He frowned. “I’m not inviting you out of some sense of obligation, Milly. You’re good company. I’d like to take you for dinner. If you’d like to join me.”

Was she good company?

She stared at him, trying to read his mind, wishing she was better at this. She’d let Richard crush her confidence so badly that when a man asked her to dinner she assumed he was being polite.

But Brendan thought she was good company. Not boring or a martyr.

And now she was tempted. More than tempted.

Dinner would mean dressing up and eating in a restaurant where someone else had prepared the food.

When had she last done that?

Richard’s voice echoed in her head. You don’t know how to enjoy yourself.

Brendan was watching her. “If you have other plans, it’s not a problem.”

Plans?

She thought about Nicole but knew her friend well enough to know that Nicole would want her to go. More than that, if she turned him down and Nicole found out, then she’d probably kill her.

“I don’t have other plans.” She said the words before she could think her way to saying no. Her plan had been to get through the weekend as best she could, filling every moment with work. But now he was offering her an alternative. And she was going to take it. She’d prove to Richard, and to herself, that she was more than capable of enjoying herself. “Thank you. I’d like that. Where did you have in mind?”

He mentioned a restaurant that was so well-known she knew right away there was no chance of them being able to get a reservation.

“You wouldn’t get a table at this short notice. People travel from everywhere just to eat there.”

“Have you eaten there?”

“No, but it’s the place I recommend to guests when they have a special celebration.” She didn’t add that it was outside her price range and that there was no way Richard would ever have paid that much for a plate of food Milly could cook him at home. “You have to book at least three months in advance.”

“I’ll give them a call. They might have a cancellation.”

She thought he was being overly optimistic, but then she remembered that he was famous and probably had contacts. “Would you like me to call them?”

“No. You do far too much as it is. I’ve got this.”

I’ve got this.

The three (or was it technically four?) words that no one ever said to her. She was always the one taking charge. In control. It felt good not to be for a short time.

“Great. If you manage to get a table, then message me a time. And if not, let me know if you need me to suggest somewhere else.”

“Why don’t I pick you up from the boathouse around seven?”