Page 16 of Three Days of Holiday

I kissed the enemy.

And I liked it.

“This changes nothing. I’m still going to win this event. The time of the Causebay family pressuring everyone else in the state of Maine is going to end, and it starts with me.”

Will’s lips fell back in that familiar flat line he’d used on the woman earlier, but this time I was close enough to see the little wrinkles when he snapped his teeth together.

“Did you think you could butter me up and then I wouldn’t try as hard? That I’d be a lovesick puppy who’d let you win?” He’d known who I was right from the beginning, and he absolutely played me. Did he use this tactic every year?

Will reared back as if I’d slapped him. The movement created enough of a shift in the air that I caught a whiff of his cologne. “I’ve won five years in a row. I don’t need to cheat to win this year. Stop being ridiculous.”

Did he call me ridiculous? How dare he? It was obvious he didn’t like me the way he led me to believe. When you were a Causebay, you always had an ulterior motive. They were power-hungry jerks.

The group of people in the middle of the room disbursed, and someone shouted into the hall, calling a three-minute warning for the first meeting.

I pushed past Will, getting ready to go to the first meeting of the event and learn the theme. But before Ileft, he grabbed onto my arm gently, just enough to stop my movements. “Please, let me explain.”

“No.” I slapped his hand away. “Screw you, William Causebay.”

I jerked out of his grasp and walked into the conference room for our first meeting, but not before I heard him toss one last thing in my direction.

“Fine, Holly Halliday, game on.”

6

WILL

Iknew Holly would find out the truth eventually, but for some stupid reason, I thought I could keep it a secret for a little longer.

Another day.

A few more hours.

I wanted one dinner to sit beside her, partake in her smile, and hear more stories of the antics happening in Pelican Bay. Half of them had to be fake or extremely exaggerated.

What we shared the night before was so perfect, and then she ruined it. I’d hoped she’d accept me like I had her, even knowing who she was. I clenched my fists together and then opened them, shaking my hands out and counting to ten while trying my best to get my emotions under control. Yes, I was the big bad William Davis Causebay Junior, but she was just as much my archenemy as I was hers.

And I looked past it.

I hadn’t held it against her.

Then she’d gone and wiped away every good feeling I had for her in a single word. She called me William.

Is that how she saw me? As nothing more than an extension of my father. The door closed behind Holly as she walked into the room where we’d have our first meeting, but I needed time to cool down.

No single name on the planet was worse than William Causebay. I hated the name almost as much is I hated the person who gave it to me.

My father.

Sure, on the family website and news articles, we painted a picture of the perfect family—one so loving they’d make Norman Rockwell orgasm—but it wasn’t the truth. We hated one another. Running the farm was the only thing that kept us talking. Any image you saw of the Causebay family was a fine-tuned constructed illusion created by our public relations staff.

Yes, we had an entire staff dedicated to keeping the family looking East Coast proper. We had enough skeletons and drama in our closets to keep them employed for the next hundred years.

The door to the large room for our first meeting opened and Diane peeked her head out. “Are you coming? The meeting is about to start.”

“I’ll be right there,” I said, my words flat, matching my mood.

It was time to learn the theme of this year’s contest and figure out a strategy for how I’d win against the competition, including Holly Halliday. She might have the most gorgeous face of any woman I’d seen, but I’d win this competition like I had the last five.

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