Excerpt #1
Carolina was introducing him to his former fiancée.

Fine. Near fiancée. It had been a promise ring, not an engagement diamond, but still.

The run he’d just finished was apparently unnecessary from a cardio standpoint, since his heart was now racing, crashing into his ribs as if it were fleeing a crime scene. Not that he was the bad guy. But still.

Kari. No way.

It was his Kari. And okay, maybe she was never formally his fiancée, but until college and distance broke them up, they always planned on it. He’d given her a promise ring in high school, so that was close enough.

When Carolina had mentioned she was meeting two wedding professionals named Katie and Carrie, he’d heard it as the more familiar spelling. She’d never spelled it out, and she hadn’t bothered to tell him Kari‘s last name.

“Caleb, have you swallowed your tongue along with your manners? Shake the poor woman’s hand, for goodness sake!” Carolina crooned, giving him side-eye while managing a puzzled smile at Kari as the two stood awkwardly in front of each other, gaping.

Kari had changed in some ways, for sure, but it was her, alright. Her brown hair was a darker shade but still thick and shiny, framed in soft layers around her face, brushing the edges of straight, strong shoulders. He recognized those whiskey brown eyes, deceptively sleepy unless you knew her, knew that behind them, her brain was working constantly at warp speed.

She was taller now–or anyway, she didn’t wear four-inch heels back then–so instead of having to bend to kiss her lips, he could just dip his head.

If he wanted to kiss her.

If wanting to kiss her wasn’t the only thing he could think about.

 

Excerpt #2
“I’m asking you out for coffee, Kari, because I want to spend time with you.”

Her mouth dropped. Katie knew what it was like to have a groomsman hit on you in the middle of wedding plans, but this was a first.

A groom!

And of all the guys…

“Caleb!” she gasped. “You’re asking me out on a date?”

He smiled. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

“No! You’re getting nowhere!”

“Got to second base back in high school. Remember my mom’s old Explorer? We used to park it down by the beach–”

THWACK!

With a snap of her wrist, she hit him, hard, in the chest.

The hard part came from the three-ring binder full of Carolina’s ideas.

“What about Carolina?” she asked as his hands deftly caught the binder before it broke his foot.

“What about her?”

“You’re cheating on her? Now? With me?”

“I’m what? No! How could I be cheating? Carolina doesn’t care if I go out with you!”

A rush of ice-cold numbness took over her body.

“Caleb Mikelmas, you are not the man I once knew! Maybe all that success and money turned your morality into a hormone-filled lust swamp, but that is not how I live. Silicon Valley is full of all those tech bros orgy parties, and I cannot believe you’re one of them!”

“Orgy? Kari, what are you – ”

“You can’t just ask me out when I’m planning your wedding!”

“I still can’t believe you said the word orgy.”

“And I cannot believe you’re jeopardizing your wedding to try to get me into bed!”

“Bed? What? I said coffee! And hold on. MY wedding? Kari, my wedding? I’m not getting married!”

“You’re breaking up with Carolina so you can mess around with me?”

Full-throated laughter was the very last item on Kari’s short list of Things Caleb Would Do After Asking Her to Help Him Cheat on His Fiancée (Who Hired Wedding Protectors for Their Wedding).

But laugh, he did.

So she did what any self-respecting woman would do.

She shoved the heel of her Jimmy Choo stiletto into his arch.

Which made him fold in half and drop the binder.

As color-coded spreadsheets and post-it tabs went flying, she turned on said heel to storm out, her pride damaged but not destroyed, her exit so teeth-rattlingly livid that she didn’t feel a single bit of remorse for hurting him.

Until he shouted:

“Kari, I’m not marrying Carolina! My brother, Christian, is!”

 

Excerpt #3
Ah, how Kari’s body had changed. So had his. What he first thought would be a homecoming had instead turned into time travel, a particularly fluid (ahem…) version, as Caleb the teenager collided with Caleb the Man as he touched Kari everywhere.

And she touched him right back.

Twelve years of time folded like a tesseract as he made love to Now Kari and Then Kari and desperately tried to enjoy and enthrall all the Karis in between.

Now Caleb felt inadequate. Frustrated.

Stupid.

Oh, so stupid.

The sex was phenomenal. So much better than it had been when they were young, and not just from experience or skill. There was a depth to how they touched each other, how her mouth found his, how her hands and tongue roamed over him with so much attention. She focused solely on him, her whole self in every sigh, every lick, each kiss, each thrust.

And his whole heart gave right back, matching everything she gave.

He missed her. Wanted her back here. Needed to talk, to fix this mess, to be vulnerable and real, authentic and open.

If Christian and Carolina could figure it all out, for Pete’s sake, so could Caleb and Kari.

Certain they could bridge the gap and find a way to be together, Caleb sat up, knowing he needed to find her.

Hating his pounding head.

Hydration and ibuprofen were his only hope. Like Obi-Wan and Princess Leia.

Too bad he didn’t have a droid to help him out here.

He would lie nice and still until his phone had charged sufficiently to send a text. Then he would text Kari. And Christian. And his executive assistant, Fay.

Beyond that, he had no plan.

Yet.