“You’re a talker.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“No! I like it. You’re friendly.”
He grinned back at me. “I like people. I like knowing everyone’s stories.”
“Yeah? How come?”
“You never know who you’re going to meet...”
We traded stories through dinner, of all the curious characters we’d met in our lives, pausing only to savor the food—a quinoa bowl with black lentils and avocado for me, and lemon-pepper salmon for him. I liked Tyler. Hewasfriendly, and he was funny. Sure, Noah thought he was bad news, and maybe he was if he only wanted hookups and the people he dated wanted more. But if everything was on the table... then he might be the perfect guy for a summer fling.
If I wanted a summer fling.
If I didn’t feel like, simply by being here, I was betraying someone.
Which was literally the stupidest thought in the world. So I buried it deep and tried to have a good time, which wasn’t so hard, not with the way Tyler gave me all his attention and the way his knee touched mine under the table and the way his blue gaze pulled me in.
We split the check and headed outside, walking toward the docks. The setting sun slowly bleached the sky, spreading a line of orange at the horizon. The air was heavy, soup-like, and we moved languorously.
“How do you know Noah?” Tyler asked. His gregarious personality slipped slightly, a sharp, acute intelligence shining through. “Family friends?”
A touch of wariness wound through me at his carefully casual tone. “Our grandparents knew each other.”
“Do yours also come to Nantucket?”
“Not really.” I nodded at the sunset. “It’s pretty, isn’t it?”
“Not as pretty as you.”
A laugh burst out of me, and I clapped a hand to my mouth. “Sorry.”
Brief startlement crossed his face, but then he smiled wryly. “Too cheesy?”
“Hey, good for you if it works.”
“It usually does.” He grinned, then cocked his head, studying me as though I was an unusual specimen picked up on the beach. “I can’t tell what you want.”
I blinked. “Um. You could ask me?”
“All right. What do you want?”
Oh no.Now I needed to answer. “Dinner was nice.”
Great, now I was doing Noah’s thing of very unsubtly changing the topic.
“Are you and Barbanel a thing?”
“What?” I halted. “No.”
“You seem like a thing.”
Everything was awkward and I needed a hole to follow me around so I could disappear into it when convenient. “If you thought so, why did you ask me out?”
“I thought we could have fun. Why’d you say yes if you’re into Barbanel?”
“I never said I’m into him.”
