“I’m keeping a lookout,” Corey soothed, voice lower than it had been. “Don’t worry. Secret’s safe.”
Secret.Secret.
I got as far as parting my lips in surprise when Corey broke into a wolfish smile. I’d really liked that smile, once.
It wasn’t that I hadn’tlikedhim, or found him attractive. He was objectively charming and handsome—he made a living being both of those things, after all.
It was just like he said. He wasn’t Simon.
“I only look stupid,” Corey said before I could think of a response. “I know you’re not really dating. I’ve?—”
“Known the whole time,” I finished for him.
Of course he did. He knew. He knewexactlyhow I felt about Simon.
Because I’d told him. At length, sobbing my heart out to the point of making myself sick. He’d had the decency to hold me the entire time and listen to everything I’d had to say. About how, when we’d met, I’d known Simon was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with and so far I’d done exactly that without ever telling him because Ialsoknew there was no way someone like Simon—who couldn’t be impressed by money or family—would ever want someone like me.
I’d told him about the ill-fated kiss ten Fourth of Julys ago, and how Simon had so gently pushed me away, and how we’d never talked about it again.
Then about the ten years since where I’d pined as quietly as possible and tried desperately to love other people. To find someone else who made me feel like he did. To be the person Simon saw me as for them. Worth the trouble of all my failings to hang out with.
And then about Ellie, who was perfect for Simon. They were two of a kind. She was so bright and warm and good, she’d been nothing but a sweetheart to me, she’d treated me like a friendfrom the moment we met. I’d hated her,andI’d felt unbearably guilty for it. I’d been staring down the barrel of a lifetime of hating her and knowing she’d given me no reason to. Of watching someone else have exactly what I wanted.
Corey shrugged. “I did wonder at first,” he allowed. “But not for long.”
I sighed. “I’m not sureanyonebelieved us.”
“Oh, your mother does.” Corey grinned. “She’s madder than a box of frogs about it.”
My lips twitched. “Silver lining.”
“Oh yeah,” Corey agreed. “I twisted the knife a little there for you.”
I wrinkled my nose. “She’ll just be even more smug when I have to tell everyone we broke up.”
“Do you have to break up?” Corey asked, brows raised. “Because Simon seems to be into it.”
I glanced over my shoulder again, paranoid. The crowd had thinned out by now—it was after dinner, getting genuinely late. I half-remembered that Delilah and Corey weren’t leaving for their honeymoon until tomorrow, or they’d have had to leave by now.
When Simon reappeared, we’d have to think about leaving. It was a three-hour drive back home, even at this time of a Sunday night.
“What happens in Montauk,” I said. The phrase had been on repeat in my head all day.
Corey raised an eyebrow.
“It... Simon said that whatever happened while we were here stayed here,” I explained. “So I, uh. I’m taking advantage.”
Corey’s brow arched another few degrees, eyes glinting. I hadn’t meant to tell him this.
Who else did I have to talk to, though?
“So the makeout session I walked in onwasn’thastily staged for my benefit?”
I shook my head, biting my lip. “We... he and I... last night, we, and it... God, it was everything I’d dreamed of and more. No one’s ever made me feel like that.”
“Ouch,” Corey said, but he was, inexplicably, smiling. A little wryly, but there was a weary softness to it as well. “That good?”
Heat rose to my cheeks as I nodded, chewing on my lip again. “It really was. I don’t... I want more,” I admitted aloud.
