Page 48 of One Sweet Day is Never Enough

But what if it was about a job? She couldn’t just ignore him.

Does it pertain to one of our events?

Gia glanced out at the water, trying to keep a cool head. The lake was vast, full of mystery and danger. A lot like the status of her relationship with the hot guy she was crushing on. His answer came in quickly.

No, it’s something else. I’m in town. Can I meet you somewhere?

She worried her lip. What else could he possibly want to talk about after the other night? She couldn’t bear to hear anymore about this ex-girlfriend of his. To know his heart belonged to someone else…

But she’d have to find a way to be around him, if only for the sake of her job. She texted back before she could change her mind.

Okay. I’m at the north end of Harris Beach. I’ll wait for you here.

* * *

Ten minutes later,Seth parked his truck on a side street and stepped out onto the sand in a pair of flip-flops. There she was, in a knee-length white skirt and tank top, her hair blowing in the wind. The picture of summer. The definition of beautiful. He swallowed hard, straightened his shoulders, and moved toward her. Would she be willing to listen to him? What an idiot he’d been. What she must think of him right now…

She stood up when he reached her. “Hi.” A fake smile—he could tell. But just the fact that she’d agreed to see him was good enough.

“Thanks for meeting me. Do you want to walk?” he ventured.

“Yeah.”

Seth fell in next to her, and they ambled across the sand. “So—I want to apologize again, Gia. I’m so sorry for not telling you about this sooner. I’ve been thinking of you as a friend since—almost since I met you—and friends tell each other these kinds of things.”

Gia nodded. “It’s okay. I’m not upset.”

He didn’t believe that for a second.

“You’re not?” Seth glanced over at her.

She shook her head.

“Well, I still need to explain.”

She stared at the shoreline as she walked. “Go ahead.”

“I wanted to talk about it with you so many times, but this thing with Stacey—sorry, that’s her name…”

Gia nodded again. “It’s okay.”

“It was serious for a long time between us. We were making plans to move forward, even though I had a lot of misgivings.” He glanced off at the lake. “Before you even came along, though, things had already been going downhill between her and me—for weeks, months even. But she was so intent on making it work, I didn’t know how to tell her I was nervous about it. I thought I should just give it a chance. I never had a girlfriend for that long. I figured cold feet were just a part of the game.”

He stopped to read her reaction. She seemed a little surprised at what he was saying. “But then you came along two weeks ago, and I started seeing things through an entirely different lens.”

Gia shook her head. “It’s fine. Look, I understand about…Stacey. You don’t need to get into it.”

“Good.” He stopped walking and stood in the wet sand where the water rolled up onto the beach and washed over their feet. “But do you understand how badly I handled things the other night?”

Gia stopped and looked up at him, her face searching his. “What do you mean?”

“I was trying to tell you something else the other night, but you left before I could. I think you got the wrong impression about what I was trying to tell you.”

Her face fell. “No, I get that. We’re just friends—you don’t see me in any other way. I got it. Crystal clear.” She frowned and looked away.

He wanted to take her hands in his—the urge was just as strong as it had been last weekend after the festival. He grabbed them. They felt warm and soft and she looked up at him, surprised. “No, not that wrong impression. The one where you think I only see you as a friend.”

“What?” She looked confused.

---