Maizee stood in front of the mirror, making a tiny adjustment to her earring. She told herself she’d be this meticulous about her appearance for her first day on any job, and that Lawrence Gladstone had no influence over her.

So maybe she was lying to herself.

She’d been reading articles written by Lawrence for years, as Gladstone Financial sent out a monthly newsletter for all of its employees. She knew he was smart and so good-looking it was almost a crime.

But meeting him in the flesh was completely different than seeing a small picture of him on her computer screen. She’d been instantly attracted to him, and he’d shown her kindness for hours, even staying with her at the hospital until a nurse took her back into one of the emergency curtains.

Thankfully, her ankle had not been broken. Just a bad sprain, and she’d been elevating it and putting ice on it to keep the swelling down. She took more ibuprofen than was probably safe, but she would not be missing her first day at work.

She couldn’t wear the heels she normally would, but she told herself it didn’t matter. She probably wouldn’t see Lawrence anyway.

“You don’t care if you do see Lawrence,” she told her reflection. “And be sure to call him Mister Gladstone.” She smoothed down an errant strand of her blonde hair and appreciated the perfect wings she’d gotten on her eyeliner that morning.

“This is going to be a good day.” She took a big breath and smiled at herself before turning to leave.

Twenty minutes later, she entered the bank with a key she’d gotten from the branch manager—a man by the name of Willie McMahon.

Because it was only eight o’clock, she knew she’d be the first one in the bank. But she didn’t care. She knew where her office was, and she wanted to put a potted plant on her desk. She usually put up pictures too, but she hadn’t brought them in today for some reason. Maybe she didn’t want to make this new office in this new branch on this new island to be permanent. Not with her parents still living on the island of Lanai, with both of her sisters very nearby them.

Maizee was gone now, and while she wanted her family to be surrounding her in this new place, she thought seeing them might sting too much. At least for today.

She turned on her computer and sifted through the software on it. Maizee should be counting her blessings that there was a branch so close to her beloved Lanai that needed a senior loan officer. Otherwise, she might find herself sitting by herself in a bank in Arizona or Arkansas.

Maizee pushed away her melancholy mood. This was her chance at a fresh start, and she wasn’t going to dwell on Winn anymore. After all, Winthrop Porter had already taken too many years of her life from her. Years she’d never get back. He didn’t deserve another day.

So she breathed in again, took a sip of her coffee, and opened her email using the username and password she’d gotten from the IT guy at the branch. At least Lawrence made sure his employees were taken care of.

Slowly, as the hour passed, the bank around her became busier as more people arrived at work. She’d met them all a couple of weeks ago when she’d been offered the job, but it would take her some time to remember all of their names.

The coffee dictated when she got up from her desk, her need to use the restroom driving her, and she’d just stepped through the doorway and into the main part of the bank when Lawrence pushed through the glass doors straight ahead of her.

She gasped, freezing at the glorious sight of him in a two-thousand dollar suit, his dark-roast coffee-colored hair swept to the side like a movie star. He pulled sunglasses from his face and kept his focus on his phone at the same time.

He tucked one arm of his glasses in his jacket pocket, his thumbs flying as he typed out a message to someone. Maizee desperately wished her phone would chime when he hit send, but he’d never asked for her number.

She’d thought about asking for his, but she hadn’t been able to come up with a reason why she needed it. And the last thing she needed was to come off as desperate. Besides, she wasn’t going to date someone at work again, and Lawrence was like the Top Dog. The owner of the whole company, not just some manager.

No way. She could admire him from afar and hate everyone he went out with just fine.

He navigated the space without looking up—until the staircase only a few steps from her office door. Of course, his office would be on the second floor, but Maizee watched as he misjudged the steps because his phone had completely consumed his attention.

He stumbled and threw his hand out to catch himself on the handrail, but it wasn’t enough. He fell, his phone making a loud cracking noise on the hard steps.

“Lawrence,” she said, realizing she’d already used the wrong name a moment too late. She reached him in only a second, and he cradled his face. Didn’t matter. Blood appeared between his fingers, and Maizee put her hand under his arm. “Come on. I have tissues in my office.”

He came with her, and she tried to use her body to shield him from the rest of the bank as she moved him into her office. “Sit here.”

He complied, collapsing into the chair across from her desk. She ripped a half-dozen tissues from the box and handed them to him. “Lean your head back.”

He did that too, took the tissues, and pressed them to his face. His eyes met hers, and that same electric shock that had jumpstarted her heart underneath that banyan tree struck again.

Maizee did not let herself slip too far into those dark eyes. She cleared her throat and hurried around to the other side of her desk. “I have some painkillers too.” She’d need them for her ankle later today.

He shook his head. “I’m fine,” he said, his voice muffled by the tissues. “How’s your ankle?”

“It’s okay,” she said. “Not broken, just sprained. I’m wearing a brace for a while.” A flush crept into her face, and she really wished it wouldn’t. She also didn’t know how to make it go away. Her coffee was gone, so she couldn’t hide behind the to-go cup, and the hot liquid wouldn’t have done anything to cool her down anyway.

“I was going to call you,” he said, wiping his nose with the tissues and glancing at them.

Maizee stood up and offered him her garbage can, where he tossed the used tissues before taking more. “You were? Why?”

“Just to make sure you were okay,” he said. “But then I realized I never got your number.”

Maizee had no idea what to say. Was he asking for her number now? Her heart jumped around inside her chest, almost painfully. She had no idea what she was doing. Her break-up with Winn was only a couple of months old, and she was nowhere near ready to start dating again.

Was she?

“I’m okay,” she finally managed to say. She took her seat behind her desk again, using it as a physical barrier between the two of them.

“Well, at least you’ve seen me bloody now,” he said with a chuckle, wiping his nose one more time. The bleeding seemed to have stopped. “So maybe we’re even?” He lifted his thick eyebrows, and Maizee almost swooned.

“I think me being mud-covered and unable to walk is worse than a little bloody nose,” she said, smiling despite her brain’s direct instructions not to do so. Her body seemed to be acting of its own accord no matter what her mind was saying.

Lawrence laughed again, a delectable sound Maizee wanted to hear right in her ear just before he kissed her.

Her whole body felt like someone had placed it over a fire, and she needed to get out of this office immediately. She stood, her chair flying out and hitting the wall behind her. “I have to get some files,” she said, when really she’d be running to the bathroom—and not just to hide. “Excuse me.”

“Of course.” Lawrence stood too, but she didn’t wait for him to leave. She rushed past him, still getting a noseful of his spicy and soft cologne. He smelled like the beach and the forest at the same time, which was completely unfair.

Maizee made it to the bathroom and locked herself in a stall, her heart galloping like a herd of wild horses. “Calm down,” she whispered to herself. “He’s your boss.”

Boss, boss, boss.

He was so much more than that, and Maizee knew it.

She stayed in the bathroom for much longer than she needed to, but it took a while for her to strengthen her resolve to keep things with everyone at work in the professional category.

Especially Lawrence.

The sun beat down on Maizee as she tried to make her body move into the position the beach yoga instructor seemed to do so effortlessly.

Her shoulder strained, but Maizee enjoyed the pull, the heat, the smell of suntan lotion and sand and sweat.

She’d been coming to the morning yoga classes before heading into the bank all week, and today, a Saturday, she wouldn’t have to pretend she didn’t see Lawrence when he arrived. Fake like she was busy so he didn’t know she watched and noted the moment he left.

Sometimes he left at a normal quitting time. Sometimes he stayed after she’d left. Sometimes he left in the middle of the afternoon and didn’t come back, at least not before she went home.

She wished she didn’t have such tight tabs on what he did. But hey, she wasn’t following him around…yet.

“Feel the energy from Mother Earth,” Tawny said, and Maizee focused on her yoga. She didn’t need Lawrence to permeate every aspect of her life, though her work relationships were the source of her friendships.

She’d met one neighbor this week, but the man in his late twenties hadn’t been terribly friendly. He’d stood on the sidewalk until a woman in a bright yellow convertible pulled up, and he’d gotten in the passenger seat before they’d driven away.

The girl at Roasted, the coffee shop Maizee visited every morning, had invited her to go boating later that afternoon, and Maizee had said yes. She didn’t want to spend her weekends cooped up in her house, baking or thinking about baking. Or doing yard work, which was infinitely worse.

Kara had seemed nice, and Maizee had a phone she could use if she felt uncomfortable that evening.

“That’s it for this morning,” Tawny said, straightening. “Let’s cool down.”

Maizee went along with the stretches, Tawny’s voice soothing and the fact that she glistened with sweat comforting. Maizee clapped along with everyone else when the class ended, and she reached for her towel.

She wiped her face, enjoying the Hawaiian sun even though the beaches would be full of tourists within the next hour. She didn’t mind so much, but Lanai wasn’t nearly as popular as somewhere like Getaway Bay.

Maizee caught sight of two businessmen walking along the wooden beachwalk. She stalled, though surely one of them couldn’t be Lawrence. What would she do even if one was? Follow him?

No. She shook her head and continued wiping her neck. She would not become a stalker just because the man had great hair. He’d waved at her a couple of times this week, but it seemed like he’d decided to ignore her the same way she was him.

But she couldn’t tear her eyes from the pair of men, and it didn’t take long for her to recognize the gait of one Lawrence Gladstone. Maizee took her time leaving the beach yoga area so she could watch him enter the Sweet Breeze Resort and Spa with the other man.

The largest building in Getaway Bay, Sweet Breeze had hundreds and hundreds of rooms. Maizee would never find Lawrence.

Though he can’t live there, she thought. He was probably having lunch or something. Brunch. Late breakfast.

“Whatever,” she muttered under her breath. She’d spent entirely too much time on Lawrence this week already. The man clearly wasn’t interested in her. He’d helped her in a rain storm, and she’d given him tissues.

The end.

Her phone rang, and she swiped on the call from her youngest sister Juliet. “Hey, Jules.”

“May-zee,” her sister singsonged, and Maizee braced herself for a squeal or a shriek. After that, jealousy would hit her, and she’d be glad she wasn’t in the same room as Juliet so she didn’t have to keep her true emotions from showing on her face.

“What’s the news?” Maizee asked, her voice bright.

“Johnny asked me to marry him!” The shriek came. As did the jealousy. And Maizee turned her face toward the sun, hoping for some of the golden light and hope to infuse into her so she could be happy for her sister.

But Johnny? What kind of name was that? She’d met the man, and she thought he could’ve at least started going by John once he hit puberty.

“That’s great,” Maizee said, forcing a smile to her face so it would come through in her voice. “I’m so happy for you. Tell me about it.”

She’d gotten so good at those last four words. Then Juliet would talk for a while, and all Maizee had to do was agree every so often, or ask another question that would set her sister off again.

The door closed behind the tall, broad-shouldered form of Lawrence, and Maizee turned toward the bay while Juliet launched into how Johnny had proposed. The story lasted until Maizee returned home, when Juliet finally said she had to go.

Maizee went inside her house, the silence as annoying as it was comforting. Roger trotted out to meet her, and she bent down to scrub him behind the ears. “Hey, boy. Want to go for a walk today?”

Her ankle had improved each day, and she’d been exercising it at the same time she gave Roger the fresh air he needed.

So she got out his leash and clipped it to his collar, her mind telling her that she liked this simple life. Wanted it. And that a man like Lawrence Gladstone would only complicate everything.