So what did you think?” Lisa plopped next to Emily on her couch, wineglass in hand. “Only took two weeks to pin you down for this date. Was it worth it?”

Emily had agreed to the blind date her sister set up, but with their special clients in town and the long hours, she’d blown it off until now. She wiped at a water mark on her glass, giving herself a moment to form a response. “Zander seems great. Attractive and nice. But I don’t really know him.”

Lisa rolled her eyes. “Jared knows him and can vouch that he’s a good guy. And you can get to know him. That’s the point.” She leaned in and nudged Emily in the arm suggestively, but since Lisa had had a few glasses of wine already, Emily ended up shoving her sister back upright.

“I get it.” Emily laughed. “You want me to date him. But how do you know he’s interested?” And did she care if he was? She wasn’t over Levi, even if he’d made it clear he was over her. Though after the way he’d looked at her before she’d left for her date… She wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

Lisa dropped her head on the back cushion, her mouth parting. “Emily, how are we related?” She looked over pointedly. “You’re beautiful and smart. Of course he’s interested.”

“But…don’t you think there’s more to it than that? You and Jared, for instance. He gets you. It’s more than just that you’re beautiful and he’s handsome. You both fill emotional needs for each other.”

Lisa snorted. “Oh, he fulfills my needs.”

Emily let out a disgusted noise. “Please, I don’t need visuals. You know what I’m talking about. You can be needy, and Jared, for some freakishly selfless reason, loves to take care of you.”

“Because he loves me.”

“Right. But does he love you because he can fulfill your needs, or does he love you because of something intrinsic we can’t put our finger on?”

Lisa gaped. “Why are you philosophizing? I’m too drunk for this. Or not drunk enough. Jared and I clicked from the beginning, and it only got better from there. There’s nothing about him that bothers me so much that I worry about our future, and I guess the same is true for him. It all just works.” Lisa bit her lip. “Speaking of things working or not working, I spoke to Levi last night when I dropped off your bag. I apologized for what happened in the past with Hunter. I never did that—apologized for my behavior. It felt good.”

Emily’s heart pumped heavily. She knew something must have happened after she left them alone, but she’d been too afraid to ask about it. “How’d he take it?”

“He said he forgave me, and I hope he meant it. He didn’t deserve the way I treated him.” Lisa looked up, a sad smile on her face. “He was always so self-confident, and I felt I had to be too, which made me insecure. So it wasn’t really his fault that things didn’t work out.”

Emily nodded, attempting to squelch how much Lisa and Levi’s feelings for each other affected her. She wanted her sister happy and she wanted Levi happy. But she couldn’t help her attraction to Levi.

“I never felt good enough for Levi,” Lisa said.

Emily’s head whipped up. Regardless of her feelings for this man, Lisa was her sister. “That’s crazy. You’re perfect.” In every way that mattered, her sister was perfect. She was beautiful, yes, but she was also generous and kind.

“Okay, first of all, I’m not perfect and you know it, or you wouldn’t have mentioned my neediness.”

Emily rolled her eyes. “A small flaw. Nothing that matters.”

“Maybe, but you must know how Levi is, now that you work with him. He’s always confident of where he’s going and what he’s doing. He had our entire life planned out by the end of the first date. And he’s so damn hot, I didn’t think twice, just nodded and went along with it, but…I also never felt that connection. Which I guess is what you’re getting at with your drunk philosophizing.” She smirked.

“I’m not drunk, you are.”

“Anyway, sometimes when you’re caught up in a tornado, the only way to break free is to duck and cover. I covered beneath Hunt.” Lisa shook her pointer finger at Emily. “Never hook up with your boyfriend’s sibling. It results in disaster.”

Well, duh, Emily thought. And then her palms went cold and she swallowed. Except, wasn’t that what she wanted Levi to do? She was his ex’s sister, but the parallels were close enough.

Only Levi seemed to know the rules. He’d kept his distance since their moment last night, when all she wanted was to be closer.

Emily set her glass on Lisa’s coffee table. She’d stay away from Levi, but she wouldn’t date someone else just to have a man in her life. “I didn’t feel that click with Zander tonight. He has all the requirements most people look for: attractive, good job, and we’re compatible. But there was no…click.”

Lisa looked up to the ceiling. “Damn. I thought we got it right with him.”

“Yeah, damn.” Because the one guy Emily clicked with and grew more attracted to each day was the one person she couldn’t have.

* * *

Emily took an Uber home from her sister’s place and kicked off her heels as she entered her one-bedroom apartment. Her place was located in the Tahoe Island Park area, within walking distance of a bike path that bordered the woods alongside Emerald Bay Road. Lately, she hadn’t gone for walks on the path. She’d been working too late, then working more once she got home. She seemed to have forgotten how to live.

She used to know how to have fun. Maybe not Lisa’s glam style of fun, but fun nonetheless. Tonight, she didn’t want to be out on a blind date or any date. Not when her heart was somewhere else.

Over the last couple of weeks Emily had gotten to know the real Levi, and not just the cute guy she’d crushed on when she was younger. Or the man she’d found attractive all over again when she’d first walked into his office at Club Tahoe. Levi was confident, bossy, and sexy as hell. But he was also committed to his brothers—often at his own expense—gentle with his elderly dog, and good under pressure. He was a protector, and that was extremely sexy. Her father had never been there for her or Lisa. Meanwhile, Levi tried so damn hard to take care of everyone around him.

Emily could stop at admiration—and okay, ogling his hotness—if he didn’t look into her eyes as though she were something to be cherished. No man, not even her father, had appreciated her. Then Levi kissed her like he was starving. As if she was his island in the stormy sea. That was the part she couldn’t get over. Being needed and desired by a man she admired in return. But she had to get over him.

He might not be Lisa’s anymore, but Levi wasn’t Emily’s either. Just like Lisa said, Levi knew what he wanted and went for it, and he wasn’t going for Emily. He’d not uttered a single word to address their kiss, nor had he made a move to repeat it.

So she should move on.

Emily frowned and sank onto the couch. She dropped her head into her hands.

It wasn’t until her phone buzzed a second time that she squinted in the direction of her purse beside the couch.

Who was texting her this late? It was nearly midnight. No one besides Lisa reached out in the middle of the night, and Emily had just left her sister.

She reached over the armrest, smashing her stomach and lungs in the process, and grabbed the purse she’d dropped upon entering. Lisa had better not be setting her up again. She didn’t think she could handle another blind date so soon.

Emily’s heart pounded. What the hell? Why was Levi texting her? Some kind of emergency?

No need to tell him she felt absolutely nothing for the guy her sister had set her up with. Besides, he couldn’t really be interested in knowing how it went. Something had to be wrong.

Okay, this felt a lot like he was checking in on her. After she’d told him she was going on a date. Hmm…

Emily smiled as she stared at the text messages. She might have bounced up and down on the couch several times too.

Levi was thinking of her. And if she was reading it right, he was checking in on her after she’d gone out with another man.

Which meant those kisses might not have been as meaningless to him as she’d thought.