Slowly, she clicked the unlock mechanism. Isaac slid the pane of glass aside and stepped inside. ‘I came to see you this morning but you weren’t here.’ He crouched to fuss Doggo, who was whirling on the spot with joy, butting Isaac’s hands as if frightened he’d forget how to use them to stroke dogs. Isaac’s brown eyes never left Lily’s.

It felt to Lily as if she were falling, falling, falling, leaving her stomach behind. Isaac was obviously unsure of his welcome. It made two of them. Lily wanted to throw herself on him with every bit as much enthusiasm as Doggo had. But she couldn’t.

Roma’s broken-hearted sobbing about ‘the other woman’ jumped into her mind. She sort of felt like the other woman herself. ‘So, Hayley’s moved in with you at the pub,’ she said, as Isaac ended his Doggo love-fest and rose to face her. ‘That sounds sensible. You’ll be on the premises to satisfy the licence and can work in between seeing to her needs. You’ll only ever be a staircase away.’

He took a step towards her. ‘She hasn’t moved in with me.’ Another step, until he could take her hands.

Lily stepped back, pulling her fingers away and putting them over her mouth. ‘Don’t kiss me while you’re living with Hayley. It feels wrong.’

His dark brows snapped down above his nose. ‘She’s in the other guest accommodation; we’re not living together. She’s in trouble; she’s got no one. I’ve been put on the spot.’

‘That she’s in a room next to yours is too fine a distinction for me to be good with. She can’t live alone, I take it?’ She was pretty sure she knew that but wanted to hear it from him.

He made an impatient movement. ‘She’s only eight days post-op. She can’t move her arm above her head, can’t pull herself up or push herself up, can’t just hop into the shower—’ He stopped, as if seeing the misstep he was about to make.

Remembering the feel of his fingers in her wet hair, Lily had to suppress a shiver of longing. ‘So you’re helping her with her personal needs,’ she finished for him. ‘You’re being intimate with her. I know you feel you’ve got to. In fact, I even admire you for it because it can’t be an easy situation. But for anything to be going on between us at the same time—’ she made a to-and-fro motion between them ‘—is too weird. Wrong. Awkward.’ She met his frustrated gaze for a long moment.

Then, in case her own eyes betrayed her sorrow and longing, she turned away. ‘I’ve got your case and backpack here. Let me just get Doggo’s stuff together. I’ll bet Hayley’s longing to see him again.’