Carly sipped her morning coffee, checking through her phone messages, bright sun streaming through the curtainless window blinds, the sound of seagulls in the distance. She loved hearing them every morning and considered herself darn lucky that she and Taylor had found this roomy apartment in an old house built in the 1920s only a block from Greenport’s marina.

She could never understand why some people hated seagulls, called them dirty scavengers, when in fact they were incredibly intelligent birds. Had their own system of communicating and were super resourceful when it came to survival needs. Something Carly understood all too well.

“So it looks like the hot doc is free now,” Taylor said, wiggling her eyebrows as she set a plate with scrambled eggs and a toasted English muffin on the small square table and took a seat across from Carly. “When he gets over the wicked hangover he no doubt has today, he’ll probably stop by the bistro to thank you. Except you’re working at the inn today, right?”

“Yep.” Needing more hours than she got at The Sandcastle, Carly also tended bar at Sarvinger’s By The Sea in Montauk several times a week, an oceanside inn and restaurant.

“I’ll send him over there.”

Carly shook her head. “Don’t be ridiculous. He’s probably already back with his fiancée. They’ll have post-argument sex. Maybe plan on seeing a couples’ counselor, maybe not. But in any case, he’ll forget all about the lowly little bartender at The Sandcastle.”

“I don’t know. He seemed pretty into you last night.”

“He was upset and needed a sympathetic ear.” Carly pointed to the muffin Taylor was buttering. “Use any more butter and you’ll never get into that cute sundress you bought.”

“You sure know how to spoil a nice breakfast.” Taylor smirked, spread another generous heap of butter on the muffin and took a bite.

Carly laughed, reached out, and grabbed the other half of the muffin.

“Aha.” Taylor snickered and pointed at her. “Suppressed butter envy.”

“Okay, Ms. Soon-to-be Psychologist. Tell me how to handle my latest dilemma.”

“About?”

Carly pulled Jeff’s envelope out of her jeans pocket and gave Taylor a rundown. “So I’m now in the awkward position of figuring out how to give this back to him or at least letting him know I won’t be using them.”

“Why not?” Taylor scooped some eggs onto her fork. “He obviously wants you to have them. If I hadn’t enrolled in those summer courses, I’d go with you.”

Carly set down her coffee mug with an impatient sigh. “He was drunk. For all I know he’s forgotten where he lost the birthday card. This is only a printout, you know. I could show up at the airport and see him there with his lady ready to check in with the codes on their phones.”

“How do you know they haven’t broken up for good?”

Carly rolled her eyes. “When you get all the way to planning a wedding you usually don’t end things in one night. But I’ll find out today if he calls me back.” She shrugged. “I called his medical practice and left a message asking him to call me. Said I found something important that he might be looking for.”

After breakfast Carly did a couple loads of laundry. She didn’t have to be at work until four today, so she went for a run to the marina and then through some of the back roads of Greenport. She took her phone with her, and just when she was hitting her stride, feeling the endorphins kick in, she got a call from an unknown number. Could it be the handsome and hung-over Dr. Rocklyn?

She paused at the side of the road and pulled out her phone. “Hello?”

“Carly? It’s Jeff Rocklyn.” How come even the sound of his voice got her tingling?

“How ya feeling?”

He moaned. “I apologize for last night. I’ve never been much of a drinker. I don’t know how to thank you.”

“No need. Listen, about those tickets you left in my car.”

“Yeah, I need to talk to you about that.”

Carly stifled her disappointment. Despite her arguments to Taylor, she couldn’t help fantasizing about a trip to Paris—except in her fantasies Jeff would be there with her. “So, you’ve made up with your fiancée and your Paris vacay is on again?”

“What? No. No way. Our relationship is over for good.”

“Wow. To go from a surprise vacation to a total breakup seems—”

“Not when the surprise turned out to be me catching her having sex with some strange guy in my house and my bed. And they even opened the last bottle of my favorite wine.”

Carly could tell he was trying to make a joke, but she could hear the hurt in his voice. “I’m so sorry.”

With a dark chuckle, he added, “But that’s probably way more information than you want to hear.”

“No, not at all,” she blurted out. Just the opposite! “Please go on. I’m a good listener.”

“I used to think I was. Strange thing is my sister tried to tell me I was making a mistake. She never liked Peyton, and she’s a great judge of character, but I didn’t listen to her.”

“Is she an older sister?”

“No. She’s my twin, and we have this weird sort of connection. She even called me this morning knowing something was wrong.”

“You’re lucky. I’m an only child and always wished I had a big family with lots of brothers and sisters.”

“Well, I’ve got that, all right. My twin and three older brothers, all of whom give me as much grief as they can.” The smile seemed to come back in his voice at the mention of his family.

“Where did you grow up?”

“In the North Fork. My parents and siblings still live there. In fact, I have to go to a family dinner tonight that I’m dreading, since my folks will be expecting Peyton to be with me. I’ll have to make the announcement that the wedding is off. My parents are not going to take it well. And how do I defend myself without telling them the lurid details? Not exactly a discussion I want to have with them.”

“Will your sister be there for support?”

“Yes, thankfully, although she chewed me out with an ‘I told you so’ lecture this morning.”

They both went silent for a moment, then Carly said, “About the tickets…”

“Oh yeah. I forgot that I’m scheduled to do a lecture for a colleague’s foundation over in Paris, so I do have to go. I’m sorry if you already invited your boyfriend—”

“I don’t have a boyfriend. I would have gone alone.” She held her breath, hoping he’d take that as a hint to at least ask her to go have coffee with him sometime.

“Well, then you’re still welcome to the other ticket if you want it. I’ll use the one that ends with a nine. In fact, if you go, I’d love to take you to dinner and maybe we could go to that museum with the Monet Water Lilies paintings that you mentioned.”

Carly was glad he couldn’t see her because she was hopping up and down fist-pumping the sky. This was ten times better than meeting for coffee. “You like Monet too?”

“I don’t know all that much about art, but I think it would be fun to see you get all excited in the museum you want to go to so badly.”

Ohmigod, was there a sweeter man alive? And it sounded like he knew she wasn’t about to shack up with him. Just to make sure, she said, “I wonder if I could get an Airbnb last minute.”

“Probably. If not, my brother-in-law lived in Paris for several years and knows a lot of out of the way lodging places.”

She let out a little squeal, and Jeff said, “I knew you really wanted to go.”

Was this guy a honey or what? “Now I just have to hope I can get the time off without losing my jobs.”

“More than one?”

“Yeah, I work at an inn in Montauk as well.”

“Need a note from your doctor? I saw you holding your back last night. You probably need to rest it for a week.”

“You remember that? I’m surprised. You were so out of it.”

“I remember certain things. Like you picking me up off the floor.”

They both burst out laughing at that and then signed off.

Carly jogged the rest of her route, a buoyant exhilaration carrying her along, while she struggled against the voice in her head telling her not to get her hopes up too high.

Long Island’s North Fork was called the Napa of the East, thanks to all the vineyards and wineries that had sprung up in the last ten years, and the Rocklyn Winery was one of its best. The narrow strip of land bordered by Long Island Sound on the north and Peconic Bay on the south had the perfect soil and maritime climate for growing grapes.

Jeff had moved to the South Fork partly to be near the hospital where he worked, partly because it was what Peyton wanted, and partly to put some space between his parents and himself. His dad and three older brothers were all strong personalities, very competitive, and Jeff found it exhausting at times, although his love and loyalty for them knew no bounds.

His mother insisted they all come home for a get-together once a month and woe to any who didn’t show. As he turned into the Rocklyn Winery and drove up the winding dirt road that led past the public tasting room and deep into the seventy-plus-acre farm, he let his eyes wander over the rows and rows of grapevines, the fruit tree orchards, and the fields of vegetable crops that always gave him the settled feeling of home.

But then he spotted the silver Escalade.

Peyton.

He was surprised she had the nerve to show her face after last night. She’d left the house as he’d demanded yesterday when he found her there in the bedroom. But he still couldn’t sleep in that room last night. Remembering the image of her there cut him deeply. Last night he had climbed the stairs to check for her in the bedroom and searched the spare rooms to make sure she was gone—and to toss her out if she wasn’t—but he saw no sign of her. After that he had hung out in the TV room till the wee hours, surfing from one banal show to the next, not really watching anything, until he fell asleep in a recliner in his rumpled clothes.

When he awoke and a message from Carly came in from his medical office’s answering service, it was like sunlight flooding into his life. Not that he was stupid enough to jump into something with another woman when he was still bleeding inside from his shattered relationship. And maybe he was being naive. Maybe Carly wasn’t the sweet person he thought she was. After all, he’d been fooled by Peyton. If anyone had told him Peyton would lie to him or cheat on him he wouldn’t have believed it. Heck, his sister had suggested the possibility any number of times and he’d just shot her down.

Regardless, talking to Carly today had lifted his spirits, and after what Peyton did to him, he sure as hell wasn’t going to feel guilty for enjoying a phone conversation with another beautiful woman.

Dressed casually in jeans and button-down shirt, Jeff got out of his Mercedes—that he’d found untouched in The Sandcastle parking lot this morning—and sauntered up the flower-bordered walk to the broad pillared porch of the white clapboard three-story house where he’d grown up.

He had spent the last few hours at the hospital making rounds and meeting with a colleague about a mutual patient before driving directly here, so he was arriving late for dinner. When he entered the sunny foyer, he heard laughter coming from the dining room. The sounds of cordial conversation told him Peyton had not revealed that they had broken up. And as he listened and actually heard her say something about “the wedding,” Jeff realized she was obviously pretending nothing had happened.

He stepped quietly toward the room but angled his body so he could keep himself hidden to all except the corner of the table where his twin sister, Kendra, usually sat. She was there, although without her husband, Orlando, who was away teaching a weeklong program at CalArts.

Jeff caught Kendra’s eye and lifted his eyebrows in question. She ran a subtle finger across her lips and gave a shrug, which he assumed meant no one had said a word about it and she wasn’t sure what to do.

Although he wasn’t ready to reveal what happened with Peyton to the rest of his family, he’d learned long ago that he couldn’t keep any secrets from Kendra. His twin always seemed to know when things were off with him. They’d been confiding in each other since the days when they’d shared a playpen. So when she had called him earlier today and asked what was wrong, of course he ended up spilling his guts to her.

When he walked into the room, the only available seat at the long cloth-covered table was his usual one between Peyton, who sat next to his mother at the end, and his brother Grant.

He greeted everyone, gave his mom a kiss on the cheek, and sat down. He wasn’t sure if anyone noticed he did not give Peyton the smooch he normally would have and didn’t care. Without looking at her, he asked for the mashed potatoes (always his favorite) and forked some roast beef onto his plate, took a pass on the steamed chard (yeah, he was a doctor and knew better but hated eating vegetables), and covered it all with thick gravy.

As dinner progressed, Jeff looked around at the family he loved. His dad and mom, his brothers, Matt Jr., who sat next to his wife, Nicole, Grant and Tucker, and of course his twin sister.

Kendra was quieter than usual today, no doubt trying to control her somewhat volatile temper. He could see her jaw clench every time Peyton spoke. Truth was, if any of the people around this table knew what Peyton had done to him they’d throw her out on her butt.

Jeff had half a mind to open up and blurt out what happened, as embarrassing as it would be. But it felt like a cowardly thing to do here in his family home where everyone would take his side. Still, he hated being fake to the people he loved most in the world—to protect someone who’d betrayed him.

By the time they moved on to coffee and his mother brought out a birthday cake for Peyton, he was barely controlling his rage. He managed to endure his family’s traditional compulsory song and well wishes and cutting of the cake. But when his mother’s gift to Peyton was a necklace that had been her mother’s, and the two women agreed it would be something she could wear with her wedding dress, he’d had enough.

Jeff tossed his napkin on the table and stood. The whole family went silent. “Peyton, will you please come with me?” he said. “I need to discuss something with you.” And he walked out, trying not to notice the stunned expressions around the table.

Jeff sat on a bench near the swimming pool and watched as Peyton approached. He tried to pretend she was no longer attractive to him, but the truth was, he loved the soft curves of her body and the way her bright blue eyes contrasted with her chocolate brown hair that fell in waves over her smooth, bare shoulders.

Only a day ago she was his woman. Soon to be his wife.

How could she hurt him like she did? Sure, people sometimes had weak moments that they were sorry for later. Maybe getting drunk at a party and going too far before realizing what you’d done. But inviting a man to come to their house during a time when she expected her fiancé to be working late was not something that happened spontaneously. It had to be consciously planned. Coldly calculated. And when he’d arrived and caught her in the act, she hadn’t offered one remorseful word. Not one ounce of sorrow for the pain she had caused him.

He knew Peyton was wickedly smart, but was she also just plain wicked?

She sat next to him on the bench and put a hand on his thigh. He removed it.

Jeff started in with, “I assume you did not want to shock my parents with the news, but we’ve got to tell them we’re cancelling the wedding. We owe them that much.”

Peyton shook her head in that bossy way of hers that he’d always found cute and appealing. Not anymore. “We’re not going to cancel the wedding, Jeffrey. You’re making too much out of our little tiff.”

“Our little tiff?” His voice rose, but he lowered it to a controlled growl, not wanting his family to hear a shouting match. “I come home on a night when you expected me to be working late, climb the stairs to our bedroom, and hear you calling another man’s name? I find you in the throes of hot sex with another man—with my engagement ring on your finger—and I’m making too much of this?”

“I only did it to help your career.”

“Oh, that’s a good one.”

“It’s the truth.”

“Yeah, right. Well, don’t do me any favors.” They fell into a tense silence and Jeff could almost hear her mind churning, no doubt digging up some other kind of lying nonsense excuse in hopes he’d buy it. “Why do you want to marry me? You’re earning enough in your career now to do just fine for yourself. You don’t need me anymore.”

“But I do need you,” she pleaded. “I’ve always needed you. You’ve been my rock since the day we met, that special day when we knew we were meant for each other. You’re the one who got me through med school.”

And paid for most of it. “Well, now it’s time to put on your big girl panties. We’re over.”

She clutched his arm. “You can’t leave me, Jeff.”

He pulled away and stood. He was waiting for her to say she was sorry for hurting him. To use the word “love.” But when he thought about it, that word wasn’t one that passed through her lips too often. How had he missed that about her? “Why, Peyton? I don’t get it.”

“I told you. I was being strategic. It was for you.”

“That’s way too lame for someone of your intelligence. I’m disappointed. If you’re going to lie to me you could at least be a little more creative about it.”

Her pretty mouth turned pouty. “You’ve been working so many hours. I got lonely.”

“You work way more hours than I do. I’m the one who’s alone waiting for you most of the time.”

She looked down at her hands that were fidgeting in her lap. “It’s different for you. You have all this family around and—”

“My family has taken you in as one of our own. My mother would love to have you over for dinner any night. Any one of my brothers would go out of their way for you.”

“Your sister doesn’t like me.”

He wasn’t going to deny it. Jeff hated couples who lied to each other. They always ended up living a sham relationship. “That’s hardly an excuse for you to bring a man home and have sex with him.”

“It was a mistake, okay? I never did anything like that before and will never do it again.”

“At this point I really don’t care what you do as long as you move all your stuff out of the house and—”

“You can’t kick me out.”

Grateful now that he’d never gotten around to putting her name on the deed, Jeff wondered if some part of him had sensed she wasn’t fully committed to him. “I started buying that house before you finally accepted the marriage proposal I offered over and over. Maybe you were right back then.”

“No. That was before I realized how much I love you.”

Okay. There was the word he’d waited for. Did he believe her? Was he relieved? He didn’t feel it. In fact it came out more as an argument to defend her actions rather than a meaningful statement about her feelings for him. “If you love me, how could you—”

She sprang up and came toward him, her eyes full of fire. “I said it was a mistake. Don’t I even get a second chance?” And then she started to cry.

Was there a man alive who was immune to female tears? Jeff reached out and pulled her close. His hand stroked her back as her head rested against his chest.

“I love you, Jeff,” she said through her sniffles. “I’ll prove it to you this week in Paris when you take me there for my birthday.”

“How did you know?”

“I saw ‘Bonjour, Paris’ written on the birthday cake you brought home.” She looked up at him with that cute smile of hers. “I couldn’t resist having a few slices when I came downstairs. After I polished off the murgh korma.” She giggled.

The giggle that used to touch his heart now only wounded him further. The fact that Peyton had shattered his heart and then was able right afterward to sit down and enjoy the birthday meal he’d gone out of his way to bring her sent a cold chill through him.

Jeff remembered how he kept checking his phone last night thinking she’d call. Even checked around for her car at each place he stopped in case she went out looking for him. That was what he would’ve done if she’d run out of the house upset. He would’ve been terrified she’d get into an accident or hurt herself in some way. He’d scour all her usual haunts until he found her.

But Peyton? Nope. None of the above. While her fiancé was half mad with rage and sorrow, Peyton was sitting at the kitchen table enjoying a little meal. And no doubt Gerald sat across from her eating some of the birthday cake Jeff had special-ordered. She probably even gave him an ice pack to put on his face where Jeff had punched him.

So when Peyton said, “A vacay in Paris will be so romantic we’ll be able to forget all about this little mishap,” he gently pushed her away.

Little mishap? “No, Peyton. You’re not coming with me.”

“What? You’re going alone?” An eyebrow lifted. “Or do you have a woman on the side?”

Jeff suddenly thought of Carly.

Sure, he was attracted to her, but that wasn’t the reason he’d given her the ticket to Paris. It was because he’d seen her as someone who worked her tail off and probably had very few luxuries in her life, and her pretty gray eyes had lit up with excitement over the possibility of a trip to Paris. He just wanted her to have it.

He wanted the gift that Peyton had tossed in the trash along with his heart to find new life with someone who would appreciate it.

And now, after what Peyton had so insensitively revealed, it was painfully clear that Carly had been the only one worried about him last night. Carly had made sure he’d gotten home safely even though she had worked eight long hours at the bistro, and as Jeff found out today, she lived in the North Fork, which meant she had to drive far out of her way to do it.

She deserved his thanks for that. No way would he take away the treat that had her squealing with joy on the phone this morning.

“I already gave the ticket to a friend.”

“How could you, Jeff? You know how badly I want to go to Paris.”

Had she always been so totally selfish? Why hadn’t he seen it?

“Get Gerald to take you,” he said and turned to walk away, but Peyton rushed after him and grabbed his arm.

“Wait, Jeff. Please. Don’t end it yet. Don’t call off the wedding. Hasty decisions are never for the best. Let’s give it a week. See if you miss me while you’re away. I’d already arranged for vacation time, so I’ll maybe go into the city for a few days. That way I won’t have to make excuses to your mom about continuing with wedding plans. You and I have been so much to each other for so long, let’s not throw it all away over one stupid mistake.”

Although his gut told him to resist her, Jeff couldn’t deny the logic of Peyton’s argument. “Okay.”

Peyton kept her hand on his arm as they walked back into the house. Rather than answer his family’s subtle questioning looks, Jeff said he had to go home and get some things in order since he’d be going straight to the airport tomorrow night after work. He had told his parents about the surprise he’d planned for Peyton’s birthday, so his dad and mom exchanged a knowing smile obviously assuming he and Peyton had made up and would be having their romantic vacation together.

Jeff arrived at his house in Bridgehampton and noticed Peyton’s laptop was on the dining room table, which meant she must have come here while he was at the hospital. When he went upstairs, he saw the bed in the master bedroom had fresh linens on it. If she thought that was enough to convince him to use that bed again, she didn’t know him at all. The house that they’d shared for over a year was now a place he couldn’t wait to leave.

About fifteen minutes later he heard Peyton come in downstairs. He didn’t have the energy for a fight, so he went about prepping for his trip and avoided speaking at all to her. She seemed willing to give him his space. If she was surprised when he went to bed in the guest room, he wouldn’t know because he didn’t see her again until dawn when he got ready to go to the hospital.

He’d forgotten his operating room shoes and snuck into the bedroom to get them. Peyton was asleep, sprawled across the bed, her dark hair spread out on the pillow, her ivory arms and generous breasts bare above the sheets.

Last time he saw her in this bed, she’d torn his whole world to pieces.

And he wasn’t sure what it would look like when he put it together again.