Before I could ask any more questions, Milly appeared with our drinks and was accompanied by a man the same height as her. He was a handsome bald man, with dark umber skin, lots of gray stubble on his cheeks and chin, and warm, laughing dark eyes. He wore chef whites. He placed a delicious-looking sticky toffee pudding and ice cream on the middle of the table along with a spoon for me and one for Roane.

“Evie, this is my husband, Dexter. Dexter, Evie.”

I held out my hand, beaming at him. “So nice to meet you. Your food is amazing.”

“I told you you’d like her,” Milly muttered.

Dexter chuckled and brought my hand to his lips for a quick kiss. “It’s a pleasure, Evie. I’m chuffed to bits you like the food, considering you’re from Chicago.” Dexter released my hand and leaned on the table, his head bent toward mine conspiratorially. “Have you ever eaten at Alinea? It’s on my bucket list.”

Alinea was a fine dining restaurant in the city. It had three Michelin stars and was ranked in the top fifty best restaurants in the world. I chuckled at the feverish look in his eyes. “I’m afraid not. Alinea is a little out of my price range.”

The chef opened his mouth to say something else, but Milly caught him by the arm. “Let them eat their pudding.” Milly smiled at me. “We’ll come over later when the pub is quieter and join you for a pint.”

Something in me relaxed. Having Milly and Dexter as a buffer between me and Roane did not sound like a bad thing. “Great!”

When they’d gone, Roane waved a hand at the plate. “Ladies first.”

Sharing a dessert was strangely intimate. It did not help that we kept locking gazes. His eyes appeared darker than they really were because of the sable outer rims of his irises. However, on close inspection, I found a lighter shade of brown encircled his pupils, a dark mahogany, and between the sable and mahogany were embers of a fire. Copper in the sunlight. Bright autumn leaves on dark soil.

I could have stared into Roane’s eyes all night.

Most discomforting in all this was the fact that I wasn’t uncomfortable. Despite my hyperawareness of him, I was weirdly at ease in his company.

“So.” Roane pushed the plate aside. “Chicago?”

“I grew up in the suburbs of Indiana. Carmel, north of Indianapolis. But I graduated from Northwestern University, which is north of Chicago, and I just never left. What about you? Born and raised in Northumberland?”

“Aye. The farm is a couple of miles from here. I went to school, traveled a bit, but the Northumberland Coast is home.”

I smiled, imagining him wandering the world only to be drawn back to the beauty here. “What a home it is.”

Roane smiled appreciatively. “You like it here so far then?”