‘‘I help people who need it,’’ she said, firing up the skillet. ‘‘God knows you did.’’ She yelped when his hand dropped on her shoulder. She half expected him to give her a quick shake, so when he kissed her cheek she could only blink at him.

‘‘I appreciate it.’’

‘‘You do?’’

‘‘Not that I’d care to have you do it again, but this once, I appreciate it.’’

‘‘She makes you happy.’’ Everything inside Anna softened. ‘‘I can see it.’’

‘‘We’ll see how long I can make her happy.’’

‘‘Ethan—’’

‘‘Let it stand.’’ He kissed her again, as much in warning as affection. ‘‘We’ll take it a day at a time for a while.’’

‘‘All right.’’ But her smile bloomed. ‘‘Grace is working at the pub tonight, isn’t she?’’

‘‘Yeah. And just so you don’t have to bite your tongue in half to keep from asking, I’m thinking of going by for a while after dinner.’’

‘‘Good.’’ More than satisfied, Anna got to work. ‘‘Then we’ll eat soon.’’

TWELVE

IT WAS LIKE WALKING WIDE awake into a dream, Grace thought, where you couldn’t be sure what was going to happen next, but you just knew it would be wonderful. It was living inside a familiar world that had been polished into a constant state of anticipation and excitement.

Days and nights were still filled with work, responsibilities, small joys and petty annoyances. But for now, with this full rush of love, the joys seemed huge, the annoyances minute.

Everything she’d ever read about love was true, she discovered. The sun shined brighter, the air smelled fresher. Flowers were more colorful, the songs of birds more musical. Every clich é became her reality. There were stolen moments—an embrace outside the pub during her break that left her jittery and delighted and unable to sleep long after she went home. A slow, intense look filled with awareness if she managed to linger long enough at the Quinn house to see him. It seemed she was in a constant state of yearning, only more acute now that she knew what could be.

What would be.

She wanted to touch and be touched, to take that long, slow ride into pleasure and passion again. Side by side with the yearning was the endless frustration that life constantly intruded on dreams.

There was never enough time to be alone, to simply be.

She often wondered if Ethan felt the same edgy need dogging his heels throughout his day. She thought it must be something inside her, some long-hidden sexual greed— and she didn’t know whether to be delighted by it or mortified.

She only knew that she wanted him constantly, and that with every day that want passed into another night alone, that want increased. She wondered if he would be shocked, worried that he would be.

She needn’t have.