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‘I don’t know. I heard it was a holiday let.’
‘This is a lovely spot to stay on vacation.’ She turned to Nate. ‘Your friend’s uncle could charge to give people tours of the lighthouse.’ Lili glanced at the cottage; she was thinking of the holidaymakers who stayed there. ‘I bet people would pay good money.’
Nate raised his eyebrows at Lili. ‘Would you let people tour your home, even if they paid you?’
She smiled. ‘You’ve got a point. Probably not.’
Lili moved around the glass windows, looking down at the patchwork countryside again. Nate joined her. She could feel his arm around her shoulders again. Although she was enjoying the unexpected tour of the lighthouse, and Nate’s company, Alex was still on her mind. How could he not be? They’d been together for six years. He had been her first long-term boyfriend. She still hadn’t got over how quickly things had fallen apart.
Her thoughts drifted to Maisie. It wasn’t her fault that Hannah had left her with them. It had been going on for years, throughout her relationship with Alex, since Maisie was tiny. If it wasn’t both Hannah and Maisie sofa-surfing at their house, then it was Hannah leaving Maisie with them during the holidays because Hannah just didn’t want to entertain her child or spend money.
There had been many times that she and Alex had rowed about it; Alex had called her a soft touch and asked her to say no – just once.Why was I so surprised when things came to a head?Lili wondered. It had always been inevitable that Alex would ask her to make a choice at some point. She had begged him not to make her choose between her best friend and him, but he had, and Lili had made her choice.
In hindsight, he hadn’t been speaking out of turn when he’d said she couldn’t keep putting her life on hold for Hannah. But she’d done so again.
Lili glanced at Nate’s profile. He was drinking in the views.Why couldn’t Alex have been more like him?she thought.
Nate looked at her, catching her earnest expression. ‘What are you thinking?’
Lili thought that however much she didn’t want to be on her own – and Nate had an awful lot going for him – this was way too soon to get involved with someone else. Lili couldn’t imagine having a holiday romance. She knew that Nate had lost his wife to cancer when his son was a toddler. By the sound of things, he’d had a few short-term relationships, but nothing serious, and she expected that he wasn’t after a holiday romance either. She saw the way he looked at her. He was after something more. A commitment.
She was just thinking that the outing had been a mistake and was wondering how to extricate herself from having his arm around her shoulders without offending him when she felt a wet nose against her hand. She flinched.
Nate moved his arm from her shoulders. ‘What is it?’
Lili looked down at Bella. ‘You naughty dog. I told you to stay downstairs.’ She wasn’t frowning, though. She was smiling at Bella, who had just saved her from an awkward scenario. What if Nate had wanted to kiss her?
Had Bella saved her from embarrassing Nate, or had the dog saved her from herself? Lili had a feeling that if hehadattempted to kiss her, she would have kissed him back.So, what’s the problem with that?
Lili knelt and gave Bella a fuss.This isn’t real, she thought.One day soon I’ve got to return to London and take Maisie home to her mother when she returns from the Caribbean.
Lili stood up. ‘Nate, there’s something—’
‘Oh, crap!’
Lili looked at him wide-eyed. ‘What is it?’ By his expression, she imagined that something horrendous was about to happen, like the floor beneath their feet was going to give way. She had wondered if they should they be up here, the two of them. And Bella, who was not a small dog or a light dog, had joined them too.
‘Look.’
Lili followed his outstretched arm; he was pointing at something down below. She spied an old, dishevelled-looking man climbing out of a car that had arrived near the cottage. ‘Is that the man who lives here?’ she said. She’d heard a noise a moment earlier but had thought it was just the wind.
The man down below stopped and eyed Nate’s car.
Lili smiled. ‘It will be nice to meet him.’
‘Er, I don’t think so.’
Lili’s smile faltered. She turned to Nate. ‘Please don’t tell me he has no idea we’re here.’
