“Wow.” Fliss stooped to pick up a shell. “You hang out with some seriously cool people.”
“Not true. I was a waitress. I had no idea who he was. In fact I didn’t even see him at the party. I spilled a bottle of very expensive champagne, and I was fired on the spot. I was leaving the building when this superhot guy stepped into the elevator with me.”
“And you introduced yourself?”
“Not exactly. At that moment I was a bit disillusioned with being me, so I pretended to be someone else.”
Fliss was intrigued. “Who?”
“The heroine I was writing in my book. I’d given her all the qualities I would have liked to have myself. She was confident and never clumsy…” Matilda’s voice trailed off and she stared at the water for a moment. “Anyway, we had this amazing night. And then real life intruded. He found out who I was. I found out who he was.”
“Wait a minute,” Fliss said slowly. “So you’re telling me you pretended to be someone else? I thought it was just me who did that.”
“At least you pretended to be a real person. Mine was fictional. That was worse. Before I met Chase, all I knew about him was that he was a collector of rare books and that he had a library in one of his houses. A library! My idea of book storage was to push them under my bed.”
Fliss thought about Matilda’s beach house. The space and luxury. And her interest was the library. “So you were after him for his books?”
“Not exactly. His brother owned a publishing company, and I was desperate to send him the manuscript I’d been working on. I had a cunning plan, but like most of my cunning plans it didn’t quite work out the way it was supposed to.”
Fliss looked at the diamond sparkling on her friend’s finger. “Seems to me that it worked out perfectly. Fairy-tale ending.”
“It was. And the weird thing is, it was more romantic than anything I’ve ever written.” She took a sip from her water bottle. “I should probably be getting back. I have to finish my proofs before this baby comes.”
Fliss ignored the tug of envy and walked with her back to the house. “Call if you need me.”
“I won’t need you. Hero has had two walks today. We’ll both be fine.”
“I hope you’re right because delivering babies isn’t one of my skills.”
* * *
SETH STROLLED AROUND the empty master suite of his new house. Without furniture to absorb the sound, his footsteps echoed on the oak floorboards.
The room was light, with high ceilings and glass doors opening onto a balcony, and he already knew where he was going to put his bed. Against the wall, facing the view. He was on the edge of the ocean, close to the nature preserve. When he opened the windows, all he could hear were the birds and the soft lap of the water on the sand.
The house might be empty, but already it felt like a home.
Chase had done well.
And there was something to be said for living somewhere new, with no history or memories clinging to the walls.
He’d had his furniture shipped from his house in California and it had been sitting in his parents’ home for six months.
It was time he had it moved.
His phone rang, and he smiled as the caller ID flashed up.
“Chase? This is a coincidence. I’m admiring your handiwork. The house is looking great. I’m moving in on the weekend.”
“Sounds good.”
“I need to think about furniture.” He’d walked through every room and decided that many of the things he’d brought with him from his place in California weren’t going to look right here. “I need to think how to fill the space.”
“Fill it with people. It’s a family house. Maybe it’s time you thought about a family.”
“Have you been talking to my sister?”
“No. I just believe in marriage.”