Page 1 of Heart Breaker

ONE

Lottie

I’m still half-asleep in bed when my phone rings. That’s never a good sign.

I sit up, rubbing sleep from my eyes until my bedroom comes into focus. I grab the phone from the nightstand and when I see my sister’s name flash across the screen, I debate letting it go to voicemail. Harper does not call at eight in the morning unless something is wrong. And seeing as we co-own a wedding planning business, when something is wrong, it usually means a bride. An unhappy one. I glance at the time again, bracing myself before I swipe to answer.

“Good morning. Should I be worried?” I ask, sitting up in bed and leaning back against the headboard.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?” she asks.

I blink. “Find out… what?”

“That you got married, and didn’t bother to tell me. Do Mom and Dad know, or did you keep it from them too?”

My brain short-circuits. “Harper.”

“Yes?”

“I need you to say that again, but slower.”

“You. Got. Married.”

Harper is twenty-eight and my older sister by three years and we’ve never been anything alike. We both have warm brown hair and green eyes but that’s where our similarities end. She has always needed quiet, structure, and time alone. I’ve always leaned toward spontaneity. We both attended the same boarding school, but while Harper spent her free time in the dance studio, I was usually wherever the band kids were, soaking up music and attention and having a little too much fun.

“Harper, it’s way too early for this,” I sigh. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh my God, Lottie. Open Instagram,” she says.

“I’m not opening Instagram. I haven’t even had my coffee.”

“Then open TikTok. Or Google. Or literally anything. Just look up Wes Winters.”

Wes Winters. I know who he is. Everyone in Deep Cove knows who he is. Wes and his three brothers are the town’s biggest success story. Several years ago, they started a luxury outdoor apparel company called Cove that totally blew up, and now the line is everywhere – in stores, in conversations, in headlines, all over the internet. The company is headquartered in a sleek, glass building right in the heart of downtown. My best friend Madeline happens to be married to one of the Winters brothers, so I’ve met Wes in passing a few times, but from what I can tell, he’s a hard guy to know. Of the four brothers, he has a reputation for being the quiet one. He’s still involved in the multi-million-dollar family business, but he spends most of his time out of town thanks to his main career as a pilot. That doesn’t change the fact that here, in this small town, he’s recognized the second he walks into a room.

My fingers tighten around my phone. “Why would I be googling Wes Winters?” I ask my sister carefully.

Harper makes a sound somewhere between a laugh and a groan. “Because apparently you’re his wife.”

I actually laugh. “Okay. Good one.”

“I’m serious.”

“Harper—”

“Charlotte Hart, if you don’t open your phone and look this up right now, I am driving over there.”

I sigh as I put her on speaker and then open the browser on my phone. “Fine.”

I tap open Google and type his name into the search bar and watch the headlines load. My stomach drops straight through the floor.

COVE HEIR WES WINTERS SECRETLY MARRIED

WEDDING BELLS FOR WES WINTERS AND MYSTERY WOMAN?

WES WINTERS’S NEW BRIDE IDENTIFIED AS CHARLOTTE HART

“What the hell?” I whisper.