“Is that guy she’s with her boyfriend?”
“I’m not sure,” Olivia said, torn between her urge to burst Dylan’s bubble and her desire for him to lure Emerson away from Andrew. Dylan was almost as good-looking as Andrew. He might have a shot, if he never opened his mouth.
“A supermodel lawyer,” Dylan said with a wistful sight. “I guarantee no one is ghostingherafter a first date.”
The pothole was up ahead, but instead of slowing down, Olivia reached for the roof handle and stepped on the accelerator. The golf cart launched into the air and landed with a heavy jolt that nearly sent Dylan flying out of his seat. “Fuck,” he yelped.
“Whoops! Sorry about that.”
They spent the rest of the short drive in silence. Olivia pulled off the road next to the long set of wooden steps that led from the beach up to the inn. Dylan jumped out before she had time to kill the engine. “Thanks for the ride,” he said curtly, then jogged up the stairs two at a time.
Olivia slid out of the driver’s seat, testing her injured foot before putting her full weight on it. It was still throbbing from the walk from the beach, and the prospect of another steep flight of stairs was daunting.Don’t be a baby, she told herself.Think of what Mom has gone through. You can deal with a hurt foot.She grabbed on to the railing and started to hoist herself up the first step when she saw a figure hurrying down the stairs. “Hold on!” a familiar voice called. It was Andrew.
“Let me help,” he said, wrapping his arm around her waist.
“Thanks,” she said gratefully. She leaned into him as he helped her hop up the stairs one by one, keeping the weight off her bad foot. When they reached the porch, Olivia collapsed into a wicker chair with a heavy sigh. “I need to take a break, but you go ahead.”
“I’m in no rush.” He sat down in the chair next to her.
“Isn’t Emerson waiting for you?” Apparently, her aching foot wasn’t enough for her to meet her pain threshold for the evening.
“She’s still out with her friends.” He sounded slightly uncomfortable. “What about Zack?”
“Oh… he goes to bed early so he can get up to write.” She prayed that Andrew wouldn’t find Zack in the hotel bar with some woman he found genuinely attractive, who he hadn’t just decided to flirt with as a favor.
Andrew turned to face the ocean. “He’s not exactly what I would’ve expected for you.”
“I thought you were a fan?”
“I am! He’s a really interesting writer. Just not someone I would’ve picked out for you.”
“Why not?”
“Just a vibe.”
“Oh, come on. Tell me what you mean!”
“I’m not gonna talk shit about your new boyfriend.”
“He’s not myboyfriend, exactly. You can tell me what you think. I promise I won’t get mad.”
“Right, because that’s always such an easy promise to keep.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t actually care what you think. I’m just curious.”
Andrew made a show of surveying her. “That’s probably true. You don’t seem like someone who can be easily swayed one way or the other.”
“So you’re trying to sway me?” Her lighthearted tone belied the excitement fizzing in her chest. Zack had been right. Everything seemed to be going according to plan. How often did that happen in real life?
“No, no swaying,” Andrew said with a smile. “I was just surprised. Zack seems like a nice guy. And he’s clearly really smart. But there’s also something sort of naïve about him. From what I can tell, he has a black-and-white, binary way of looking at the world. And you’re more realistic; you get that things are messy and complicated, that it’s not always about right vs. wrong.”
“That doesn’t really sound like a compliment.”
“It is, I swear! You’re someone who understands nuance. I would’ve thought that his anticapitalism shtick would’ve struck you as a little… unsophisticated.”
“Ah, I see.” Olivia nodded. “And here I was thinking that you were judging him for his breach of fashion etiquette.”
“That jacketwasa bold choice.”
