Maddie pulled into a parking space behind the Beachcomber, cut the engine and turned to Sydney. “What aren’t you telling me?”

Sydney hesitated but only for a second. Who was she kidding? She was dying to tell someone about what’d happened. After she relayed the story, Maddie stared at her. “Say something, will you?”

“What’ll you do?”

“I don’t know. Part of me wants to run to him and live again, you know? But the other part doesn’t want to take advantage of a good guy who’s already been hurt enough by me in one lifetime. What right do I have to do that to him?”

Maddie took a moment to think that over. “It seems to me that by making the offer he did, he’s willing to take the risk.”

“He’d be crazy to take a chance on me. My life is a mess at the moment.”

“It’s not a mess. It’s in transition, and you’re smart to not want to start something you might not be ready for.”

“But?”

“You already know he’s a good guy. You know what you’d be getting.”

“True.”

“Do you still love him, Syd?”

She’d asked herself that same question a thousand times over the last week. “Oh God, I don’t know. Part of me suspects I never stopped loving him. I thought about him far too often over the years. Even when I was married, I thought of him. I hate to say that because it sounds so disloyal to Seth, and I don’t want to be disloyal. But I can’t deny I thought of Luke.”

“Well, he left it up to you and didn’t put a time limit on his offer. So you could let it ride for the time being.”

“Which is more or less what I’ve decided to do.”

Maddie raised an eyebrow. “More or less?”

“I can’t deny I’m tempted. Just being near him makes me all fluttery and weak-kneed the way I was with him at seventeen.”

Laughing, Maddie said, “Girl, you’re in serious crush.”

“Is that why I’ve been so miserable all week?”

“Absolutely.” They got out of the car and walked arm in arm toward the iconic hotel. “When Mac moved into my place to take care of me and Thomas after he knocked me off my bike, I had the most god-awful crush on him. I wasted far too much time listing all the ways it would never work rather than contemplating how it might work perfectly.”

“What changed your mind?”

“Mac did. He can be very convincing when sets his mind on something.”

“I can’t see Luke doing that. He’s much more reserved, and he made it clear he won’t be pursuing me. He put the ball firmly in my court.”

“That doesn’t mean he won’t try to convince you to give him a chance.”