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"Not like a Harte to be playing the field at your age"

"I do not play the field"

"What do you call it when you have relationships with several different women?"

"I call it a social life And for the record, I did not have those relationships simultaneously Hell, I've only dated maybe a half dozen different women in the past three years I don't think that's excessive"

"Your randmother and your sisters do"

"They're all obsessed with the idea of getting ot soical block They've all decided that you've got a proble serious about another wo her the way you lost Amelia"

Nick watched Carson poke at a hole in the sand with a long stick while he tried to decide how to respond to that "What do you think?" he said at last

"Me?" Sullivan seemed surprised to be asked for his opinion He halted beside a rock "I think you just haven't found the right woman"

Nick realized he had been braced for a lecture He allowed hihtly "Yeah, that's sort of how I see it, too"

"But Octavia is different, isn't she?"

So uard "Mitchell sent for you, didn't he? That's why you're here"

"Mitch feels protective toward Octavia Brightwell"

"Octavia can take care of herself"

"What about you?" Sullivan asked quietly

It took Nick a beat or two to grasp that "Don't tell ht be in trouble here"

Sullivan's gaze rested on Carson and Winston, who had moved on to explore the entrance of a shallow cave "Got one question for you"

"What?"

"Did you give Octavia The Talk?"

"Da to think that everyone in the Northwest knows all the details of et paranoid"

"You didn't answer ive Octavia your patented lecture on the subject of keeping things light?"

"You knohat? I' to answer that question"

Sullivan nodded "Things rong this tiht"