Chapter Two

* ABBY *

I popped up from the pool’s heavily chlorinated water and dared to take a look around. When I saw that I was finally alone, I let out a big sigh of relief. Or was it a sigh of disappointment? I wasn’t actually sure. All I knew was that no one had ever affected me quite as much as Zach Evans just had.

I knew who he was the instant I saw him. The resemblance between him and Logan Evans, our local, well-known billionaire, had been uncanny. Still, Logan had told me that they weren’t identical twins, and even from a distance I could tell this was true. Zach was built slightly differently than Logan, and he carried himself a bit differently as well.

He was also ten times hotter. At least, I thought so. I’m sure Logan’s fiancée, Julia, would want to fight me about that belief, but seriously.

Zach didn’t just have a six-pack. He had an eight pack. His abs looked like something that a master sculptor had painstakingly carved out of marble until they were absolutely perfect. Come to think of it, his biceps were the same way. I hadn’t been able to see his leg muscles under the ripples of the pool water and the steam in the room, but I had a feeling they looked just as amazing.

He was no marble sculpture, though. He was a real, live, flesh and blood human being, with gorgeously tanned skin and eyes so blue you felt like you were looking into a pair of shimmering sapphires when you looked into them.

But the craziest part about running into him at the pool hadn’t been realizing how gorgeous he was. It had been realizing that he was clearly checking me out.

Men didn’t usually gawk at me. Of course, I usually wore no-nonsense business clothing and wore my hair in a tight bun, with minimal makeup. Only the locals saw me in a swimsuit, and then only rarely. I was too busy working most of the time to spend time at the beach these days. But after a long day of trying to calm down a frantic bride—my biggest client ever whose wedding was less than a week away—I’d decided to take advantage of the resort’s indoor pool to swim off some of my stress. Usually, the indoor pool was empty. Just my luck that on one of the most stressful days of my life, it would happen to be occupied by Zach Evans himself.

I’d known he was coming for my client’s wedding. The whole resort was abuzz with talk about it. Zach used to be a regular here at the resort, although I’d never seen him before. But since Logan moved to Driftwood Island, Zach visited less and less. The resort staff didn’t like that, but as a Driftwood Island local, I was happy about it. I was duty-bound to be happy about it. Us locals hated Zach for trying to take over our island with his resort. Truth be told, I thought the criticisms were a bit harsh. Zach had brought a lot of tourist money into our economy. Heck, ninety-nine percent of my business as a wedding planner came from couples wanting a paradise destination wedding at the resort. But I could never explain all of this to my friends over a pint of beer at Joe’s Sandbar. They’d be livid and call me a traitor.

I had never felt like more of a traitor than I did right now, as I pulled myself up out of the lap pool and sat on the edge in the steamy, chlorinated air. Not only did I not exactly hate Zach, but I had definitely been imagining him in bed after seeing him half-naked. How could any woman on the planet blame me for that? The man was seriously perfect.

With another long sigh, I stood and grabbed a towel, heading to the locker and shower area to get cleaned up. The man might be seriously perfect, but he was also seriously off limits. I didn’t want to alienate all of my friends on Driftwood Island by sleeping with the enemy, no matter how much of a dry spell I was going through in the sex and romance department. I’d had boyfriends and flings here and there, but wedding season kept me too busy for anything most of the year. Summer was especially crazy, and even though we were technically heading into fall now that it was September, it still felt like summer on the island. Besides, the wedding next weekend had been eating up any free time I had for months. The richer the happy couple, the more of a headache my life became.

Not that I was complaining. I was grateful for the opportunity to work with such wealthy clients. If this wedding went well, it could get my name into the big wedding magazines. Then I could increase what I charged and decrease the number of weddings I did. Life might start to feel semi-normal.

I took a quick shower and pulled on the only extra clothes I had brought with me: a pair of gym shorts and a fitted tank top. I towel-dried my hair and pulled it up into a bun as best I could, but its crazy curliness had only been made worse by the humid weather and steamy pool room. Oh well. It’s not like anyone was going to see me. I didn’t have any makeup with me either, other than lip gloss. Usually I brought extra clothes and makeup when I was going to have a long day working at the resort, but I hadn’t planned to be here all day today. This was supposed to have been a quick morning meeting, but it had turned into a nightmare of a day with the bride wanting to change a thousand things that it was really too late to change.

I forced myself to take a deep, calming breath as I felt my stress level starting to rise again. This was just the nature of the wedding planning business. It was one of the most important days of my clients’ lives. Of course there would be some high emotions.

But usually those high emotions weren’t mine. What was wrong with me right now? Why was I so on edge?

On a whim, I decided to go grab a drink at one of the resort’s casual bars. I felt a bit underdressed even for a casual bar, but I knew the bartenders wouldn’t care. Most of them knew me by now, and they often even gave me free drinks. That was one of the perks of working so closely with a resort for so many years. The staff let me use pretty much whatever amenities I wanted at this five star resort. Maybe that’s another reason my feelings against Zach Evans weren’t as strong as some people’s. I knew his resort better than most, and I knew it was actually really nice. Even if it was a bit of a jarring addition to the otherwise idyllic beach landscape.

I shook my head, as though I could shake away the thoughts of Zach. What was wrong with me? Even if Zach had been checking me out way too obviously back at the pool, he was way out of my league. He was a billionaire with the body of a god, and I was just Abby, the island girl without enough free time to even bother with makeup.

I was Abby the island girl who spent all my time making everyone else’s fairytale dreams come true, while my own hopes for ever finding true love slowly faded away.

Ugh. Why was I thinking this way? I definitely needed a drink. I grabbed my giant tote bag, gave myself one last frustrated glance in the mirror, and headed down to my favorite resort bar for a strong cocktail.