Holiday In the Hamptons (From Manhattan with Love 5)

“Why is it crazy?”

“Because—” She shook her head. “It’s too late, Seth.”

“Too late for what we had then, but I don’t want what we had then.”

There was a flare of panic in her eyes. “What do you want?”

More. Everything. All of it. “I want to spend time with you, and this time we’re keeping our clothes on.”

“I’m not the person I was ten years ago.”

“Neither am I. I’m older and wiser, for a start.”

She ran her tongue over her lips. “You don’t know me, Seth.”

“I’ve learned more about you in the past week than I found out during all those long hot summers.”

“Half the time I was with you I was pretending to be Harriet.”

“And that told me something. It told me you still hide when you’re scared.” He paused. “And it told me I’m not the only one who still has fe

elings. You have them, too.”

“Of course I have feelings! I’m annoyed, confused—”

“For me. You have feelings for me.” That silenced her. “If you didn’t you wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to hide.”

” “I felt guilty. I wasn’t even sure you’d want to see me. In a way I was protecting you.”

“And you were also protecting yourself.”

She snatched in a breath. “And why wouldn’t I? We hurt each other, Seth. And maybe some of that was misunderstanding, bad timing—I don’t know—but it was bad.”

In that single moment he caught a glimpse of just how bad.

“So we know not to do that again next time.”

“There is no next time. No present and no future. Only the past.” She snatched up her things, almost tripping over her feet in her haste to get off the boat.

“Fliss—”

“I’m not doing this again. I can’t.”

She all but fled, her sneakers pounding the wooden boards.

Look back, he thought as he watched her run. Look back.

But she didn’t. She kept running, knocking into people in her haste to get away from him.

Lulu looked at him and barked.

“I know. She’s gone, which means I don’t get to ask my next question, which involved sharing a bottle of champagne on the beach and watching the sun go down. The whole thing didn’t go quite as I planned it.”

He hadn’t meant to kiss her, at least not then.

She’d probably go back to hiding behind corners when she saw him coming. Maybe she’d even go back to Manhattan.

With a sigh, he sprang off the boat.