She started every day full of good intentions, and then gradually the stress mounted and those intentions evaporated. One upsetting phone call from Richard (and there had been far too many of those lately) was all it took to have her reaching for her mixing bowl. Word had spread, and now she often made cakes for special celebrations, and she’d even done a couple of weddings. That would all have been fine if she could only stop eating what she cooked.

Was that why Richard had left? Because of the extra inches around her middle?

The woman he’d left her for (her name was Avery, but Milly usually thought of her as the woman because it made it easier to cope with somehow) was a yoga instructor with perfectly toned abs and smooth long hair that never seemed to curl however humid the weather. She was twenty-five, more than two decades younger than Richard, and Milly wondered if he was trying to rewind time, as if being with someone that young might somehow hold back his own aging process. And in a way the whole thing was Milly’s fault because she was the one who had suggested yoga when Richard had complained he had backache from spending too long sitting at his desk and in the car.

Now she wished she’d simply poured him a large gin.

Dispirited, she chose a pair of bold silver earrings that would hopefully draw attention away from her waistline and headed downstairs to the kitchen.

She made herself a cup of strong black coffee and took it out onto the deck.

At this time of day, the only sound came from the birds and the soft lapping of water against the shoreline.

A sense of calm wafted over her, and she felt the tension in her shoulders ease. Plenty of things in her life were difficult, but not living here. She loved it here. Who would have thought it?

When Richard had forced the sale of the family home, she’d felt bereft and also angry because the house was Zoe’s one piece of stability in the earthquake of parental separation. Milly had felt like a failure for not being able to afford to keep the house. It was another loss for both of them. Another major change in which Milly had been given no choice.

It was her mother who had suggested they move into the boathouse, and Milly had known from the day they moved in that it was the right decision.