Can't Get Over You (Fortune's Island, Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

grow with resentment and disappointment every day. Zach had seen it happen to his father. Carl had become more and more resentful every year, cursing the time clock he punched every day like it was a noose around his neck. Zach didn’t want to turn into that, an angry man sitting in a chair, belching over a six-pack of Bud every night.
    Maybe that wouldn’t be him after all. Next weekend, he had a chance to see his dream come true. A moment he had anticipated for years. A moment he had wanted to share with Jillian, to turn to her and say, hey, baby, look, it finally happened.
    Only she was gone, and if his dream came true, he’d be celebrating with a bunch of guys instead of her.
    He sang the next song, a cover of a rock song, but his mind kept wandering to Jillian. She’d told him it was over. No way, no how were they getting back together. But when he’d seenher on the road yesterday, when his eyes had met hers for just a moment, he’d had a sense—for just a second—that maybe there was a window there. An opening.
    And maybe if he could fix this one screwed up part of his life, he could figure out how to make the rest work, too. Because if there was one thing he knew, and knew deep in his gut, it was that without Jillian, none of it came together.
    Was he going to let her get away again? Let another three months pass, where he just hoped things would magically change?
    He took off his guitar and put it on the stand. “Sorry, guys, but I gotta go.”
    “Wait! What are you doing?” Duff unplugged the bass from the amp and came around to the other side of the mic.
    Zach considered the band, the dream he had held onto for so long. It could wait, he decided, for a little while. “Something I should have done a long time ago.”

FOUR
    Jillian changed her outfit four times on Thursday night. She’d almost canceled her date with Ethan, but once she told Darcy about it, there was no going back. Mostly because Darcy wouldn’t hear of Jillian skipping out on the date, and had told both Whit and Grace, as added insurance that Jillian wouldn’t renege. “You deserve to have fun,” Darcy had said. “And to meet someone who values you the way you should be valued.”
    Those were the words that Jillian held onto whenever she thought about canceling. Zach had never valued her, and probably never would. The number one thing in his life, the only thing he wanted, was the band. Dreams were wonderful, but not, Jillian thought, if they came at the expense of the people you cared about.
    This past summer, Jillian had watched Darcy fall in love again with Kincaid, the man who had stolen her heart years ago. They were living together in a little house next door to Kincaid’s sister and her new baby girl. To Jillian, Darcy and Kincaid made the perfect couple. They were always smiling or laughing, constantly holding hands or finding some other reason to touch, to connect. Jillian hadn’t seen her best friend that happy in a long, long time.
    That was what Jillian wanted for herself, too. Someone who brought her happiness every day, not heartache and disappointment.
    The only way to find that was to start dating again. Ethan might not be Mr. Right, but he was Mr. Right Now, and she’d take that.
    She curled her hair, leaving it long around her shoulders, then settled on a red cotton dress with a faint pattern of shimmery birds on the skirt. She paired it with low heels, and a chunky silver bracelet she’d picked up at a flea market on the mainland last summer. She bent toward the mirror to touch up her lipstick, just as the doorbell rang.
    Her heart stuttered. Just the thought of being out with someone new, after all those years with Zach, was both terrifying and exciting. She felt as nervous as she had in high school when Zach had first asked her out.
    She smoothed a hand over her hair, took a deep breath, then pulled open the door. The smile died on her face when she saw who it was. “Zach. What are you doing here?”
    He