I wandered over to the bar, glad to have something to distract me from the horrible butterflies that had taken up residence in my belly. Still, once Milly served me and I sat down at the table beside Caro, the first thing out of my mouth was “Have you heard from your cousin today?”

Caro blinked distractedly at her laptop. “Oh, he collected Shadow at the arse crack of dawn this morning, but I haven’t seen him since. Why?”

“No reason.” I shrugged, realizing I didn’t want anyone to know Roane was making me feel insecure. It felt stupid to be feeling that way. Not even a whole day of lack of communication had passed. He wasn’t under any obligation to stay in touch with me every second of every day.

It was just unusual for him not to want to.

Attempting not to scowl ferociously in a public display of my feelings, I leaned into Caro. “Show me the website.”

Thankfully, I got so engrossed watching her play around with the design for her site, I would have forgotten about Roane entirely if it weren’t for those butterflies reminding me of him. Even so, she must have successfully distracted me enough because it took Shadow sticking his face right into mine for me to realize he and Roane had entered the pub.

“Shadow.” I smiled, my heart lightening to see him. I scratched behind his ears as I looked across the table to find Roane standing before us. “Hey.”

His expression was almost as intense as it was last night. If we hadn’t been in public, I would have demanded to know what was going on with him.

As if he saw the frustration on my face, Roane’s eyes flashed, and he rounded the table to me. “Caro, take Shadow,” he said without tearing his eyes from mine.

Okay, he was acting so strangely.

Caro did as he asked without a word, taking hold of Shadow by the collar and guiding him around me to her side.

“Roane . . .”

Then quite abruptly Roane Robson lowered to his knee in front of me and it felt like my heart jumped out of my chest and into my throat. I could feel the pulse there throbbing so hard.

That fluttering turned to pounding as he held up the black velvet ring box between us.

A gasp sounded behind me, followed by another, until the loud mingled chatter of the customers lowered to a murmur and then to silence.

He waited, staring into my astonished face, with a flush on his cheeks and a curl at the corners of his lips.

Then . . .