He sighed, knowing that she wouldn’t like what he had to say, but also knowing that she really needed to hear it. ‘You’re always rushing around doing something, rescuing someone. You rescued me and the harvest the other day. And you tried to rescue the hen party in the middle of a thunderstorm. But why? What do you think will happen if you don’t?’

He hated the look of hurt flashing in her eyes. Wanted so much to take it away.

‘I don’t know.’

‘Because you’ve never not? Or because you genuinely don’t know why you have to be the one who fixes everything?’ he asked gently.

‘That’s not fair, Henry.’

‘I’m not trying to be fair – or mean. I’m trying to make you see that you’re always putting someone else first. You could have told me to call John about the harvest. V could have hired a wedding planner to do all the million and one things that you’ve taken on, while your chef was on holiday, and you needed to run a full-time working restaurant.’

‘But I could help,’ she insisted. ‘It didn’t take much to phone a few people and of course I was going to help V with her wedding.’

‘That’s not …’ Henry was getting frustrated because she genuinely couldn’t seem to see what he was getting at. Thinking back to that time after Claudia and the accident, he’d thrown himself into every wayward experience wholeheartedly because he didn’t want to stop. Didn’t want to think about it all, didn’t want to feel it all. And he couldn’t help but fear that Lily was doing the same and, even though on the surface it seemed more healthy, it was just as damaging.

‘But what happens after the wedding?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘What will you do?’ he probed gently.

‘Do? I’ll run my restaurant and have my friends,’ she said defensively.

She hated that he was giving words to the fears she’d faced in the shower. Not only that he was saying them, but that he had read her so accurately, knew her to the extent where he was able to pinpoint the very thing she’d been hiding from.

‘Don’t you want to go anywhere? Somewhere other than Hawke’s Cove? Don’t you want to experience all the amazing different food places in person? For real? Rather than online?’

The spike of pain cut through her, and suddenly she couldn’t keep in all the hurt anymore.