The moment I walked into Marcus's house, his mom dropped the wine glass she was holding. It shattered on the kitchen floor, red liquid spreading like blood across the white tiles. But Sarah Bennett didn't move. She just stared at me with those green eyes I'd tried so hard to forget during my four years in the Marines. "Jake?" Her voice came out breathless. "Is that really you?" I wasn't the skinny eighteen-year-old kid who used to sleep over and play video games with her son anymore. Four years of military discipline had put forty pounds of muscle on my frame. I'd seen combat. Killed men. Become someone else entirely. "Hey, Mrs. Bennett." I kept my voice steady, but my heart was hammering. She was forty-two now, divorced for two years, and somehow even more beautiful than I remembered. The years had only refined her—those curves, that thick dark hair, the way she moved with this quiet confidence that made my mouth go dry. "You're back." She finally bent down to pick up the glass pieces, and I caught myself staring at the curve of her neck. "Marcus didn't tell me you were coming." "He doesn't know yet. Wanted to surprise him." That was a lie. Marcus was still deployed in Germany. I'd come back to this small California town specifically because he wasn't here. Because she was alone. Sarah stood up, and our eyes met across the kitchen. The air between us felt electric, dangerous. I'd spent four years trying to bury the crush I'd had on my best friend's mom, but seeing her now, it all came roaring back ten times stronger. "You've changed," she said softly. "So have you." I stepped closer, watching her breath catch. "Divorce looks good on you." I shouldn't have said that. It crossed a line we'd always carefully avoided. Her ex-husband had been a bastard—controlling, emotionally abusive, never good enough for her. Marcus and I used to talk about it late at night, how much we hated seeing her so unhappy. But I'd had other thoughts about Sarah Bennett. Darker thoughts. The kind that made me hate myself because she was my best friend's mother. "Jake." She said my name like a warning. "You can't—" "Can't what?" I was close enough now to smell her perfume. Something expensive and intoxicating. "You know what." Her voice was barely a whisper. "This thing between us. We've always pretended it doesn't exist, but—" My phone buzzed. I pulled it out, and my blood turned to ice. It was a text from Marcus: *Bro, emergency leave approved. Flying home tomorrow. Can't wait to see you and Mom together again like old times.* I looked up at Sarah, and I could see in her eyes that she understood. We had one night. One night before Marcus came home and this became impossible forever. She reached out and touched my chest, right over my racing heart. "My bedroom," she whispered. "Ten minutes. If you're sure." Then she walked away, leaving me standing in her kitchen with a choice that would destroy everything. ##