Page 12 of Now or Never

“Your ranking makes no sense,” Antonio said with a shake of his head. “The whole point of tier ranking is to putyourtop picks in the first tier. So your first tier should actually be the women in your third tier. Second tier would remain. Your first tier would be third, fourth stays the same.”

Adam shook his head. “No. My rankings, my choice.”

“Huh,” Ethan said with a squint. “Where did Chelsea fall in your ranks?”

Adam winced, remembering hitting on her and it all going south. God, he wished he hadn’t been so stupid. There had been something about her that was just so . . . hard to resist.

“Who’s Chelsea?” Antonio asked.

“My girlfriend’s sister,” Ethan explained. “Adam hit on her. But she’s definitely a tier one.”

“Speaking of Chelsea,” Adam said, hoping to change the subject. “I have some news.”

“Me too,” Ethan said. “But first tell me why you hit on her.”

Adam let out an exhale. “You told me she was selling Monroe Manor. I figured she’d be gone back to Toronto, which put her into category two,” he said, remembering the thrill of asking her out and her saying no. He shrugged. “It was risky, and it backfired.”

Antonio laughed. “Shot you down?”

Adam shuddered at the awkwardness of her son coming up and calling her Mama and alarms going off in his ears. Kids automatically shot a woman to tier one. He’d taken off like a light and sworn to never go after a two again.

“Yeah, something like that.”

Ethan rolled his eyes. “I actually want to talk to you about Chelsea.”

Adam’s eyebrows rose. “You do? Why?”

Max turned to Antonio. “Come on,” he said, “let’s warm up.”

“Tell him about Float Fest!” Adam called as they took off together in a lap around the ice.

Adam turned his attention back to Ethan as he took a deep breath.

“Natalie hung out with Chelsea and her friend, Jae, a couple of nights ago. She told me that Chelsea is trying to rent the property out to a film production.”

The gears in Adam’s head started cranking, wondering how filming and construction would work next to each other. He had gone to the property with Ethan and Natalie and the architects a few weeks ago when they completed the contracts to build their house in the spring, and there wasn’t that much distance between where Chelsea’s property ended and Natalie’s began. Two hundred feet at most. “Okay . . . when?”

“I guess they are coming by on Tuesday to see the property.”

Shit.He’d planned to stop by tomorrow to get her signature on the insurance papers.

“I was just worried about you, Adam,” Ethan continued. “I don’t know how many media would come along, if it’s a big production.”

Adam snapped back. He hadn’t thought about that. But it had been so long since he’d received any kind of attention from the media that he never worried about it. One of the many great things about living in Mapleton.

“The thing is,” Ethan continued. “Natalie said Chelsea seems to be struggling a little with the property. She’s okay, but this would help a lot. I’m just . . . worried about you, I guess. But I also don’t want her to miss a chance at getting ahead.”

Adam nodded and slapped his friend on the shoulder. He was always thinking of others. “Actually, I’m a little worried about something else. I found out today that your house is being bumped up.”

Ethan’s jaw dropped. “What?”

Adam nodded. “Something came up in the spring, so we’re going to start yours now. The permits came in this afternoon.”

Ethan’s face split into the grin Adam had been waiting all day to see. Ethan and Natalie were eager to move into their own place and had been disappointed when his dad slotted them in for May.

“Are you serious? It’s happening now? I was going to propose before we move in.”

Adam laughed. “Well, you better get on it, then. We’re breaking ground next week. My dad is going on vacation, so I’m leading the crew.”

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