He said he needed a long vacation from London. When I’d met him, I’d thought he was a good-looking guy in his late forties. He was only thirty-eight. The stress of working in the financial hub of the country had led him to a bit of a midlife crisis. He’d decided the cold sea air in a tiny little village would do him good.

“I hardly ever hear him when I’m at the store.” I shrugged. Not that the store kept me busy during the winter months. I only opened it a few days a week, and even then I spent most of my days working on edits for my clients.

It didn’t matter. I trusted that between my rental income from the apartment and the good summer business, I’d make a success of my store.

Even if I didn’t, I thought as I looked around The Anchor at the fairy lights and Christmas decorations twinkling above the heads of my friends, my dog, and my husband, I wasn’t going anywhere. They were all stuck with me for good.

“Did you hear?” Milly appeared at the table, her hands resting on Lucas’s shoulders as she directed her words at me.

“Hear what?”

“The truth has come out about why Erin and Peter Branston separated three months ago. Erin apparently played private eye when her husband started working late. She found him at the Newton Arms with his head between another woman’s legs.”

“Ugh, Mam.” Viola made a face as Lucas’s shoulders shook with laughter. “That’s a sentence a daughter should never hear her mam say.”

“Never mind that.” Caro blushed but her eyes were filled with sympathy. “It’s something a wife should never see her husband do with another woman.”

“Poor Erin,” Dex tutted. “And the kids.”

Erin was the attractive blonde who’d ordered books from me all those months ago. I’d heard about the separation, we all had, but I marveled that it had taken this long for the truth to come out. “So they’re getting a divorce?”

“Aye.” Milly nodded in approval. “She says she’s taking the bastard for everything.”

“So she’s single?”

“Aye, that’s what divorce means, Evie.”

I ignored her sarcasm. “You know, my tenant Bryan is single . . .”

Milly’s eyes lit up.

Roane groaned and shot me a warning look. “Evie . . . don’t even think about it.”

Acknowledgments