Page 5 of The Seascape Between Us

“If you change your mind, let me know. Also, I still have the letter Sawyer found.”

My insides squeezed tight at the mention of that damn letter, the one my father had apparently written and addressed to me sometime before he died but never sent. One of the students living in my father’s house—Sawyer, apparently—had found thisletter under a bookcase in the study. Months had passed since Finn had told me about the letter, and I’d avoided it so far. I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to read it. I mean, did I really want to read his excuses or apologies or some combination of both for cutting me out of his life with no explanation? Not especially. After all, he was gone, and there was nothing that could change the past.

“Just leave the letter with the rest of my father’s things, and I’ll look at it later.”Or not.

“Whatever you say.” Finn sounded less than convinced. Still, he didn’t push. He knew I didn’t enjoy discussing my father. “How’d it go at the hotel?”

I’d told Finn I’d planned to visit the Seascape this morning, and while I hadn’t told him my plans exactly, Finn and I had been friends and worked together too long for him not to have guessed.

“Nothing unexpected,” I said.Besides, Daniel Quinn looking better now than he had seventeen years ago.But I left that part out.

“Are you selling it?” Finn asked.

“I am.”

Silence stretched between us for a long moment before Finn said, “Alistair thinks selling the hotel is a mistake.”

“Well, if there was one thing I really felt like I was missing, it was input from your twenty-five-year-old artist boyfriend. I guess I just won’t sell. Are there any other projects we have in the works Alistair has an opinion on?”

“Don’t be a dick,” Finn said, and I read the warning in his tone. Translation, don’t talk shit about his boyfriend. Not that I would have. I genuinely liked Alistair. I mean, the guy could be a touch prickly, but he loved Finn and Finn’s son, Will, and he made Finn happier than I’d ever seen him in all the years we’d known each other. Still, while I liked him well enough, I could definitelylive without his ever-so-helpful suggestions for my business. He was still in school studying for his Masters in Fine Art while working part-time as a server at the Seascape Hotel restaurant. Not exactly a business expert.

“I’m not,” I said, “But Alistair’s art background doesn’t really apply to hotel management. If he’s worried about his job—”

“He’s not,” Finn cut in. “He thinks selling the hotel would be bad for the community.”

“Notthe communityagain.” I rolled my eyes, glad Finn couldn’t see me. “I’m sure Oceanwind Square will go on even without a second-rate hotel. Besides, whoever buys it will probably keep the hotel going, anyway.”

“I know your dad was a dick to you, but he did a good thing with Oceanwind Square,” Finn said, his tone turning unusually careful.

“Whatever issues I have with my father have nothing to do with me not wanting to own an old hotel that drains more money than it makes.”

“Alistair is friends with Daniel. He says he’s a good guy.”

EverybodylovedDaniel. “I’m sure Daniel’s the best, as long as you’re not dating him.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, I wanted to call them back. Besides sounding like a bitter ex—which was a little ridiculous when you considered the short time we’d been together combined with the nearly two decades between then and now—I wanted to keep my past with Daniel private. Not that I thought Finn would say anything to anyone—except maybe Alistair, which, given his connection to Daniel, was exactly what I wanted to avoid. I just didn’t want anyone to think my actions in The Square were personal and not sound business decisions.

“If you ever need to talk to me about anything, you know you can, right?”

My face heated. “Thanks, but I’m good. I got to go. I have another call coming in.”

I felt bad for lying. But I really wanted to get off the phone before I inadvertently blurted out more things about Daniel and me I didn’t want anyone else to know.

By the time I got home to my loft, I was exhausted. I’d spent most of the afternoon in the office, buried under work, putting out fires, doing my best not to think about Daniel, until the sun had slipped beneath the horizon, turning the sky a deep shade of indigo.

I collapsed onto my sofa. Outside, the city was lit up so bright it was impossible to see the stars in the darkening sky overhead. Normally, I loved living in the city. The rush and energy fueled me. Not tonight, though. Tonight, exhaustion turned my limbs heavy, my movements sluggish.

I probably should have changed out of my suit, at least, but so far, all I’d managed was to kick off my shoes and shrug out of my jacket, tossing it onto the couch next to me.

As busy as I’d been, I was relieved in a way. There’d been no time to think about Daniel. Of course, now that I was home, I couldn’t get him and how damn good he looked standing in his office, sweaty and dirty from working out of my head. My fingers practically itched to peel him out of his clothes and pull him into a shower, lather his body in soap, and explore every inch of him.

A strange charge shivered through me, feeling more like panic than desire. The first time we’d been together had been in a shower in one of the rooms in the hotel.

We’d spent the day hanging out around The Square, at the beach, like a couple of kids, but at eighteen and twenty, respectively, that’s what we were, a couple of kids. We’d madeout on the beach for a while, the sun heating our skin, until we were caked in a mix of sweat and sand.

Daniel had brought me back to the hotel with him and stole a key to a room on the first floor from the pegboard behind the front desk. Once inside, he locked the door and turned on the shower in the bathroom. I watched him pull his shirt over his head and shimmy out of his shorts and underwear, then step into the shower under the spray. His cock was firmly at attention, and so was mine.

I backed him up against the shower wall until I had him pinned between my body and the faux tile. Even that first time, he’d liked it when I took charge. He always turned soft and fuzzy under my hand, and the sight of him like that made me want him more. I’d kissed him hard, dragging my cock against his and drawing a soft groan from his lips. Fuck, I loved the sounds he made. The way his breath caught when I gripped both our dicks together and started jerking us off at the same time.

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