweet. How’s that grandbaby?”

  “Perfect! Obviously!” The clank of a glass carafe is followed by coffee pouring. “Don’t tell Owen, but I took Graham to McDonald’s the other day and he ate his first Happy Meal. He got ketchup all over my bag!”

  The bank manager cackles. “Not the Hermès!”