“I don’t need to.” He was tense. “I’m dealing with it.”

Alone.

“Jack—”

“I don’t want to talk about Becca. I want to talk about you. I wish you’d told me earlier that you were afraid of water.” He cupped her face and his hands were warm and firm. “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have brought you here.”

Could she really blame him if he preferred to carry the weight instead of sharing? Hadn’t she done the same herself? Sharing took practice. Time. She was going to give him time.

“I’m glad you brought me here. I like it.” She squinted as the sun beamed into her eyes, and he reached out and pulled her under the shadow of a tree.

“I brought you to a lake, Flora. A lake. You’re terrified of water, and you didn’t say anything until today. I don’t know what that says about you. I don’t understand why you’d come—”

“I came because—” I’m in love, she thought. She’d come because she was in love. And it was an emotion stronger, and bigger, than fear. She was in love with Jack, with Molly, maybe even a little with Izzy. Not the snarling, angry Izzy, but the Izzy she sensed lurked beneath. “I came because I like being with all of you. If we’d been staying on a houseboat, that might have been a little different.” She tried to make a joke, but he wasn’t smiling.

“Do you want to go home? I’ll take you home.” He leaned closer, watchful, monitoring her every mood. She’d never had anyone pay attention to her the way Jack did. It was a heady, dizzying feeling to know someone cared.

“Home to Lake Lodge?”

“Manhattan. Back to the city.”

“You’d do that?” She was touched, but even as she asked the question a part of her was thinking how much she’d miss the birds, the plants, the forest. As well as falling in love with Jack, she was falling in love with this place. She loved the mountains, or fells as they were called here. And although she didn’t intend to get her toes wet, she liked the way the lake looked when it sparkled under the morning sunshine, or turned red under the evening sunset. She enjoyed watching birds skim the surface, and was fascinated by the shifting colors and its changing moods.

“We can go back right now and pack. We’ll be on a flight tonight. Back in New York tomorrow if that’s what you want.”

“It isn’t what I want.” She was sure about that. “But thank you for thinking of it.”

He was offering to put her needs above everyone else’s. No one had done that since her mother died. Even she didn’t do it, although she was determined to change.