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“I’ve racked my mind with the logistics of things. You see, I predict results for a living. I’m a consultant for companies who merge with larger companies. I can take data and give sound advice. I’m good at it. I’m sought out for my abilities. Yet I could have never predicted this…what’s happening now. When I left you that night, I don’t know…” He shook his head. “It’s crazy. I knew you for all of three minutes of you thinking I was someone else, and all I could think was ‘My God, how pretty she is.’ And it wasn’t just your looks, Lucy. It was you. You drew me in. I’m not drawn in by many people.”

He moved closer. “You were magnetic. I hung on every word you said. Wanted what little time we spent not to end. It was something about you I couldn’t explain. Yet I knew this chance meeting would end. I predicted you were going to go through with marrying that guy. And I would think regrettably about you, having never had the chance to meet you before him, and I would get over it. And I did. Yet, unpredictability led me to this moment. Where we’re dancing on the beach alone. And I’m having a difficult time wrapping my head around the why of it. The clear intention of it. Tell me I’m not the only one who believes there is a reason why this is happening. Didn’t you say something about signs? Tell me what this one says.”

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. It’s not as though I didn’t have the same conversation in my head every five minutes since I saw his picture on Vanessa’s phone. Triple asked myself when we kissed. I didn’t know what the signs said. The facts were clear. I was here and Tyler was missing. Martin was here and Vanessa was missing, for crying out loud. It was crazy. The universe was messing with me. “I don’t know what this is, and I don’t know what to do with it. It’s insane.”

He knelt beside me. “Can we just take advantage of it?”

My mind raced. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, let’s take this break in the universe is clearly offering us, for time by ourselves, and just enjoy each other.”

My heart rate shifted into fifth gear. “I won’t cheat on Tyler.”

“And I’m not asking you to. All I want is to spend the next few days with you. Maybe have the privilege of holding your hand.” He took mine from my lap and rubbed it gently. “Just get closer and find out everything there is to know about you.”

“What’s the purpose? In a few days, it’s over. I go home and you buy a tuxedo for your wedding.”

He didn’t say anything right away. His fingers rubbed my knuckles as he stared out at the water. I watched his profile and asked God, in my mind, why this was happening.

He turned to me, pressing my hand tighter. “Are you, in any way, feeling like there’s something between us? Am I imagining this attraction? Did that kiss do anything to you like it did me? I haven’t been able to think straight since it happened.”

I swallowed hard and my jaw tensed. Of course I felt something. My knees knocked from it. My head cleared during it. And my heart had grown weary every minute after it.

“If I did, what you’re asking is borrowing trouble. Sliding down a slope where crossbones are marking the way, all the while wearing butter and flying a hundred miles an hour. It’s dangerous, Martin.”

“If I walk away from this moment, like I walked away from you that night and didn’t do anything about it, I don’t think I’ll get another chance.”