She walked out onto the lawn, her dress brushing softly against her legs. It fell to midcalf, but was nowhere near as modest as a first glance might have suggested. She saw Jack’s eyes darken as he caught a flash of leg. At another time she might have been flattered by the look he gave her, but this wasn’t that time. Right now she only had one thing on her mind and it wasn’t getting Jack Parker naked. Unless you counted stripping him down to bare thoughts and emotions. That, she intended to do.

He caught her round the waist and pulled her in, allowing himself a quick kiss even though Molly was within range.

“How was your day?”

Flora thought about the overload of emotion. Izzy yelling at her. Izzy crying. Her crazy boat ride. Almost drowning. The revelations. “It was interesting. Can we take a walk, Jack? Somewhere private?”

He must have detected something in her tone because he gave her a curious look. “Sounds good to me.” Still with his arm round her waist, he flashed a smile at Molly. “Stay close to Todd. Don’t go in the water. Flora and I will be back soon.”

Todd winked at them and Flora thought that they wouldn’t be exchanging such smug man smiles if they knew why she was extracting Jack from the group.

She took the trail to the boathouse, knowing there would be no one there. The dark clouds were back, hovering above like a threat. There was going to be a thunderstorm. The air was close and crackled with tension. She wondered if some of that was generated by her own stress.

When they were well away from the Lodge, Jack stopped and would have tugged her against him but she stepped back.

“We need to talk.” She wasn’t going to be deflected. She wasn’t going to let fear push her onto another path. She was going to flatten as many daisies as she needed to. “We agreed to be honest. To share. You said that was what you wanted.” She felt her voice rise and took a deep breath. This conversation had to be calm.

“It is what I want.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me about Izzy?” She’d expected him to look shocked, even a little guilty. She hadn’t expected him to look bemused.

“What about Izzy?”

Did she really have to spell it out? “I know you’re not her real father.”

The shock came then. It flashed across his features as he stood without moving. “Who told you that?” There was a harshness to his voice that she hadn’t heard before.

“She did.”

“She shouldn’t have—”