Six years ago, I had a best friend with sky-blue eyes, purposefully messy brown hair, and a body that made every single girl drool on sight. I would know—it drove me absolutely crazy…until I was the one doing the drooling. Our days were filled with stomach-hurting laughter accompanied by easy conversation, and our nights were filled with secret, awkward teenage flirting. But that was when Dawson was just my best friend. Nothing more, nothing less. And then… it was more. It’s a memory I pretend to see through blurry eyes, hazed by passing years of no communication. The one night that my heart was suddenly soaring through the starry night, only to catch fire as it rapidly descended seconds later. Six years was a long time to get my heart under control. A lot has changed, and yet here I am, still drooling over Dawson—my ex best friend.

Somehow, at the ripe age of twenty-three, I find myself in line to marry a man I don’t love. I grind my teeth right there at the dinner table as my mother and father go on and on about how proud they are of me, how proud they are that I, Fallon Addington, will no longer be the black sheep of the family and become the daughter they’ve always wanted. Marry Derek and they’ll finally accept me. Marry Derek and they’ll stop shoving men from their “social circle” in my direction. Marry Derek and become the spitting image of my mother; the perfect corporate wife with a face full of make-up and not a hair out of line. Marry Derek and all the shame and guilt will disappear. But then… I embarrassingly flash Emmett Lanning my bra and suddenly my parents’ hopes and dreams are burning up in flames, right there along with my heart.