Maybe Myles sensed this—at least, I hoped he was somewhat aware of the grief his actions were causing me—because he said, “If I’d known you were going to be here, Zoe, I would have called. I just thought you’d given up on the whole idea. You said as much that night we…you know, decided to take a break.”
We decided? And if this was a break, no one told me. In fact, if I remembered correctly, Myles said he didn’t know if he was ready to take the next step. With me, anyway. I would have argued the point now, but something about his pensive gaze stopped me.
“Hey, if you’re here, then you must have been here the night—God, Zoe, did you take that share in Tom Landon’s house?” He reached out, taking my hand in his. “I’m so sorry about what happened.”
I looked into his eyes and saw the first genuine sympathy I’d seen from anyone yet, and Myles didn’t even know Maggie. “Yeah, me, too.”
“How’s the husband doing?”
“Fine,” I said, with a shrug, dropping my eyes to the sand, studying Myles’s feet, his long, even toes, already beginning to tan. “He’s here, too,” I said, looking up at Myles again. “This weekend.” I paused. “He’s out fishing as we speak.”
He nodded, his eyes on mine, assessing. Then he blew out a sigh. “The whole thing was just freaky, if you ask me.”
“I know,” I replied, glad to find out at least someone agreed with me. “Were you out here that weekend?”
“No, but I heard about it. Made the Long Island newspapers, according to my mother.”
“I saw her, Myles, I mean—I found her. On the beach.”
“God, Zoe. How—”
“I was out walking Janis Joplin—the dog, that is. Maggie’s dog. It was like the dog knew something, you know? She was going nuts—pulling me along on the leash, as if she were looking for her. And then we found her…”
When I saw the horror in his eyes, I felt fresh horror move through me.
His hand tightened around mine. “Hey, Zoe, if you ever need to talk…”
“Myles!” came a female voice in the distance. We both turned to see a blonde in a bright yellow bikini jogging down the beach toward us. She was thin, yet curvy, and when she stopped before us, breathless and smiling, I realized she was also beautiful.
“We’re short a player! You in or not?” she exclaimed, one thumb gesturing over her slender shoulder at the volleyball net set up in the distance.
Myles dropped my hand as he turned toward the blonde, and my antennae went straight up.“Sure, just give me a minute, okay?” Then, as if he realized the blonde and I were sizing each other up and that some introduction might be necessary, he said, “Uh, Haley, this is my friend, Zoe. Zoe, Haley.”
Haley nodded at me, a bit dismissively I thought, then turned her sunny little face up at Myles once more. “Five minutes?”
“Sure thing,” he said, smiling back at her. She nodded and headed merrily back up the beach to her teammates.
“So we’re friends, is that what we are?” I said, feeling less than friendly as I watched Haley’s perfect little ass get smaller and smaller as she jogged away from us.
Myles looked at me, surprised, I suppose, at the anger in my tone. I couldn’t blame him. I was surprised. I was usually a little more subtle than that. Still, I couldn’t be stopped. “So if I’m a friend, what’s Haley?”
“She’s…a friend. I mean, she was in a few of my classes.”
Which meant she was not only cute, but young. Everyone in Myles’s classes was twenty-three or twenty-four, since Myles had worked for a not-for-profit foundation for a few years before returning to school to study law. The fact that he was in the classroom with so many young people had bugged him a bit. But apparently it didn’t bug him anymore.
“It’s her house I’m staying in. With six other people,” he added quickly. “All friends. From law school.”
“How nice you have so many friends out here,” I said.
“Zoe—”
“Look, Myles, I have friends out here, too,” I said. “And the truth is, I don’t need any more. Especially you.”
Chapter Eleven
Nick
Somebody’s been sleeping in my bed.
“Finally!“ Sage said when I came through the door Saturday evening. ”We were beginning to think you weren’t going to show up.“
“Have I ever been known to miss a party?” I said, leaning in to buss her cheek. “Whatcha making?” I glanced at the large mixing bowl she stirred.
“German potato salad.”
“Whoa, Sage. I didn’t know you were a German-potato-salad kind of girl,” I said, sliding my knapsack off my back and moving in closer to inspect her creation. Mmm…looked good.
She looked somewhat offended.“I can cook. I’ve always been able to cook. It’s just more fun when you have a real kitchen to do it in. And a real reason. I’m making this for the party tonight. I told you, it’s potluck.” She lowered her voice.“I didn’t want Tom, you know, putting himself out with cooking after, you know, everything.”
“Right,” I said, nodding my head. “Where is Tom?”
“He’s out on the back deck mutilating innocent aquatic creatures,” came Zoe’s voice from the sofa in the living room, where she was lying down. I assumed she was lying down anyway. All I could see were her feet.
“Hey, Zoe,” I called out by way of greeting.
“He’s cleaning fish,” Sage explained. “He caught two stripers today, and he’s going to grill them up for the party tonight.”
“Cool,” I said, patting my stomach. I loved grilled fish.
“So what did you bring?” Sage asked now, reaching for the pepper grinder and beginning to turn it over the bowl.
“Bring?” Shit, I knew I forgot something. “I figured I’d pick up some beers at the market,” I hedged. “Actually, I think I might even have some left over from the last weekend we were here, since we didn’t get to, uh, drink them.”
“Nick, I did
