Let’s get Kelsey’s school enrollment finalized. The headmaster is thrilled to meet you.
Everything should’ve been a triumph. Wasn’t this the whole point of a decade of sacrifice? The long nights and missed dinners. Skipping school or sports events under the demands of another important deadline. This was his payoff—the happiness that he’d earned with the job.
Enough money for Kelsey to have anything and everything she ever wanted. Enough power and opportunity to fill him up and say fuck you to the father who tried to ruin him.
He’d always believed happiness would arrive once he’d climbed high enough.
Once he’d proved something to the ghost of his father.
Once he’d built a perfectly structured life he could control.
Except now that he’d reached the top, now that the view was spread before him like a glittering skyline—
It felt hollow. Not bad. Not wrong. Just ... empty.
He closed his eyes.
He saw Kelsey laughing on her board, hair streaming behind her like she’d finally remembered what it felt like to be thirteen and free.
He saw Rowan standing ankle-deep in the surf, watching him with something warm and raw that had wrapped around him more tightly than any promotion ever could.
He saw the life he’d lived before he came here—the endless meetings, the way his phone never stopped vibrating. The way he’d tried so hard to be dependable that he’d forgotten what joy was supposed to feel like.
A slow, cold realization slid through him.
He hadn’t been happy in years. Not until Rowan and this island showed him a different way. He’d been succeeding and fixing and racingtoward a goal, but he’d spent his whole life chasing this finish line without once asking what existed beyond it.
Senior VP of Global Expansion.
The question Tino had posed earlier floated back uninvited.
Why would you move here? Ask the body, not the mind.
Everett looked at his hands, steady on the desk. He thought of the ocean nudging his board yesterday. He thought of the small, undeniable peace that had curled low in his belly like recognition.
His mind wanted the promotion.
But his heart? It wanted—
His phone buzzed. “Mr. Wells on the line. He wants you on Zoom ASAP.”
Everett jerked in surprise. “Send the link through and I’ll log on now.”
This was it. He’d assumed Wolfe would make the decision when he returned home, but his senses said this was the call he’d been waiting for. Everett straightened his shirt, clicked “Accept,” and Wolfe filled the screen. The serpent tat peeked over his collar like it was listening, too.
“Hale,” Wolfe said, voice carrying that clean, no-nonsense edge. “Good timing?”
Everett nodded. “Always.”
Wolfe studied him for a beat. “You look like a man who hasn’t slept.”
“Opening week,” Everett answered lightly. “Comes with the territory.”
“Yeah.” Wolfe leaned back in his chair, a faint smirk on his face. “You crushed it.”
The words should’ve felt like fuel. Instead, they slid into the hollow space in his chest. “Thank you,” Everett said.
A pause. Wolfe’s gaze sharpened, businesslike. “Before we talk next steps, there’s something you should know. I received a proposal from Matthew this morning.”
