This is not a second chance. This isn’t an opportunity to go back and change the past.

Yet my heart hammers in my chest, and when I reach into my pocket for the ring, my hand trembles. “You’ll need this.” I reach for her finger.

She flinches when she sees what I’m holding. “You had a ring ready? Was I a foregone conclusion?” She’s trying to be pert, but I can hear the unsteadiness in her voice.

“I’ve never taken you for granted, Mads.”

I bought it nine years ago. I was passing an antique store and I’d seen the beautiful sapphire and diamond ring in the window and a voice had whispered in my ear, Maddie would love this ring.   

This isn’t the way I’d pictured giving it to her.

She gazes down at it for a long time, not saying a word. Finally, she looks up. “How’ve you been, Cameron?”

Ah, we’re going to engage in small talk. I lean back. “Good. What about you, Maddie?”  

She lifts her shoulder in a wry shrug. “I can’t complain.”

I fill her glass. “Is there someone you need to call in Calgary to explain that you won’t be back for a month?”

Her lips curl up in a small smile. “Are you asking me if I’m dating someone?” She shakes her head. “I wouldn’t have accepted your offer if I was in a relationship. What about you? No one in Toronto?”

The overwhelming relief I feel when I hear Maddie isn’t dating anyone annoys me. This ruse is temporary. It’s a ploy to get my grandfather to sell the cottage to me. It isn’t real.

I rise to my feet abruptly. Sitting in the backyard under the moonlight, with only the quiet of the night to keep us company, my head is filled with memories of the past. Under the twinkling lights in my garden, her lips are soft and her cheeks are flushed. I want to pull her close to me, tear her clothes off her body and lose myself in her sweetness. I want to hear her soft gasps of pleasure; see the way she bites her lower lip as I surge into her. I want to kiss every inch of her body, make her writhe under me.

That’s in the past. “I’m going to bed. See you in the morning.”

Misti wolf-whistles when she comes down for breakfast. “Nice bod, Cameron,” she says, checking out my abs with a cheeky leer. “Is that for my sister’s benefit?”

I grin back at her. Leaving Toronto has been good for Misti. I remember her as a too-thin kid with a constantly strained expression on her face. Now, she’s a laughing young woman, comfortable in her own skin. “Help yourself to some coffee,” I tell her. “Breakfast will be ready in ten minutes. You eat bacon, right?”

“I never met a pig I didn’t love,” she replies wryly.

“Are we still talking about bacon?”

She shrugs. There’s something tense in her expression, something that suggests I shouldn’t push. I change the subject. “I didn’t get a chance yesterday to ask you how you’ve been.”

“Really good.” She opens a cabinet and finds a mug, and fills it to the brim with coffee. “Except for my mother dying, of course.”

“Of course.” I watch her curiously. “You don’t seem upset.”

She pushes her hair out of her eyes, and draws up a chair at the kitchen island. “My mother was a horrible person,” she says matter-of-factly. “When she wasn’t high on drugs, she was cruel, mean-spirited, and abusive. Maddie and I learned to fend for ourselves at a young age. I’m not going to pretend to be sad.”

I hone in on the one word that causes my insides to sink. “Abusive?”

“Maddie never told you?” She looks up, surprised. “No, I guess she wouldn’t have. You were her escape, you know.”

It kills me that Maddie kept the worst of her home life hidden. We were a team, damn it. I would have done anything to keep her safe and happy.

Maddie enters the kitchen and gives her sister an astonished look. “Will wonders never cease,” she marvels with a grin. “Misti’s awake before me.” She looks over in my direction, then averts her gaze. “Good morning,” she says cautiously. “I didn’t know you cooked.”

“Just breakfast,” I reply, fixing her a cup of coffee and handing it to her. “My housekeeper handles the bulk of the cooking.”

“Of course.” Her voice is neutral. She sits down next to her sister and clears her throat. “Misti, there’s been a change in plans. I’m going to stick around in Toronto for a few weeks. I called Jenna last night and told her.”

“Really?” Misti looks at Maddie, then at me, then at Maddie again. A smile breaks out on her face. “That’s awesome, Mads. You work too hard. You deserve some time off.”

Maddie looks tense. If I know her right, she’s worrying about logistics. I step into the conversation before Maddie changes her mind about our deal. “Do you need to head back to Calgary in a hurry, Misti, or can you stick around with us?”

She shakes her head. “I can’t stay, unfortunately. I have classes this summer, and a job that starts on Monday.” She looks at Maddie questioningly. “I’ll drive your car back Maddie, if that’s okay with you?”

“That’s a ridiculous idea,” I reply instantly, even before Maddie has a chance to respond. “You can’t drive across the country by yourself. I’ll get you a plane ticket.”

Maddie gives me a look of mingled gratitude and irritation. “I’ll pay you back,” she murmurs stiffly.

I roll my eyes. I don’t want to spend all month squabbling with Maddie. “Can we fight after breakfast? I do better on a full stomach.”

She chuckles reluctantly, then her gaze slowly travels down my naked chest, slowly, deliberately, and when her eyes stop at my groin, she exhales.

The blood rushes from my head. My cock turns to rock faster than I can blink.

I want to bend Maddie over the island and fuck her, deep and slow, until she’s sobbing out my name, until her pussy’s clenching around my dick, until she’s delirious with pleasure.

Her kid sister is in the room, Cam.

“Bacon and eggs?” I ask them, thinking the most unsexy thoughts I can, of spreadsheets and merger proposals, until my erection subsides and I can join them at the island.

Two hours later, we drop Misti off at the airport with a first class ticket to Calgary. Maddie hugs her sister goodbye and gets back into my Land Rover. “Thank you,” she says, her voice soft. “That was very kind of you. Misti’s super excited. She’s never flown first-class before.”

“She’s a good kid.” I put the car in drive. “You’re not wearing your ring today.”

“It’s in my pocket.” She fishes it out, wriggling in her seat as she does, and my cock stirs again. Settle down, I tell myself. If I’m going to get hard every time Maddie moves in the next month, I’m going to need a trip to the ER. “I didn’t want Misti to know about our arrangement.”

“Too complicated to explain?”

“Something like that,” she replies, not meeting my eyes. “What’s the plan for today? Do you have to work?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” I need to stay away from Maddie as much as I can if I’m going to survive. “You’re going to need clothes for the cottage. I’ve arranged for a car to take you shopping.”

“Your family still dresses up for dinner?”

I give her a sidelong look, surprised. “You remember?”

“Every minute of that trip is seared into my brain,” she replies flatly. “Apart from your grandfather and Emily, who else is going to be there?”

She’d been uncomfortable at the idea of meeting my family. She hadn’t wanted to go, but I’d begged, pleaded and insisted, and she’d given in to make me happy. It had been a colossal mistake. Four days later, I was left to gaze on the wreckage of the most significant relationship of my life.

“My father,” I reply. “Whichever trophy girlfriend he’s currently seeing. Some friends of my grandfather. My cousin Noah.”

“Trophy girlfriend?” Her eyebrow rises. “Are you really in a position to throw stones at your dad?”

My hands tighten on the steering wheel. “You’re so ready to think the worst of me, aren’t you, Maddie? I’m open and honest with the women I date. I don’t lie to them, and I don’t string them along. They don’t show up at the houses of my friends and family in tears, wondering what they did wrong.”  

Her mouth twists. “I’m sorry,” she says quietly. “I’m having a hard time letting go of the past.”

I stare at the snarl of traffic in front of me. Judging by Misti’s words this morning, Maddie did what she had to do to survive. I don’t even blame her for taking my father’s money--what else could she have done? Moving costs money, and Maddie never had any.

Yes, I wish things had been different, I wish that she’d asked me for help, trusted me instead of running away from me. But the past is the past, and revisiting it constantly isn’t going to achieve anything. The next week is going to be difficult enough without us sniping at each other. Maddie’s discomfort at meeting my family is obvious; her hands are twisted in her lap, crumpling and straightening the hem of her t-shirt. She’s going to have to face my father, who paid her to leave me. And worst of all, the two of us are going to have to pretend to be in love with each other.

“Me too,” I confess. “Shall we call a truce?”

She bites her lower lip again, and gives me a small nod. “Do you still swim?” she asks, changing the topic. “Your pool is amazing.”

More small talk. “I work out in a gym in winter, but there’s nothing like an outdoor pool in summer. What about you?”

“My friend Jenna has a pool in her apartment building,” she replies. “I try to swim there twice a week. Misti’s really good, too. She had a scholarship to the University of Calgary.”

I hear the pride in her voice, and underneath it, a certain wistfulness that she tries her best to hide. Maddie had planned to get a job after high school; university was not an option for someone who needed to support her family.

Again, my throat tightens at what could have been. Had she stayed, she would have wanted for nothing. I would have given her the sun and the moon and the stars, had she only asked.

Except she was too proud to ask for help. I was a blind fool for not seeing that then.

Nine years ago, when Maddie confessed she felt out of place in my world, I’d laughed away her concerns and told her I was crazy about her.

Nine years ago, I thought being in love was enough. But I was wrong and I lost her.

It’s too late to change the past, but this time around, I can at least make sure she feels comfortable at the cottage. “Would you like me to come shopping with you?”

“Would you?” Her look of gratitude stops me cold. “I’m afraid I’ll buy the wrong things.”

There’s a lump in my throat. I could have made things easier for her, and I didn’t. I feel like slime. “Of course, Maddie,” I tell her, keeping my tone light. “I’m especially going to enjoy helping you pick a swimsuit or two.”

She laughs and punches my arm. “Some things haven’t changed,” she jokes.

“Hey, fair’s fair. You eye-fucked me pretty thoroughly this morning. It seems only appropriate that I get to return the favor.”

Her cheeks pinken. I wait for her to deny that she was checking me out, but she doesn’t. Her gaze falls to her lap. “I’m still attracted to you,” she whispers. “I was always attracted to you. When I saw you for the first time at the swim meet--for a minute--I couldn’t breathe, you were that gorgeous. Then you came over and talked to me.” A small smile plays about her lips as she remembers our first meeting. “I was tongue-tied and awkward, and my friends teased me about it. I wasn’t interested in guys at school. Everything was about swimming. Until you came along.”

She gives me a steady look. “You were my first, Cameron. There’s a part of me that’s always going to want you, okay? But I can’t give in to that. You broke my heart once; I won’t let you do it again.  I’ll pretend to be your fiancée. I’ll pretend to be in love with you. But behind closed doors, all of that ends.”

Every word she says is wise and probably right, but I’m not listening, because my attention is focused on one phrase. I broke her heart? I don’t understand. She left me.