“Neither of us is going to get any sleep if you keep coming in to check I’m still alive. Don’t ever take up being a cat burglar as a career, you’d likely get pinched on your first job.”

Annie smiled into the darkness and made her way to the sofa. She lay down, nestling in against him, her back up tight against his front on the small sofa. She wiggled briefly to get comfortable before John brought his arm and the blankets down and draped them over them both.

“Are you comfortable?” he asked.

“Very,” she replied.

“I’m sorry about before. When I saw you with Max . . .”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“I realized that not being with you was not an option, however complicated it makes things.”

“After tonight, I’ll happily take complicated, so long as you’re with me.”

“You should know, I’m useless at wooing,” he whispered, nuzzling his face into her hair.

“Good. I’ve had enough wooing for one lifetime.”

“But I can promise you, I will never cheat.”

“No wooing and no cheating; I’ve never had a better offer.”

She yawned and John tightened his embrace around her, pulling her closer still, and Annie reveled in the weight of his arm across her body. Warm, if slightly squashed, with the slow rise and fall of John’s chest against her back and his feet wrapped around hers, she drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 86

Annie woke up alone on the sofa; she was too hot under the blankets. She reached to the coffee table and picked up her phone, where she saw a yellow Post-it note stuck to the screen that read:

Don’t panic! All is well. I’m down in the café. Didn’t want to wake you. XX

Annie peeled the Post-it back and saw the time: 9:22 a.m.

“Shit!” she said out loud, kicking off the blankets and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She stumbled out to the bathroom and found another Post-it stuck to the door:

There’s no rush. Calm down. XX

Smiling as she took it down, she quickly got showered and dressed and headed down to the café.

The café was full. The air was crisp and clear, and the sky an innocent blue that belied the previous night’s tempest. Gemma was behind the counter making drinks and plating cakes while John delivered them to the customers, and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle was following him around. Gemma looked up.

“Hello, sleepyhead!”

“Thank you for opening up, Gemma, I’m sorry, I overslept. I’m so embarrassed. How did you—”

“John let me in,” said Gemma.

John finished setting a tray of drinks down for the swimmers and came over to Annie. “Good morning,” he said, and bent down to brush her lips with a kiss. Annie felt herself swoon. She heard Gemma hiccup a squeak of delight.