“Yes, thank you.” No, she wasn’t okay. While on a date with one man, her mind was full of thoughts about another. That was certainly unprecedented. “Sorry to cut our evening short.”

“It’s okay. I have PT at zero-six-thirty anyway.”

After a silent ride through town, they arrived at the lighthouse. Jenny hadn’t locked the gate for the night yet, so Linc headed down the long, dark driveway. “It’s kind of creepy out here at night. Are you ever afraid?”

“Not really. I usually lock the gate before sunset, so I have the place to myself.” Except, she thought, when men on motorcycles drove around the gate.

“I had a really nice time tonight, Jenny. I’d like to see you again.”

How to say this diplomatically? “I had a nice time, too.” That much was true. “Things are a bit…unsettled in my life right now.”

“Is that a polite way of saying you don’t want to go out again?”

Jenny winced, thankful for the cover of darkness. “That’s a polite way of saying my life is unsettled, and this isn’t the best time.”

He pondered that for a minute. “All right, then. How about I call you in a week or two to see if things have settled down?”

“That’d be great,” she said with a sigh of relief that he wasn’t going to push her to commit to a second date.

Leaning toward her, he spared her further embarrassment and awkwardness by kissing her cheek.

“Thank you for dinner,” Jenny said.

“Thank you for the pleasure of your company.”

Jenny got out of the car and appreciated that he waited until she was inside before he drove off. She ran up the stairs to the kitchen as she tried to figure out what to do. Should she go to Alex? And do what, exactly? Push him to talk about something he didn’t want to talk about?

In the drawer under the microwave, she found the phone book the previous lighthouse keeper had left behind and thumbed through it, looking for the address of Martinez Lawn & Garden. She found the address and even knew where it was. But how did she know if he lived there?

Below the listing for the business, she found separate listings for George & Marion Martinez and Paul Martinez, all at the same address as the business. So they lived on the grounds.

Jenny still didn’t know what she was going to do with this information when she went up one more level to her bedroom and changed into shorts and a tank top, tossing the dress she’d worn on her date across the foot of her bed. She slid her feet into comfortable flip-flops and went back downstairs, grabbing her purse and keys in the kitchen and running for the stairs to the mudroom.