He lowered himself down onto the sand. ‘Last time we met, you said you were leaving—sounded like you couldn’t get out of here fast enough.’

His close proximity flummoxed me a little so I focused on rolling up the wet bottoms of my black yoga pants. ‘I changed my mind.’

‘You know,’ he said, nodding at my discarded shoes and socks, ‘most people go barefoot on the beach or at least wear thongs.’

‘I don’t have any thongs. Their thin unstructured soles offer no support and can lead to injuries such as sprains, tendonitis, bunions and even stress fractures, to name just a few.’

His eyebrows rolled towards each other. ‘Are you a podiatrist or something?’

‘No.’ I laughed. Adrian had been waxing lyrical for years about the dangers of flimsy footwear and his doctrine had been ingrained in me. ‘My husband is.’

‘Your husband. I see.’ He pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. ‘Is he here with you?’

My stomach clenched. Dan seemed pleasant enough but if I said no, would he get the wrong idea? Maybe see me as an easy target? Almost immediately, I mentally cringed at this thought. If Adrian didn’t want me, why on earth did I think this guy would be interested?

He was obviously just being friendly, which was nice considering I didn’t really know anyone but Jedda.

‘No, we’re …’ My voice drifted off. ‘He’s otherwise occupied at the moment, so I’m helping out a friend doing up his grandfather’s shack when I can get away for a few days.’

‘Lucky friend. I imagine that might be quite a big job.’

I nodded.

‘Well, if you ever need any help … or even if you just need someone to lift heavy things, I live a few houses up—just where the coast curves round—so we’re neighbours.’

‘That big modern house with all the glass windows?’ He couldn’t live there all by himself.

He chuckled. ‘Yep, that’s the one.’

I surreptitiously checked his hand for a wedding ring—he probably had a wife and a dozen kids—but his fingers were bare.

‘Actually, do you know how I could hire a skip bin? There’s a lot of junk in the shack that I need to get rid of before I can do much more.’

‘Sure. Give the shire a call and they’ll have one delivered for you or you could have a garage sale? One man’s junk is another’s treasure and all that.’

‘Trust me,’ I said. ‘Pretty much all of this is junk.’

‘Fair enough.’ Dan nodded towards the ocean where Charlie was still splashing about. ‘Is that your dog?’

‘Yes. I brought him up from Perth to keep me company.’

‘He’s gorgeous,’ he said, and then silence fell between us.