“Thank you for letting us borrow Cocoa.”

“I call her my therapy dog because having her around makes everyone feel better.” Agnes tilted the bear toward the light and sewed, each stitch minute and carefully aligned. “Did she make Lizzy feel better? Ryan said she hasn’t been sleeping well.”

“He told you that?”

“Not the detail.” She glanced over the top of her glasses, and there was a sharpness to her gaze that hadn’t been dimmed by failing vision. “He told me you were looking after your niece.” She snipped the thread and handed the mended bear back to Emily. “It’s always challenging when life sends you a responsibility you weren’t expecting.”

“It happened to you.”

“Yes.” Agnes stared at the garden for a moment, a faraway expression on her face. Then she smiled. “Why don’t you make us both a cup of tea, and we’ll take it through to the living room. I love early summer, and I don’t want to waste a moment of the sunshine. I can’t sail any longer, but I love to watch the boats. Ryan is the same. It’s in his blood. His father spent every moment of his time on the water.”

Suppressing an impulse to ask a million questions, Emily followed Agnes’s directions and made tea, added cookies to a plate and carried it all through to the living room at the front of the house.

It was a room full of warmth and charm, flooded with natural light. A large bay window overlooked the sloping garden, and she could see a narrow path winding down to the small rocky cove below.

“This house is perfect.”

Agnes gestured to the window seat. “That’s my favorite spot. On a clear day you can see right across the bay to the mainland. Do you like sailing?”

Emily put the tray down on the table. “I’ve always been afraid of the sea.” And under that quiet, sympathetic gaze it all came tumbling out, all of it, right up to the point where Ryan had kissed her.

That small detail she omitted, although she knew that at some point she was going to have to think about it, to work out what to say next time their paths crossed.

That time arrived sooner than expected. She turned her head to take another look at the view and saw him striding toward the house, talking on the phone. He took the steps two at a time and then paused, staring across the water as he continued the conversation.

Agnes watched and then shook her head. “There are times when I could drop that phone into the cookie jar and put the lid on it. Technology has a lot to answer for. Still, I suppose it means he can join me for lunch occasionally and isn’t tied to his desk.”