His thoughts were cut off as he saw Lily’s shadowy figure outlined in the beam of the headlights, trying to wrestle something that looked suspiciously like a large swathe of fabric from the clutches of a near-gale-force wind. She was standing beside a wooden structure that impossibly looked like a gazebo. How on earth had she got all that on the beach?

Launching himself from the Jeep towards her, Lily finally turned towards him, arms full of soaking wet fabric, surrounded by what seemed to have once been at least fifteen cushions.

‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ he demanded, having to shout to make himself heard over the roaring wind. ‘What is all this stuff?’

‘It’s for the hen party,’ she shouted, the roar of the wind and crashing of the waves competing. ‘I brought it over earlier today.’ She was shaking her head now, pushing thick ropes of wet hair from her face. ‘This wasn’t forecast! It wasn’t supposed to happen!’

‘Did you come here in that?’ he demanded, his eyes snagging on the boat rocking dangerously on the water by the jetty.

‘It wasn’t this bad when I set out.’

‘Whose is it?’ he shouted over to her.

‘Does it matter? Right now?’ she called back, clearly irritated. ‘Blake bought it for us. So we could get Zoe out here for the hen party,’ she said, the mass of material slipping in her hands. ‘Can you just—’

Whatever she’d been about to say was lost as a huge gust of wind nearly pushed her and the sodden bundle of material clutched to her chest over into the sand.

‘Are you crazy?’ he demanded, reaching her and taking the heavy weight from her arms.

‘Determined,’ she shouted at him.

‘It’s a fine bloody line, Lily.’

‘You can yell at me later. Just … Help? Please?!’

He cast an eye about him. Cushions, hanging lanterns, rugs and throws were scattered halfway along the beach that now looked as if a tsunami had struck. He turned back to Lily. Her clothes were soaked through and sticking to her frame. She wasn’t even wearing a coat.

‘Get in the car,’ he growled, infuriated that she had risked herself for a bloody hen party.

‘I can—’

‘Get. In. The. Car.’

She stared at him a moment longer, her large dark eyes poking holes in his conscience.

‘Please, Lily,’ he practically begged.

When she nodded, he followed her back to the Jeep, made sure she was sitting in the passenger seat and was half tempted to strap her into the seatbelt. He closed the passenger door, locking her in, then went round to the back doors, pulling at them and depositing the soaking wet heap of material.