Page 42 of I’d Be Honored

“No way,” Maddie countered, kicking off her sneakers and curling her legs up onto the patio sofa. “We’ve got palm trees, beaches, perfect weather year-round.” She drifted off, a dreamy look in her eyes. “You haven’t lived until you’ve chased the sunset along the PCH with the top down, wind blowing through your hair, and the ocean beside you. I don’t know, Hayley, it’s pretty hard to beat California living.”

Well, when you put it like that.

“Fine, I’ll give you those things,” Hayley relented, setting her wine glass onto the coffee table with the definitive clack of someone gearing up for war. “But New York is so much more alive.”

“Well, maybe I just need someone to show me around.”

“No one knows this city better than Hayley,” Gemma chimed in, letting the statement hang in the air. It was a dare.

Hayley narrowed her eyes at Gemma, then back at Maddie. The gleam in Maddie’s gaze had turned wicked.

“Consider me your new tour guide,” Hayley declared. “We’ll start tomorrow night.”

She didn’t know why she’d given in so easily, except for the fact that she had always felt fiercely protective of the East Coast, particularly the city that raised her. A sudden urge to make Maddie want to stay in New York took hold of Hayley, to make her choose this life with them—if only to win.

HAYLEY SPENT THE ENTIRE NEXT AFTERNOON at her desk, crafting the perfect itinerary for Maddie’s tour of the city. The plan for that night was simple and family-friendly, she reassured herself. But as evening fell, Hayley began to realize that her organized lines of checkboxes were nothing more than a thin façade of control, and a knot tightened in her stomach from all the unknowns.

Now she couldn’t help but feel like she was walking directly into a trap as she stared at Gemma’s front door and took a deep breath to steady herself.

She secured her purse on her arm and reached for the handle, only to find Gemma already waiting on the other side.

“Don’t you look nice for your date?”

“This is not a date,” Hayley snapped, though she couldn’t stop herself from checking her reflection in the hallway mirror.

“Those tailored pants showing off your ass say otherwise,” Gemma teased and leaned against the doorframe, her gaze dropping to Hayley’s white-knuckled grip on her bag. “You should loosen that clutch, Hay. But it’s nice to know you are human after all.”

Hayley forced her fingers to relax. “Is that all? No more lectures about keeping my hands to myself?”

“Lecture is a little dramatic,” Gemma murmured, her voice dropping into a whisper. “I warned you not to fuck and run. And now look, here you are, acting like a gentlewoman.”

Before Hayley could respond, Maddie appeared, squeezing sideways around Gemma to press a quick, soft kiss to Hayley’s cheek. She did it so casually as if she had done it a thousand times before, and Hayley blinked in surprise. The heat of Maddie’s lips lingered on her skin long after she pulled away.

“Have her home at a reasonable hour!” Caitlin shouted from the foyer.

Still blinking, Hayley ushered Maddie out the front door and into the backseat of the black car waiting for them. She climbed in on the opposite side, her heart pounding with an unwelcome thud against her chest as the door clicked shut.

Throughout her afternoon of planning, Hayley’s “Tour of New York” had taken on a life of its own, fueled by an inexplicable need to make Maddie fall in love with the city. Now, as they drove toward the outskirts of Brooklyn, Hayley found herself checking her watch full of doubts.

She’d forgotten that the drive was so long, and the steady rhythm of the tires on the pavement matched the mounting tension in her chest.

Hayley eventually spotted colored lights twinkling in the distance and turned to Maddie.

“Close your eyes,” she whispered. “Don’t open them until I say so.”

The driver eased the car to a stop beside the sidewalk.

Hayley got out and opened Maddie’s door, guiding her by the hand and turning her to face the thrum of activity.

“Okay, now you can open.”

Maddie squealed. “Coney Island!?” Her voice was bright with surprise. “Oh my gosh, it’s just like Two Weeks Notice!”

Hayley burst into an unexpected laugh, and Maddie beamed up at her. The light reflecting from her eyes was so bright that Hayley had to look away.

As she led the way toward the boardwalk, the scent of salt air and roasted nuts transported Hayley back through time. She was suddenly six years old again, walking hand in hand with her mom up the pier, jumping from one wooden plank to the next, and giggling at some long-forgotten joke.

Coney Island had been a pillar of Hayley’s childhood. Whenever she thought of the good days, she pictured her family here—hands sticky with sugar and bellies full of laughter, playing carnival games late into the warm summer nights.