She looked at me, her red-painted lips tight. “He made a pretty hard pass at me.”

“Oh.” My eyelids seemed to be blinking too fast. “Uh . . . are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Last . . . last spring.”

“Yes. May seventeenth. I checked my planner.”

“And by ‘hard pass,’ what are we talking about? Because he’s nice to everyone, and you know, schmoozing is part of his—”

“He pressed me against a wall, kissed my neck and asked me if I wanted to spend the night at the Madison Beach Hotel with him.”

Oh, the fuckery.

“That is a pass. Okay. Yep. You’re right.” I felt a little dizzy.

“And when I said no, he told me I didn’t know what I was missing. He gave me his room key and told me I should change my mind so he could rock my world.”

“Dick move.” I swallowed.

“I thought so.”

My legs felt weak, so I sat down, my knees wobbling like a newborn foal’s. My breathing sounded funny. Too loud.

Rock your world. He’d said that to me on more than one occasion. Want to come back to my place so I can rock your world? I thought he meant it to be funny, and I always laughed.

And last May—I remembered it was May because of the lilacs—he’d called me and told me to take the train up to Madison. Spur of the moment, he said, because it had been late in the day on Saturday. We’d have fun. And I did, and we did, and I’d been his second choice. At least his second choice, because who knows if he’d made that offer to someone else at the yacht christening party?

“Look,” Gillian said, and her voice was gentler now. “I’m sorry to tell you this. I know it must seem like I’m trying to get revenge because of Noah, but I’m not. I just thought I’d want to know if my boyfriend made a pass at someone else.”

“No, I appreciate it,” I whispered.

“Do you want a glass of water?”

“No, thanks.” Pepper left Gillian and came over to me and tried to sit on my lap.

“Do you want to call someone, maybe? Your sister? Mom?”

I blinked. Put my chin on Pepper’s head, getting my ear licked as thanks. “I’m okay, Gillian. I . . . I appreciate you telling me this.”

She stood up, smoothed her skirt and walked past me on the steps. “I love your jacket,” I whispered.

She put her hand on my shoulder. “In another world, we’d probably be friends.”

Would we? “Drive safely. Bye.”

She strode to her car, hips swaying the perfect amount, got in and gave me a little finger wave.

Just then, my phone beeped. I took it out. Another text from my loving boyfriend.

Please come, babe. I miss you!

Did he now?

On my way, I typed.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

John