He had asked her that last night, and he seemed strangely interested in the answer. “Yes.” He was looking at her as they walked, and he was listening so intently, it made her want to say more. “And I love the beach, so I’m always happy to visit them. My dad was always a beach person, too, though the clamming is a more recent development. We used to rent a place in Long Beach for a couple weeks every summer. And my dad grew up on the beach in Playa del Carmen, which is a bit south of Cancún. His parents owned a hotel—they still do, though they don’t do the day-to-day running of it anymore. Every few years over the holidays we all go there for a visit. The beach is big in my family, is my point, so Long Island made sense for my parents. Of course they’re not right on the water—that’s too expensive for us commoners.” She smiled to show she was kidding.

“And you have a sister, you said?”

“Yep. She’s three years younger.”

“And you’re close to her, too?”

“Yeah, but in that weird way siblings are without there being a lot to it objectively. We love each other, but we don’t have much in common. She’s a corporate lawyer for a mutual fund company, and I teach and write about literature. We don’t talk that much, but, you know, we’re sisters.”

“Funny how that happens. You can grow up with someone, spend all your time with them, and then . . .” He waved a hand in front of his face. “It’s all gone once you become adults.”

It occurred to Dani that in the space of two days, she’d told Max about Vince, her job dissatisfaction, and her family. He had a gift for drawing out information. He’d seemed genuinely interested, but maybe all he was doing was being polite. She, on the other hand, knew nothing about him.

“Do you have siblings?” she asked in an attempt to make the conversation more two-sided. He had sounded, when he’d talked about growing apart from a sibling, as if he’d been speaking more than theoretically.

“A brother.”

Was it her imagination, or did he purse his lips a little as he spoke? “Younger, I presume? Since you’re the future duke and all.”

She’d been trying to lighten the mood, but he just said, “Yes. Younger.” The terse, clipped tone sounded like it was coming from a different person than the carefree baron who had taken her to The Nutcracker on a whim. “Are you close?”

“We were until he went to boarding school in England.”