Maizee stood at the window in her office, watching cars ease down the street. She’d tried calling Lawrence back, but his line had gone to voice mail. He’d literally called her a moment before, but her phone hadn’t even rung.

It did now, and she swiped open the call with, “Where did you go?”

“Nowhere,” a female voice said, and Maizee whipped her phone away from her ear to see her sister’s name on the screen.

“Oh, hey, Evie,” she said. “I thought you were someone else.”

“Who?” she asked, though she surely hadn’t called to know that.

Maizee took a deep breath, her mind oscillating between telling her sister about Lawrence and keeping him secret just a little longer. But it had been weeks since they’d started seeing each other, and she did want to let everyone know that she’d moved on from Winn.

“Oh, just my boyfriend,” she said, a happy hint in her voice. She expected Evie to shriek or ask a million questions.

She got silence.

She checked the phone again, but the call was still connected. As her sister started to talk, Maizee put the phone back to her ear.

“…been going on?” Evie finished.

“Oh, several weeks now.”

“You left Lanai several weeks ago.”

Maizee glanced over her shoulder, but no one loitered in her open doorway. Lawrence had not returned. She felt certain she’d know the moment he stepped foot in the building. “He’s my boss.”

“Is he a better boss than Winn? Because that man is the worst.” The venom in her sister’s voice made Maizee feel better, actually.

“I think he’s quite a bit better than Winn.”

“You were always too good for him.”

Yeah, well, now she had a boyfriend that was too good for her. She kept that thought to herself, though, because she was working on believing that he could like her as much as he claimed to.

“Thank you for saying so,” she said, catching sight of a sharp dressed man striding down the street. Lawrence. She needed to wrap this conversation up quickly.

“Did you need something?” she asked her sister.

“Just calling to chat,” she said. “Jules is so wrapped up in Johnny. It’s Johnny and Jules, and Jules and Johnny, and….” She let the words hang there, which clued Maizee into the fact that she had something important to say.

“And what?” She turned toward the door, watching for Lawrence. He would stop by, wouldn’t he? Or would he walk up to his office without popping in? Seeing him burst through the door earlier had really put her heart in a shock, and she was just starting to feel more settled.

“I got a date with Tommy Pinnacle, and I need help.”

So this wouldn’t be a short conversation.

“Is he still going by Tommy?”

“Yes, and he’s the cutest.” Though her sister had just turned thirty, apparently cutest was still a word she could use when talking about boys. Of course, she was about to go out with a grown man named Tommy, so that was probably okay.

She also didn’t get many dates, and Maizee wished she were there in Lanai to help her, especially with bubbly, always-had-a-date Jules on the prowl.

Lawrence’s broad shoulders filled the doorway, his face one of beauty and grace and pure joy. She held up one finger, silently begging him to wait. Thankfully, he ducked into the office and closed the door.

He busied himself with closing all of her blinds while she said, “Evie, I would love to help you, but I just had a customer walk in. Can I call you at lunch?”

“Sure,” her sister said, none the wiser that her “customer” was the man she hoped would kiss her until she couldn’t breathe.

“Great. Talk soon.” She hung up and flung her phone onto the desk just as Lawrence finished with the last set of blinds.

He turned toward her, magnificent and radiant, and Maizee once again wondered why he liked her. “The Austin Exchange is ours.” He laughed, the sound heartfelt and happy, and he grabbed onto her and twirled her in a circle. “I closed the deal.”

“Good job,” she said behind half a squeal, holding onto him as he steadied her on her feet. He gazed down at her, his smile so wide she thought she could get lost in it.

He kissed her, half-laughing so their mouths didn’t quite match up. She giggled and leaned her forehead against his. “You’ve been working on that for weeks.”

“Oh, did someone miss me?”

“Yes,” she said, not trying to hide how she felt about him. She ran her hands down the front of his jacket, straightening it and enjoying the playfulness between them.

“I missed you too,” he said, suddenly serious. He ran his fingers through her hair and this time when he leaned down to kiss her, it was the kind of kiss she always wanted.

She lost herself for a few moments, purely wrapped up in the taste and touch of him. Somewhere, far beyond her circle of conscious thought, she heard the noise from the lobby.

Which meant…someone had opened the door.

She jumped out of Lawrence’s arms at the same time he turned.

“There you are,” a man said, but Maizee couldn’t see him around Lawrence. She knew that voice though….

“Winn?” dripped out of her mouth and she side-stepped to peer around Lawrence. Her whole face heated, and she wanted to crawl beneath her desk the way she had in grade school when they had earthquake drills.

He flicked a glance at her as if she wasn’t worth his attention and then did a double-take. “Maizee?” The color left his face, and he looked back and forth between her and Lawrence.

“What are you doing here?” Lawrence practically barked, moving forward. He tossed over his shoulder, “I’ll come back, Miss Phelps,” and walked out, guiding Winn in front of him. And while all of Maizee’s blinds were closed, she caught one last look of surprise on Winn’s face before he was forced to turn and head up the stairs just outside her office.

She slumped into her chair, feeling weak and breathless and not only because Lawrence had stolen her heart.

Realization hit her, and she took several long moments to savor that she’d fallen in love with Lawrence Gladstone.

Then she muttered, “What a stupid thing to do, Maizee,” and pulled her mouse closer to her so she could check her email. After all, he still wasn’t ready to show their relationship to anyone.

So maybe this wasn’t real to him. Maybe she really was just someone to keep him occupied in the evenings, though she’d never felt like that before.

Worry needled her, but she managed to go through her emails and read through two online applications before finding the right percentage rate and approving the loans. She kept her blinds closed and her door open, but she didn’t see Lawrence or Winn leave.

Her skin itched, and just when she was going to go marching upstairs and find out what in the world Winn was doing on the island again, she heard footsteps coming down. A loud voice.

She got up from her desk and hurried around it, thanking the stars that her ankle had healed completely. She arrived at her door at the same time Winn hit the ground floor. “You’re dating him now?” He practically threw a punch toward the steps, where Lawrence was hurrying down.

Maizee had no idea what to say. Winn’s loud shout had drawn the attention of nearly everyone in the bank, and she felt the weight of all the eyes in the building.

Winn leaned closer, his eyes angry and the scent of him so familiar. “Did I mean nothing to you?”

She scoffed, her own fury shooting to the top of her head. “Are you serious? You broke up with me, remember?”

“Not so you could run off to a bigger island and date your next boss.”

“Would you stop it?” Lawrence said, his face flushed.

“You know he’s ruthless, right?” Winn said next. “Rigid. No flexibility at all. No compassion.” He glared at Lawrence. “I can’t believe….” Winn shook his head. “I just can’t.” He spun and stormed off, leaving so much awkwardness in his wake that Maizee was having a hard time breathing.

Winn left the bank, and Lawrence sprang into action. “All right, everyone. Back to work.” He glanced at Maizee, said nothing, and went right back upstairs as if he didn’t need to clarify anything else.

She glanced around the bank, catching the surprise on Polly’s face and the displeasure on Willie’s. Suddenly her head was too heavy to keep up, and she ducked, turned, and scampered back into her office.

Maizee let forty-eight hours go by before she stood in front of the mirror and told herself, “Call him. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

If anything, Lawrence was the one who needed to apologize. It wasn’t against the company policy to date a co-worker, and they were two consenting adults. But she’d been hiding out in her office for long enough, and now the branch manager had asked her for a meeting the following morning.

Maybe she should just quit. She’d thought about it more than once, especially in the past couple of days, but the thought scared her still. She couldn’t believe she was almost forty years old and still didn’t have a life that made sense.

And she didn’t call Lawrence that night. Or in the morning. She met with Willie McMahon in her best skirt suit, determined to leave Gladstone Financial with her head held high, no matter what.

“This has nothing to do with Mister Gladstone,” Will said to start the meeting. He put on a pair of reading glasses and picked up a piece of paper. “We’ve had a complaint.”

Everything in her body turned to ice. “What?” She wanted to see what was on the paper but she could’ve been just as happy tearing it up. “I have done a great job here.” And she would defend that to the death.

“Not that kind of complaint.” He laid the paper aside, a measure of softness entering his expression.

Maizee frowned, her heart beating out a cadence in her chest that couldn’t be maintained for much longer. “I’m sorry. What?”

“One of the employees feels uncomfortable with your relationship with Mister Gladstone. She had, uh.” He cleared his throat. “Put in for the loan officer job, and claims you got it unfairly.”

“That’s not true. I transferred from the Lanai branch. I didn’t even know Lawrence—” She inhaled sharply. “I did not even know Mister Gladstone before coming here.”

“Nevertheless, I need—”

The door opened, interrupting him, and Lawrence stood there. “Will,” he said, taking in the scene before him. “Maizee?”

“Come in, Lawrence.” Will gestured him in with flapping hands and a big sigh. “I suppose I can get both of your statements at the same time.”

Lawrence entered the office and took a seat beside Maizee. She hadn’t seen him in days, and she wanted to rage at him. Demand to know why he’d gone silent and left this all on her.

“Statement?” she squeaked out.

“About your relationship.” Will slid two papers toward them, one for each of them.

Maizee stared at it in horror. Things were spiraling rapidly out of control.

“Relationship?” Lawrence picked up the paper. “I’m not writing any statement.”

Maizee turned her head and looked at him, everything happening in slow motion. “Why not?”

Lawrence barely looked at her. “I own the company.”

“Which is why it could be very bad for you,” Willie said, probably in the gentlest voice he could muster.

Lawrence made a noise of exasperation, and Maizee made a quick decision. She jumped to her feet. “I’m not making a statement either. At least not a written one. I met Lawrence on the trail up to the Umauma Falls. Of course I knew who he was. I’ve worked for this company for almost two decades, and he sends a newsletter on the fifteenth of every month, even if it’s a weekend or a holiday.”

Her chest burned for lack of oxygen, and she wondered what she’d say next.

“I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t use any relationship to get my job. I transferred from the Lanai branch.” She pushed out her breath, wishing Lawrence would leap to his feet and corroborate everything she’d said.

He sat there. Sat there and did nothing.

“And you know what?” She glared at him and then Will McMahon. “I quit.” She turned, ignoring Lawrence’s call of “Maizee, come on. You can’t quit,” and left the office. Left the bank.

Simply walked out and left.