“I wasn’t.”
She stared at him, her nose scrunched up, and waited for him to continue.
“My house is just up there,” he said, nodding to the wooden stairs leading up the bluff.
She blinked.Oh…oh my God. “Are you telling me I just washed up in front of your house? In Montauk?”
“It would appear so.”
If there was a merciful God anywhere in the universe, Lizzy prayed he would open a crack in the earth right now just below her feet and swallow her up. Unfortunately, in the long moment that followed, there was only the steady lull of the waves at her feet and the cool breeze against her flushed cheeks. God was apparently busy.
This could not possibly get any worse, she thought.
“Come on.” He nodded toward the stairs. “I’ll drive you back.”
Never mind, she thought.This is worse.
“No. It’s okay,” she said, waving a hand in front of her. “I’ll just… figure it out.”
He stared at her for a long moment. It was like he was waiting for her to realize she was out of options.
“How will you figure it out.”
It wasn’t even a question. Probably because he already knew she didn’t have an answer.
That realization only made her more committed to coming up with one. Or at least lying to make it sound like she did. Because the truth was too mortifying. She’d traveled alone to Montauk to stake out his beach? Now she was the one who sounded like a psychopath.
“I’m staying with my aunt and uncle over at the Ocean Surf Inn,” she lied, ignoring the fact that Aunt Jean and Uncle Larry hadn’t visited in years. “They’ll probably come looking for me soon.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Oh really?”
“Yup.” She nodded, a little too enthusiastically. “We’re going to Mike’s Crab Shack for lunch, and I think they made reservations, so…”
“I didn’t know Mike’s Crab Shack took reservations.”
Crap. Mike’s might have the best seafood on Long Island, but it was also just a one-room shack off Montauk Highway that used paper towels as napkins and picnic tables for seating. The chances of someone like Will Darcy even knowing about a place like that were minimal, though, so Lizzy lifted her chin defiantly. “Well, we’re very loyal customers.”
He considered her for a minute. “In that case, I’ll give you a ride and save them the trip.”
She shifted from one foot to the other, balancing her board under one arm as she weighed her options. “Are you sure?”
He nodded. Then his lip twitched, almost like he was suppressing a smile. “You can even get in the car this time.”
Her mouth fell open just as he turned and started walking to the stairs.
CHAPTER 24
Elizabeth Bennet was in his car.
Part of Will’s mind was still processing it, still prodding the fact to see if it was real. Even when she appeared on the beach, his first instinct was that she was a hallucination. He had been out in the freezing water too long and now his mind was playing tricks on him. But as she made her way closer, the details were too clear to be a dream: her red hair haphazardly thrown into a ponytail, her dark eyes startling against her pink cheeks…
His grip on the steering wheel tightened as he turned the car onto the main road. He had spent the past month trying to shake her, shakethis, but the moment he saw that red hair against the ocean’s varying shades of gray, it all fell away. An endeavor so futile that he suddenly couldn’t remember why he had attempted it in the first place.
And now she was sitting next to him in the passenger seat of his F-150, the truck he left out at the Montauk house, dripping salt water all over his leather seats.
“Sorry,” she murmured, pulling her arms around herself as if reading his mind. She was working so hard to avoid his gaze that it was amusing.
He almost pointed out that despite the leather seats and impressive dashboard, the truck was still filled with sand and the smell of salt and sun. It was well-used, and he wasn’t precious about it. But he knew it would come out harsh, so he stayed silent. Then a tremor ran through her body and her shoulders seized up as if to stop it.
