Tyler squinted at his laptop screen, trying to block out the noise of loud voices and video game battles that permeated his apartment.

“She wasn’t anything like Savannah, but she was bangable.” In the kitchen, his friend Ben piled roast beef onto a sub roll. “I got her number. Haven’t called yet.”

“Don’t bother.” John sat forward on the sofa, focused on the video game on the big-screen TV. “Shitty party anyway. You didn’t miss much, Ty.”

“Says the guy who struck out.” Ben grinned before sinking his teeth into his oversized sandwich.

John flipped him off and nudged Tyler in the side. “Dude, I got the sunbreaker subclass for my titan. Get me past this mission, would you?”

He handed the Xbox controller to Tyler, who shook his head. “I’m busy here, man.”

John swore and continued playing. Tyler glanced at the clock on his laptop screen. He was accustomed to spending his weekends more or less the same way—parties, girls, sports, beer, video games, boating, hanging out with his buddies. Sometimes they’d go bar-hopping in San Francisco or take a road trip to LA. He’d had the same group of friends since college—when they’d also spent their weekends the same way—and he’d always liked their lack of planning.

This was, however, the first time he’d ever spent a Friday night looking at a library sciences curriculum, which turned out to be more complicated than he’d expected. It was more than just alphabetizing and putting books on the shelves—there were things like metadata, classification, and bibliographic databases.

He could try to fake it—stick the books on the shelves, stuff the documents into file folders, and tell his father he was finished, but he’d never been able to fool his father before. No reason why he’d be able to now.

The intercom to his apartment buzzed. He put the laptop aside and shoved up from the sofa to let in the pizza delivery guy. After paying, he left the pizza in the kitchen.

“Didja get a double supreme?” John asked.

“Ben ordered it, not me.” Tyler dug around the countertop for his car keys. “I’m taking off for a while.”

Restless, he headed down to the parking garage and got into his car. For whatever reason, he was in no mood to hang out with his friends tonight. He pulled out of the garage, thinking he’d stop by and see if Jupiter needed any help with her bakery.

He drove into Indigo Bay, the expensive town of cobblestone streets and vine-covered cottages nestled south of San Francisco on a rocky stretch of the coastline. The wealthy computer-money crowds of Silicon Valley came to Indigo Bay for both the charming atmosphere and the culture—wine-tasting, fine dining, art galleries, theater, shopping, and plenty of society events. The main street of Ocean Avenue was lined with coffee houses, boutiques, exclusive shops, and restaurants.

Tyler detoured toward a stone building laced with ivy. Josh’s fiancée Jupiter, who owned the Rainbow Palace Bakery half an hour away in the farming town of Rainsville, had recently rented the building for a new branch of her bakery. The place apparently needed a complete remodel, which Jupiter was doing with her sister Isabelle’s help—despite the fact that Josh could have paid professionals to do it in less than a week. Jupiter was very into being DIY about everything.

Work lights glowed around the bakery’s interior. Drop cloths covered the floor, and a few round tables were scattered by a wooden counter.

Isabelle Lockhart, Evan’s girl, sat at one table with a laptop. Jupiter stood on a ladder, her curly hair hidden by a bandana and her jeans and T-shirt streaked with paint.

“Hey, Tyler.” Jupiter waved a paintbrush at him. “Come to help paint?”

He picked up a clean brush and dunked it into a bucket. “When’s opening day?”

“We’re aiming for early June.” Jupiter set her brush down and climbed off the ladder. “If we get all the business permits in by then.”

Tyler brushed paint over the wall, his tension easing as it always seemed to when he was in the Rainbow Palace. Like Evan, he’d gotten into the habit of making the half-hour drive to Rainsville for the bakery’s Declairs, a cross between an éclair and a doughnut that had sparked the bakery’s success. Indigo Bay was already buzzing about the opening of the Rainbow Palace's new branch.

“How’s your job?” Isabelle leaned back and looked at Tyler. “Evan said you’re working at the Candy King library now.”

“It sucks.” Tyler focused on making the paint even. “It’s not work so much as a punishment for the speedboat incident.”

Part of him had to give his father and brothers credit. It was a perfect punishment. They’d known he would hate being strait-jacketed into a job he neither wanted nor knew how to do. Even getting to the same place at the same time every day messed with his mind. It was the reason he’d had such trouble in school. Though he’d aced all the standardized testing, he could never concentrate well enough to do what they wanted him to do.

“Dinner call.” Evan entered the bakery, carrying a paper bag and a tray of drinks. “Hey, Ty. What’re you doing here?”

“Helping paint.” Tyler dunked the brush into the bucket.

“You want some of my sandwich?” Evan retrieved a wrapped sub out of the bag.

Tyler shook his head. Evan distributed sandwiches and drinks to Isabelle and Jupiter before sitting next to Isabelle at the table. She reached out and brushed a lock of hair away from his forehead.

Cute. Tyler hadn’t been sure Isabelle, a woman who had spent the past decade traveling around the world, would be able to settle in Indigo Bay, but she and Evan fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. Evan had regained most of his strength from his heart surgery last year, and he and Isabelle were talking about taking a week-long trip to Venezuela next month, where their other brother Adam was setting up the cocoa bean sustainability project.

Tyler continued painting the wall. He’d never had an interest in working at Candy King, and his father had always been okay with that. Warren King hadn’t expected any of his children to work for the family business unless they’d wanted to. Though Tyler had done a few summer stints on the factory floor and gift shop when he was a teenager, he hadn’t wanted to work his way up into the corporate ranks. He knew he wouldn’t be any good at it, not like Josh and Evan.

The problem was, he’d never figured out what he would be good at, aside from spending his trust fund money and having fun. He knew how to fix old cars, but that was just a hobby—as his father frequently reminded him.

The wooden gate leading to the kitchen swung open.

“He’s here!” Jupiter’s friend Freya—a blond beauty who favored tight sweaters and short plaid skirts that gave her a sexy schoolgirl vibe—flew into the room, her long hair flying around her shoulders.

Tyler let his gaze skim over her curvy tits and long legs. He’d have made a move on her ages ago, if she hadn’t been Jupiter’s friend. Much as he loved women, there were lines he wouldn’t cross. Jupiter would kick his ass from here to Alcatraz if she thought he was hitting on one of her friends only for sex, which was exactly what he’d be doing with Freya. Or anyone, for that matter. But because of Jupiter and Isabelle, Freya was off-limits. Too bad because he’d bet she was spectacular in the sack.

She was kind of skinny, though. Not much of her to grab. Unlike Kate, who had a damned perfect figure with the right amount of curves and exactly the right sized breasts, not to mention that he could still feel her legs cradling his thigh like she’d been made for him…

“How do I look?” Freya extended her arms and twirled around.

Since she’d asked, Tyler assessed her pert little ass and long legs encased in sheer white tights decorated with little flowers. Freya’s skinniness aside, that was how a woman with incredible legs should show them off. Not like Kate in her support hose or whatever.

“You look smoking hot,” he told Freya.

She came to a halt and narrowed her eyes, though a flush of pleasure colored her cheeks. “I was asking Jupiter.”

“You look smoking hot,” Jupiter assured her. “Gavin won’t be able to resist you.”

Tyler and Evan exchanged glances that said, “Yeah, he will.”

Gavin Knight, owner of Knight Securities, which handled all of Candy King’s corporate security and the Kings' personal security, had been a family friend for years. He was also a machine when it came to security-related crap and apparently some sort of Zen master of self-control and stoicism.

“He’s resisted me for ages now.” Freya sighed, her lips pursing in a pout. “He’s a freaking statue. If I flashed him my naked boobs, he’d tell me I was a security threat.”

“Well, you do have a couple of bombs,” Isabelle remarked, eyeing the other woman’s chest.

“Right?” Freya shook her head. “You’d think a security expert would want to get his hands on them. I’ll go let him in the back.” She turned and hurried through the kitchen.

“She’d totally let him in the front, too,” Isabelle remarked.

Tyler and Evan both laughed. Jupiter shot her sister a mild glare, though her mouth twitched.

“Actually, I admire her persistence,” Isabelle continued. “What’s it been, over a year? And she hasn’t given up?”

“It’s a quest now,” Jupiter said. “He’s the one man who hasn’t paid attention to her, so now it’s become her personal Mordor. He’s the one true ring.”

The door swung open again and Freya reappeared, followed by Gavin, a tall, square-jawed man wearing his standard uniform of black trousers and a black shirt with the Knight Securities logo. He greeted the others before giving Tyler a nod. “Tyler.”

Tyler resisted the urge to respond with “Sir.” Gavin had always had an authoritarian thing going on, not unlike Tyler’s father. No mistaking his faint disapproval either. Straight-laced dude like Gavin, especially since he was in charge of keeping people safe, had never approved of Tyler’s recklessness.

“I’ll take a look at the wiring and see what we can do,” Gavin told Jupiter, setting a toolbox on one of the tables. “I emailed you suggestions for access management and surveillance systems.”

“Gavin, this is a bakery, not Tiffany’s,” Jupiter reminded him. “We don’t need to go over the top.”

“It’s a scalable system given the size of your space.” He opened his sleek laptop. “Indigo Bay isn’t immune to crime. I promised Josh I’d give you the best I have.”

“I’m sure you always give a girl the best you have,” Freya remarked, twirling a strand of long hair around her finger.

Gavin didn’t look up from his computer screen. Freya slanted Jupiter an exasperated frown.

Tyler suppressed a smile. Despite Freya’s lack of success with Gavin, the girl knew how to flirt. Any other guy would have been panting at her feet. Kate could take lessons from Mia on how to land Miles Norwood, though for some reason Tyler didn’t like the idea of Kate thrusting out her cleavage and batting her eyelashes.

Plus she’d probably do it so badly that Norwood would ask her if she had a backache or something in her eye.

“Jupiter, you know Josh’s assistant?” he asked. “Does she come around here a lot?”

“About once a week,” Jupiter replied. “I adore Kate. She’s so efficient. She’s helping us keep track of the vendors and permits, and even offered to help with the upgrading of our point of sales system.” A frown creased her forehead. “Josh keeps trying to get her to take a vacation, though. He said it’s been way too long since she’s taken time off.”

Evan chuckled. “Coming from Josh, that’s saying something.”

“It’s the truth,” Isabelle said. “I asked her if she wanted to come to Codswallop with us this weekend, but she said she’s working.”

All weekend? Tyler had issues with not working, but it sounded like Kate took things too far in the other direction.

“What’s Codswallop?” he asked.

“A hippie music festival about an hour south,” Jupiter explained. “I took Josh when we were first dating, and tomorrow we’re going with Isabelle and Evan.”

Tyler couldn’t imagine either one of his brothers, especially starched-shirt Josh, getting down at a hippie music festival.

Then again, Jupiter  had had an effect on the CEO that no one could have predicted. Tyler had never thought his eldest brother capable of change, but now Josh was doing things like taking off work early and maybe even playing bongo drums and wearing tie-dye T-shirts. He seemed happier, too—not happier about Tyler’s behavior, but in general.

Tyler set his brush down. After telling the others he had plans that night, he headed back outside. Restlessness still simmered through him.

He walked along the side-streets of Ocean Avenue toward the beach. He passed a little brick restaurant with a tiny, gated terrace on the side, the heat lamps and strings of colorful lanterns providing a nice glow. He glanced absently at the patrons sitting down for dinner.

He stopped. Kate Darling sat at a table near the fence, studying the paper menu spread out on the table that was set for two.

Tyler’s gut tightened. Had she already asked Norwood out? Was this about to be their first date? Was she waiting for him? If she was, then why did the thought stick in Tyler like a thorn?

He shook his head. He was being stupid. So she’d asked Norwood out again. Good for mousy little Kate. A data analyst was the guy for her.

Tyler should just walk away and leave them to their little candlelit dinner. Instead he walked right toward her.