He gave her a reassuring squeeze. “It’s not ideal with my parents, but we go back to uni in two weeks and then we graduate so we’re out on our own anyway.”

“Are you going to get a place together?”

“Our flats are sorted for this year but when we graduate, yeah.”

“And at least Vi’s parents are okay with us,” Lucas added.

“Yeah, no one saw that coming after the shotgun incident,” I joked.

Lucas smirked but his tone was solemn. “I did. The Taits have always been good people. If it was up to Milly, this feud with my dad wouldn’t have gotten past the three-month mark, never mind thirty bloody years.”

Viola caressed his arm in a soothing manner and gave me another smile. “Thanks for letting us take some time in the apartment this morning. There’s not much privacy at mine.”

“It’s no problem. I was young once,” I cracked.

“Oh, aye.” Lucas chuckled as he and Viola strolled toward the door. “Was that not yesterday when everyone saw Roane feeling you up at the harbor?”

Viola swatted him on my behalf while I rolled my eyes. “There really is a downside to living in a village.”

“You’re just learning that now?”

I waved them out, watching Lucas throw his arm around Viola’s small shoulders as Roane appeared before them. They exchanged a few words with Shadow bouncing around them for attention, and my heart did that leaping-in-my-chest thing it always did when I saw my fiancé.

My fiancé.

Would that wondrous feeling ever leave? Would I one day settle comfortably into my feelings for Roane?

As he strode inside the store, holding the door open for Shadow to trot through, we shared a loving smile, and then I got down to the business of greeting the dog. Once my hands were sufficiently covered in doggy kisses, I shared a long, lingering kiss with Shadow’s owner.

“I need to wash my hands,” I murmured against his mouth, noting the brown bag of lunch he clutched.

“Let’s go upstairs.”

Even though I’d already closed the shop when I shouldn’t, I found myself turning over the sign and locking the door. Upstairs, after I’d washed away Shadow’s sweet kisses from my hands, I joined Roane in the kitchen.

“From the bakery in Alnwick,” he said, pushing a plate with a massive sandwich on it toward me.

“Thank you. Had a good morning?”

“Well, I heard good news. Maggie and Annie Foster have reconciled.”

I grinned. “I heard from a customer, but it’s nice to have it confirmed by a reliable source.”

Roane’s gazed washed over my face, bright with tenderness. “Milly says Maggie told her you had something to do with it.”