The next morning, Emily pulled on her fluffy bathrobe and crawled out of bed to answer the front door.

Outside, Lisa held up a hand and angled her head back. “Whoa. What happened to you?”

Emily rubbed her eyes and yawned, opening the door wider. “What do you mean?”

Her sister waved at the side of Emily’s head, balancing her purse and coffee drink in her other hand. “You’ve got a flock of seagulls launching from one side of your head.” She waved vaguely in front of Emily’s face. “And impressive sleep lines crisscrossing your cheek.”

Emily walked into the living room and sat on the couch, pulling her knees up and hugging them. “I didn’t sleep well.”

Lisa closed the door and walked in. She sat across from Emily, looking way too pretty and perky for eight in the morning. Lisa wasn’t known as an early riser.

Emily had screwed up last night, but mostly, she’d been humiliated. By Levi or herself, she wasn’t entirely sure. All she knew was that she felt probably about as good as she looked right now.

“Why didn’t you sleep well? You looked amazing when I dressed you last night. That outfit I got you was killer, so obviously the dress wasn’t the problem.”

Emily sank her head onto her knees. “Not all problems can be solved with good fashion.” She peeked at her sister.

Lisa stared in mock horror. “Of course they can.”

Emily groaned. “For you, yes. But when I wear a sexy dress, hot guys send me home like I’m some nuisance.”

“What? That makes no sense.”

“I might have had too much champagne. And the shoes you made me wear—”

“Looked fan-fucking-tastic.”

“—crippled me.”

Lisa sipped her drink. “We’ll work on your balance. Still, why would a hot guy send a drunk, wobbly girl home? That goes against the player handbook. You presented an easy target. He should have been hovering over you.”

“Ew.”

Lisa parted her mouth innocently. “I’m just saying, whoever the guy was, he should have been trying to go home with you.”

This conversation wasn’t helping Emily’s sleep-deprivation headache. “Well, apparently, that’s not how these things work for me.”

Lisa set down her drink and pulled out her phone. “That’s it. I’m texting Jared. It’s been too long since you’ve had a boyfriend.”

“I don’t want yours!” As soon as the words left Emily’s mouth, she realized how ludicrous they sounded. Even if Lisa knew about Emily’s crush on Levi, she wasn’t likely to assume Emily wanted Jared too.

Lisa scrunched her nose. “You really are tired. I’m not talking about Jared; that man is mine. I’ve got someone else for you. It’s why I came over today.”

Emily pulled the throw blanket over her head and lay down. “It’s too early to frighten me with blind dates.”

And then something occurred to her. She flipped the blanket back and stared at her sister for a solid five seconds. Was it possible her mom had been confused about Emily’s true father and she and Lisa weren’t actually related? Because that would explain so much.

Call it grasping at straws, but Emily was a tad delirious and a lot desperate at the moment. Lisa was everything Emily was not: vivacious, curvaceous, and sexually confident. If they shared no blood relation, it would make sense. And make Emily’s lusting after Levi less creepy.

But no, that couldn’t be right. Emily looked more like their dad than Lisa, and Lisa’s mom had been married to their father when Lisa was conceived. Dammit. “Why are you awake and harassing me? It’s Saturday, and before nine, for God’s sake. You’re never up this early, not even during the week. The boutique doesn’t open until ten.”

Lisa shifted in her seat. “Jared has me on an exercise routine.”

Emily might be slender, but the universe had been remiss in the boob department. Lisa, however, had a ridiculous metabolism and big boobs. Not. Fair. “Please tell me Jared doesn’t think you need to work out. I might have to kill him.”

She grinned. “Why thank you, sister. The exercise isn’t for me. Jared wants a workout buddy. He doesn’t like running alone and says it’s too hot to go in the afternoons. He runs in the morning and I ride my bike beside him.” She shrugged. “It’s not so bad. He makes me a massive breakfast afterward.”

He makes her breakfast? “Jared’s pretty awesome.”

“Exactly, so why are you settling for guys who send you home?”

“Oh, he wasn’t someone I’m dating.”

Her sister’s eyes narrowed. “Emily, who exactly were you with last night?”

Emily froze like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights, except instead of a car coming toward her it was a giant truck-sized Lisa.

“Em?”

Emily pursed her lips and looked to the side. “Levi,” she mumbled, but her sister took that moment to exhibit super hearing.

Lisa flopped back in the comfy, yet ugly, red sofa chair that matched Emily’s equally ugly couch, both hand-me-downs from Lisa. “Son of a… I told you not to let him push you around.”

“I’m not! But Jesus, Lis. He’s my boss. I kind of have to listen to him.” Although Emily wasn’t convinced she’d needed to listen to him last night.

“Who cares?”

Emily stood too quickly and her head spun. This was too much after only three hours of sleep. She didn’t need her sister pointing out what she already knew. That Levi still saw her as Lisa’s little sister, regardless of whether Emily was years older, had educational degrees under her belt, and had worn that sexy dress last night.

She made her way into the kitchen and took out the orange juice, drinking it straight from the container. “Did you come here for a reason?”

Her sister stared over the back of the red chair with a look of disgust on her face. “First, that was totally gross. Remind me never to drink anything from your fridge. Second, I already told you. I came over to invite you on a double date, and the timing couldn’t be more perfect. I confirmed with Jared just now. Too much time around Levi will ruin your self-esteem.”

Emily ground her teeth. “There’s nothing wrong with Levi. He’s a great guy.” When he wasn’t pissing her off.

“Sure, sure.”

“I’ll go on this date,” Emily said, “if you stop putting down my boss.”

“Does Tuesday night work for you? Jared says Zander is excited to meet up.”

* * *

Levi was listening to calls go out on the police scanner and had just poured himself a cup of coffee when a knock sounded at his front door.

He turned the volume down on the scanner and padded over, mug in hand, with Grace bumping into his leg as she raced him to the door. Levi opened it to find Adam standing on the other side. “What are you doing here this early on a Saturday?” Hands tucked into the front pockets of his pressed khakis, Adam might have dressed nice, but his hair was weekend rumpled.

Grace licked Adam’s shoes, then turned back to her morning nap location where the sun beamed in through the dining room window.

“Gracie, that all I get?” Adam said. “Just one lick?”

The weekends were the one time Levi could count on Adam to loosen the Armani tie. His brother was always cool and collected and dressed to the hilt. Except on the weekends. And Adam tended to be a hell of a lot calmer around Hayden. Adam’s fiancée had a nice effect on his little brother, which Levi thought he’d never see, because Adam was a stubborn bastard.

Adam glanced at the mug in Levi’s hand. “Got another one of those?”

“Sure, come on in.” Levi crossed the room to the kitchen of his one-bedroom cabin, and Adam took a seat on the dark brown couch each of his brothers had passed out on at one point or another over the years.

Levi had moved out of his dad’s home as soon as he could. He’d wanted to provide a safe haven for his brothers—a place they could get away to when living beneath their father’s roof became too much. Before they’d moved out of their father’s place, one of them was always sleeping on his couch.

Grace went over and sat at Adam’s feet, abandoning her favorite place in the sun in exchange for petting.

Adam’s hand went to her soft brown mutt ears, rubbing in just the right spot. Grace’s eyes lulled shut. “That’s my girl. Give your uncle some love.”

While Grace basked in Adam’s attention, Levi poured Adam a cup of coffee and glanced around his house. He’d rented this place first, then bought it from the owner once he’d joined the fire station and could afford to. Sure, his father had provided trust funds for each of them, but Adam had been the only one to touch that money. Levi and the rest of his brothers hadn’t gone near the Cade wealth and all it represented. To Levi, it meant losing his family—his mother first and then his father.

So why hold on to Club Tahoe when it was the reason for his father’s absence?

Levi couldn’t answer that. All he knew was that when the lawyers had read him the will, stating that Levi was to run Club Tahoe, he couldn’t back away. He saw his brothers’ futures before his eyes. The families they’d someday have…their kids, who would need money for college. They still had the trust funds that hadn’t been touched, but how long would they last? And what would happen to Club Tahoe’s employees if the business failed?

If Levi could provide security for his brothers and their future families, he’d do it. And all it took was running Club Tahoe to ensure the place and its profits lived on.

No small task.

He’d been working at Club Tahoe for a few months now, earning more than he’d ever made in his life, but nothing had changed inside his cabin. The big brown couch was the first thing Levi had purchased. Adam’s buddy Jaeg made the dining and coffee tables at cost when Jaeg was just getting started with his wood design business, and they were still the finest things Levi owned. The best part about his cabin, though, wasn’t the interior. Anyone with eyes could see that Levi had no sense for décor. No, the best part about his cabin was the location.

Levi owned the house and the land it sat on a mile north of Club Tahoe. The land was surrounded by native trees and shrubs and had a private road, with distant views of the lake. The views, the trees—those were the things that made this place home and one of his favorite getaways to help decompress. When he wasn’t working late and dunking in the lake, he’d walk his property and gaze up at the stars from a fire pit he’d built a little ways up the road.

“So,” Adam said, crossing his ankle over his knee, “what’s up with you and Lisa’s pretty little sister?”

Levi carefully set the decanter back on the coffeemaker and carried the mug to his brother, taking his time before replying. He sat in the leather recliner across from the couch, and Grace came over and tucked her head between her paws, dropping her bottom down. “Emily is my employee. Dad wanted it that way. Other than that, nothing’s up.”

Adam chuckled. “I don’t think so. Fess up, man. There’s something going on there.”

Levi leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He had a couple more inches on Adam and about twenty extra pounds, thanks to the regimented gym visits he hadn’t given up since leaving the fire station. “You don’t believe me?”

“Don’t try and intimidate me with your hulkish muscles. We both know I’m right, and the sooner you admit it, the sooner we can discuss how jacked it is that you have a thing for your ex’s little sister.”

Levi set his mug on the coffee table and was about to show his brother—physically—to the door when Adam raised his hand and sighed.

“Ease up, big guy. Since when have we not been honest with each other?”

“Since never. Which is why I can tell you that there’s nothing going on between me and Emily.”

“But you want there to be?”

The muscle in Levi’s jaw twitched. “No. Are we finished here?”

Adam tapped the couch armrest. “She’s pretty. Not exactly your type. You like them—” He mimicked large breasts with his hands.

“You’re on my last nerve, Adam. I don’t have much patience left after working at the club all week.”

“All right, fine. And for your information, I was sent over by Hayden. She’s the one who insisted there was something going on there. I tended to agree once I thought about it. There was something about the way you put your arm around Emily.”

Levi stretched his neck, popping it. Grace glanced up at the sound. “Emily was wobbling. Had too much to drink.”

“She seemed lucid enough to me.”

Levi shot him a warning look.

“In any case, now that I’ve warmed up to the idea, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Kind of weird dating your ex’s little sister, but you haven’t dated anyone since”—he snapped his fingers—“what was her name? The one you met at a club a few months after Lisa. Didn’t she leave for a trip and end up getting married?” 

“Took a cross-country trip with her best friend and shotgun-married a fracker from North Dakota.”

Adam laughed.

Jackass.

“Yeah, that was some bad luck. But you always picked girlfriends who wanted rescuing. Lisa was crazy needy, if I recall. Anyway, since then, you’ve hooked up with plenty of other women. Why not give Emily a try?”

“Hooked up. Nothing serious.” Levi couldn’t imagine only hooking up with Emily. “And I won’t try, as you say, because I learned my damned lesson.”

“What lesson? That not all relationships work out? That’s life. Happens to all of us.”

“You can’t tell me what happened with Lisa was normal.”

The shithead laughed again. “No, but it doesn’t mean things with Emily will turn out the same. She’s a nice woman.”

Levi frowned. “So were the others. Besides, the last thing I need is a sexual harassment suit filed against the club. I have to set a good example. I’m not dating Emily. Even if sexual harassment weren’t a concern, you said it yourself, I don’t know how to pick them. It wouldn’t work out.”

“Which is exactly why it might. Emily’s not your normal type. She’s not needy like the others. I don’t know her personally, but Esther says she’s smart and talented.”

Levi shook his head. “Stop trying to sell her on me. Emily is a great woman, but I don’t want a relationship. And absolutely not with another Wright sister. Gotta focus on the club. She’s the only female I can handle right now.”

Adam blew out a breath. “I won’t tell Hayden you said that. She’s pretty set on you dating Emily. But I’ve done my duty to my fiancée and gotten the scoop on you two.” He stood. “We still on for golf Friday?”

“Maybe. I’ve got a company coming into town next week to check out the place. We’re in a bit of a financial strain and could use the big account. I need to prepare.”

Adam nodded. “Getting a feel for the place now, huh? You enjoying it yet?”

“No. Anything else you wanted to grill me about?”

Adam took a large swig of his coffee and set the mug on the table. “Nope. I’ll let Hayden know she was right.” He winked, and Levi contemplated throwing his brother out the door anyway. “See you on Friday.”

“I didn’t say if I’d make it.”

Adam paused on the threshold. “You’ll make it. You’ll need the break,” he said over his shoulder, then turned and left.

Was Levi’s attraction to Emily that obvious? If so, he needed to shut it down. He couldn’t afford a relationship. Particularly not one that involved his top-notch assistant, who was also his ex’s little sister. That was a bad combination for any man.