“I’ve been meaning to ask you something, babe,” Annie started. Even though she predicted this wasn’t going to go down well with Jane, it was a much easier topic to address at the dinner table than her attraction—Annie didn’t really know what else to call it—to Kristin.

“What’s that?” Jane had finished her meal and put down her cutlery.

“You know how I haven’t been down to the swimming pool in weeks?”

Jane nodded.

“Even though I love to swim.”

“You’ve been busy with all that’s been going on with the shop. Your routine has suffered. It’s normal.”

Annie nodded. “That’s all true, but I’ve been thinking it might also be easier to go earlier in the day instead of in the evening after a long day in the shop.”

“You can go on Monday mornings then, when the shop is closed.” Jane really wasn’t catching her drift.

“Monday is our day together. The only full one we have. Unless you want to join me?” Annie looked her wife in the eye.

Jane tucked a strand of her fine, strawberry blonde hair behind her ear. “Go swimming with you every Monday morning?” She folded her face into a frown. “But that’s our lie-in day. The one morning a week I don’t get up early to write and you don’t have to open the shop. Do you really want to spend that time in the pool?”

“No. I would much rather go swimming on another day, say a weekday afternoon, when there aren’t many people at the pool.”

“You want to hire someone for an afternoon a week?”

Annie wondered whether Jane was really that lost in her own world or whether she was playing dumb because she’d known where this was going all along. “I have my eye on the most beautiful unpaid help.”

“You want me to do it?” Jane shuffled in her seat.

“It would only be for a few hours every week. It’s not as if you’ve never done it before, babe. Maybe you’ll even enjoy it.”

“But I’m busy,” Jane said. “I run my own business. I have a million things to do.”

Annie scrunched her lips together, then shot Jane a pleading look. “If you tell me you really don’t have two hours to spare, and that those two hours of not working will harm your business, I won’t bring it up again. But you could also see it as a welcome break from your everyday tasks. You can have a chat with Mia. Feast on one of her delicious cappuccinos. It might even give you ideas for your next book.”

“If you’re asking me to do this for you so you can have a few hours to yourself every week, then you know I will,” Jane said matter-of-factly.