I blinked, startled by the starkness of the confession. Something about the self-satisfied tone in her voice made me uneasy, and I had the uncomfortable sense I’d had around her a couple of times before—the sneaking suspicion that she was leaving me a trail of bread crumbs in the hope that eventually I’d follow them to…what, exactly? There was a tiny voice at the back of my head that wondered if maybe I didn’t actually want to know.
I kissed her instead of asking, the combination of her warm body and the chilly wind setting all my nerve endings humming. Eliza wound her arms around my neck. I walked her backwarduntil she was pressed against the railing, wanting to get as close to her as humanly possible; she slid one curious knee between mine, and I groaned.
Eliza smiled at that, the curve of it like a brand against my jaw. “Idolike you, you know,” she murmured—voice muffled and mouth hot against my skin, so quiet that I almost didn’t hear her over the whine of the water. “I like you a lot, Linden.”
I grinned, slipping a thumb beneath the strap of her sundress, drawing circles over the smooth skin of her shoulder. The truth was, I liked her too; Imorethan liked her, potentially, though part of me knew it was way too soon. I thought of what I’d felt for Greer, how hard and fast I’d fallen. I thought of what it had cost, in the end.
“Let me take you out,” I said—pulling back, straightening up a little. We could get to know each other for real, I figured; have an actual conversation, far from August House with its secrets and its history and its ghosts. “Tomorrow night?”
But Eliza shook her head. “I’m gone tomorrow night,” she said, looking sincerely disappointed. “My friend Pearl is in town, who I used to ride with. Her parents have a place out on Chappie—Chappaquiddick, I mean.”
My lips twisted. Chappie was smaller and way more remote than the Vineyard, studded with a handful of secluded old-money mansions and not much else. The thought of being out there overnight—even in what I was sure would be the most luxurious of accommodations—gave me the creeps, though I wasn’t about to admit that to Eliza. “I’ve heard of it, thank you.”
“I mean,Idon’t know what they teach you at Bartley.” Shetraced her index finger along the underside of my arm. “Anyway, I’ll be back before the storm hits. You can take me out when the weather clears, how about.Or”—she popped up on her tiptoes and kissed me again, tugging gently at the hair at the nape of my neck—“who knows? Maybe we can stay inside.”
I made a helpless sound, pulling her even closer in the moonlight. There was more than one way to get to know someone, I reminded myself. “Eliza,” I muttered against her neck, my mouth moving slowly across her collarbone, “come downstairs with me.”
Eliza pulled back and grinned, her face full of promise, then gestured up at the sky. “Stars are for wishing on,” she announced, all finishing-school polish. She kissed me one more time before she slipped away down the ladder.
