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All during breakfast with my mom and Richard, I keep watching Kendall, trying to judge how she’s doing after everything that happened last night.

We didn’t have much time to talk this morning since we had to shower and pack.

There’s a smile on her face, but it’s not her real one.

Did we go too far last night? Did I cross lines I shouldn’t have? Lines she regrets now?

I didn’t intend for us to sleep together this weekend. I knew sharing a bed with Kendall would be hard, but that I could resist giving in to years of urges.

After kissing her, though, realizing how much she wanted me too, I couldn’t keep my hands or mouth off her. She was just as frantic as I was to be as close as possible. I had to have her, and when I did, it was perfection. Each and every time.

The sounds she made drove me crazy, especially when she moaned my name. I took her like a possessed man over and over again, as if my sole purpose in life was to make her feel good.

“So, what do you think?” Mom asks. “Should we put down a deposit?”

“No,” I blurt out. “Not yet. Ken…Vanessa and I need a chance to talk about everything,” I add to soften the blow.

“Oh. Well, sweetheart, let me know if you want to look at other resorts,” my mom tells Kendall.

She nods but doesn’t comment.

“We should start looking for the shuttle back to the airport,” I say.

“Right. I’ll run to the restroom then we can get going,” Kendall tells me.

As soon as she leaves, my mom says, “Vanessa loves the chapel. You two have picked out the cake. So, what’s the problem, Monty? Why not set a date? Where are your doubts coming from? Is it the company?”

“Profits are down,” I admit to her with a sigh. “I’ve been struggling to figure out ways to cut back without letting anyone go again but…”

“If you want a happy wife, you’re going to have to find a balance between home and work, honey.”

“Right. Well, I’m not sure if I’m ready to get married.”

“What do you mean? You love her. She loves you.”

“I don’t want to rush into a marriage and mess it all up.”

“I know where this is coming from,” she says.

“You do?” Great. She must have figured out the truth, that Vanessa cheated on me and I didn’t even care because I’m in love with my assistant.

“You are nothing like your father, Monty.”

Oh. That.

“I should’ve known he couldn’t commit. But I was in love with him and he gave me you and your brothers and sister, so at least there’s that. I wouldn’t trade our marriage for anything, even though it didn’t end on a high note.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Your father…well, he was an education in what I don’t want in my next relationship. Then I met Richard, and he was everything your father wasn’t, sweet, loyal, and he always lets me have my way.” She reaches over and takes her husband’s hand. “He makes compromises for me. That’s something your father never did.”

“And his cheating didn’t help things.”

“No, it didn’t. My only regret is that I didn’t leave him sooner,” she says, then pauses. “Vanessa is a good match for you, honey. The way she looks at you, well, I don’t think there’s anything you could do to mess things up with her. Don’t let your father’s sins hold you back from being happy.”

But his sins are still holding me back.

My siblings and I depend on Crawford Holdings. It’s our livelihood. That’s why I’m running a company I didn’t plan to take over. My brothers are still figuring out what they want in their life, and my sister is halfway through a law degree she may not even want. They’re counting on me whether they realize it or not.