Perhaps Caro was right, but I had to agree with Roane. It was up to Maggie to bridge that distance with Annie after the way she’d allowed her to be treated.

A tension fell over the table at the quiet disagreement between the cousins.

So I blurted out my news. “Penny’s asked me to stay and run her store for three months.”

Roane’s head whipped around to look at me so fast, I could only imagine he got whiplash. “What?”

I stared into his warm eyes and felt a flutter of something I didn’t want to feel at his hopeful countenance. “It’s not a done deal,” I hurried to say, “I have to apply for a work visa. Penny’s got all that figured out and is going to try to push it through as quickly as possible. She thinks it’ll take two weeks, so she’s letting me stay a week longer free of charge. So no matter what happens, I’m here for another two weeks instead of just one. I need to postpone my flights home but that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“That’s wonderful.” Caro beamed from ear to ear. “I really hope they grant you the visa, Evie. I can’t imagine the summer here without you now.”

Pleased to be wanted, I smiled. “Me too.”

Then I felt Roane’s hand on my knee again and shivered at the feel of his calloused palm on my skin. My gaze flew to his, and he squeezed my knee. “I’ll see what I can do to make sure you get that visa.”

The flutters in my belly went wild. “What could you do?”

“I know people,” he said.

He’d said that before. “Who are these mysterious people you know?”

“People who help me get what I want.”

My breath caught at the heat in his eyes, and he gave my knee one last squeeze before releasing me. Roane smirked as if he knew how he affected me and wrenched his gaze from mine to say to Caro, “If I invite people to The Anchor to celebrate Evie’s prolonged stay, you’re coming. No arguments. Helena can go to hell.”

Ten

I’m staying in England for another three months.”

At the deafening silence on the other end of the line, I slumped onto the sofa and stared out at the dark sea. Broken streams of moonlight glinted off the water, moving with every gentle wave like fluttering silver fairy wings dancing across the surface.

Yet not even the beauty of my surroundings could ease the rising tide of concern as the silence continued.