Janine picked at her food. “I don’t know. I’m just ready to start my life with him. I don’t understand what happened, and I’m too afraid to ask. I don’t want to assume that he was going to propose if he wasn’t.”

“Maybe just wait it out. See if he does it another way. Guys are weird.”

Janine smiled. “They are very weird. I like you, Emma. You’ve made me feel a little better.”

The waitress put Emma’s glass of water on the table. “Then my work here is done,” she said, taking a long sip.

Emma enjoyed her lunch with Janine, but she had to get back to the lighthouse. The city council really wanted her to work on some flyers that could be handed out at the Spring Festival. Apparently, she would also have a little table with displays about the lighthouse’s history and would be doing a raffle for some free tour tickets.

When she had taken the job, she’d assumed it was nothing more than walking people up and down the stairs, telling them random facts. She hadn’t intended on doing marketing since it wasn’t her forte.

Thankfully, she had been able to talk the city council into buying her a secondhand golf cart so that she didn’t have to walk everywhere since she didn’t have a car. She had turned in her rental car the day after she arrived on the island.

Roger had delivered the golf cart this morning, and that had allowed her to finally get into the city to have some lunch. She didn’t have time to go by the bookstore or the bakery, but it was on her list of things to do very soon.

She hated to admit to herself that she was starting to hit her stride. She felt more at home in Seagrove than she had in a while. Nobody knew her there. Nobody knew her history or what had happened. Nobody knew about her dead mother or her crazy grandmother. Nobody knew about her boyfriend that she left behind or the night that her life changed.

A fresh start was a blessing, and she was starting to enjoy hers more than she thought she would. Instead of holing herself up on the island, she was starting to get out and make friends. She was starting to feel comfortable.

As she rounded the corner down the gravel drive and passed Janine’s cottage, she noticed a car sitting in the parking lot at the lighthouse up ahead. It was weird because it was closed for the rest of the day. She assumed maybe it belonged to the contractor who was working on the light, although she thought he should be long gone by now.

As she pulled into the parking lot, she noticed that it was a rental car. Maybe some tourist had shown up for a lighthouse tour not realizing that they were closed for the rest of the day. Perhaps the note she put on the door next to the ticket counter had blown away in the ocean breeze.