Page 51 of Surfside Sisters

“Sebastian—”

He pulled her to him, one arm embracing her, and, with the other hand, cupped her head as he brought his lips down to hers. His kiss was warm, both gentle and intense. She sensed he was holding back his passion. “There. I’ve been wanting for you to grow up so I could kiss you like that.”

It was too good to be true. “The way you kiss Ebba?”

A cloud passed over Sebastian’s face. He relaxed his embrace. He grasped the suitcase again. Now his eyes were sad. “That’s complicated.”

“Yes, I thought so,” Keely said, and she tried very hard to smile in a sophisticated, you-can’t-hurt-me-kid kind of way, as if she were Madonna or anyone who kissed thousands of men. “Look, there’s my gate. Thanks for walking me over, Sebastian. Have a great timevisitingon Nantucket!” She took her suitcase from him, which involved her hand touching his, which sent the entire Fourth of July fireworks going off inside her, but she was too wary to be hopeful, and she was determined.

Sebastian said, “Goodbye, Keely.”

She didn’t look back. She didn’t rush. Head high, she walked to her gate, to the plane that would take her to New York.

—

Isabelle had raved about the small, elegant hotel she and Gordon stayed in whenever they wanted to just “zip down” to the city to see a play or an art opening, so Keely had made a reservation there. The clerks at the Empire Hotel gave her the key to her room even though it was only one o’clock, two hours before check-in. Gratefully, Keely parked her luggage, freshened her face, and gave herself a pep talk before heading back to the street and hailing a taxi.

The Hazlitt and Hopkins Literary Agency offices were in one of the towering Lego block structures that kept the Wall Street area shady. After Keely signed in, she was directed to the bank of elevators on the left. She rode up to the fifteenth floor and stepped out into a great open space of glass and light.

For a moment, she stood there, looking around, taking a breath, reminding herself she wasn’t dreaming.

“May I help you?” asked a harried-looking receptionist.

“I’m Keely Green. I have an appointment with Sally Hazlitt—”

“Keely!” A tall, buxom woman with masses of curly red hair arrived. “Barbara, this is our new star, Keely Green. Ransome & Hawkmore Publishing just made a two-book offer.”

Before Keely could do more than smile hello, Sally whisked her off down the hall and into a glass-walled office.

“Sit.” Sally pointed to a sofa.

Keely sat.

A tall, thin, frighteningly sophisticated woman with black lipstick entered the room.

“Keely, this is Fiona, my assistant. She’ll be doing a lot of the work with you.”

“Hi, Fiona,” Keely said.

“Hi, Keely,” Fiona replied, and smiled, and all at once she was enchantingly friendly.

Fiona asked, “Would you like water? Coffee? Scotch?”

“Nothing, thank you.”

Fiona sank into a chair.

“Great,” Sally said. “So, you lucky thing, I checked your Facebook page and you’re more gorgeous than your posts. Great hair. You’re not married, no kids, right?” While Keely nodded, Sally continued, “You’re young, your book is good. We all want to see the spoiled rich girl get her comeuppance. We’re going to meet Juan Polenski, he’s your editor, for lunch, but first I want to go over some things with you. Standard boilerplate contractual blah blah blah. Here we go.” She handed Keely a sheaf of documents.

For the next half hour, Sally walked Keely through the legalese, explaining terms likesub-rightsand stressing the paragraph where Keely agreed the Hazlitt and Hopkins Literary Agency would receive fifteen percent of all money due the author.

“It’s worth it to you, honey, believe me. You do the creative stuff, we work on these contracts and argue with the publishers. But you don’t have much to argue about. You have landed in a big fat garden of roses. So. Tell me about your next book.”

Keely stalled. “My next book?”

“Read the words. This is a two-book contract. They’re investing a lot inRich Girl. They want to ride on that, and so do I, and so do you.”

Keely chewed her lip. “Does the next book have to have the same characters?”

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