Page 23 of The Seascape Between Us

Alarm bells clanged in my head. Not anotherfriend. Not again.

“Someone you’re dating?”

He chuckled and shook his head. “I wouldn’t have done anything with you tonight if I were dating someone.”

So, he was really only up for cheatingonme, notwithme. Great to know.

Though it was hard to stay angry at him. Even in the low light from the fixture next to my room’s door, I could see the faint blush tinging his cheekbones at the mention of earlier tonight.

“Brody’s just a good friend,” Daniel continued. “He owns the bar and lives in the apartment above with his boyfriend, Jett. He was one of the college kids renting your dad’s place.”

“Small world.” Was he making a point of telling me that this Brody guy was dating someone for my benefit?

“Especially around here.”

“I thought maybe you’d go to see Ryan.” Holy shit, I’d said his name. I couldn’t quite believe I’d worked up the nerve to ask him, but I needed to know.

I tensed. Focusing on his expression, I tried to read his reaction.

Daniel flinched as if I’d hit him, and he turned his gaze to the sea. My stomach sank like a rock plunged into the ocean.

“Sometimes, I forget just how long you’ve been away from here,” Daniel said without looking away from the water. “Ryan died in a car accident almost seven years ago.”

Shit. I really needed to learn to keep my big mouth shut. “I’m sorry.”

And I was. Whatever had happened when we were kids was a long time ago, and Ryan didn’t deserve that.

“Ryan and Brody were married,” Daniel explained. “That’s how Brody and I became friends.”

“Wait… You guys weren’t together?” I asked.

“Who?” Daniel asked, looking genuinely confused.

“You and Ryan.”

Except on days when I really wanted to torture myself, I never let myself imagine Daniel and Ryan living their life together. When I came here and realized that theyweren’ttogether, the relief rolling through me was immeasurable, but I still wondered what had happened.

“Me and Ryan?” Daniel’s eyes widened, then he snorted as if the possibility were ridiculous. As if I hadn’tseenthem together. “Ryan and I were never together. We’d been friends since grade school. That’s all we’d ever been.”

Of course, I knew that wasn’t true. I had seen them together with my own eyes. Daniel with his head tucked into Ryan’s neck. Ryan’s arms wrapped around Daniel, holding him tightly. The image had been seared into my memory for seventeen years.

Why did he keep lying about this? Even if he did finally admit to what he’d done, what possible difference could it make after all this time?

“You know, it’s late.” I backed away from him towards my room. “We can talk about this tomorrow. There’s no rush.”

Daniel watched me, his brows pulling together in a perplexed frown. “Okay, if you’re sure.”

Oh, I was sure. There was nothing more to be said. I was crazy to even toy with the idea that Daniel and I could try again. Clearly, there was no hope for that.

The fact that Daniel would still lie about Ryan after all these years later, after the man had passed away for crying out loud, it was obvious he hadn’t changed. He still couldn’t be trusted.

Chapter Nine

Daniel

Asteady and relentless pounding dragged me up through layers of sleep. I blinked in the shadowy darkness of my room, stretched out on my back, staring at the same ceiling as last night while silently begging for sleep. I couldn’t remember when exactly I’d finally drifted off, except that it had to have been some time after four—the last time I’d checked the time on my phone before tossing it onto my night table in frustrated disgust.

Yawning, I rubbed my eyes, which felt gritty, as if my eyelids were lined with sandpaper. Proof I wasn’t ready to wake up, but the bright strip of sunlight seeping between the narrow gap in the drapes begged to differ.

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