“This is perfect,” said Lucy. “You don’t have an excuse anymore. He’s staying in town for the next eight weeks. You could totally ask him out.” Her eyes shone. “He’s gorgeous, B. This is meet-cute material, I swear.”

“Meet-cute? You’ve been watching too many rom-coms.”

She tilted her head. “And you haven’t been with anyone in ages…”

I’d been with Elodie, but no one except Chad and Penny knew that. I shook my head. “Just because I’m single doesn’t mean I’m lonely. I have my friends.”

“Sure,” said Lucy, “but having a partner is different from having a friend. You can’t just hold your friend’s hand whenever you want to, or kiss them good morning, or … you know?”

She had a point, but the idea of getting to know someone new wasn’t as easy as she made it sound.

I grabbed her hand. “See? I’m holding your hand right now.”

“Okay, okay!” She pulled her hand free and laughed. “But you get my point.”

“I can’t hit on my renter,” I pointed out, forcing a grin, though I felt far from amused. “‘Owner’s daughter hits on guests’ is not what I want to see on TripAdvisor, thank you very much.”

“Why’d ya have to make it sound so sleazy?” Lucy complained over the gurgles and glugs of the dishwasher.

“We don’t even know if he’s single,” I reminded her. “Or if he’s interested in dating anyone. Besides, he’s just here for the summer.” I chose not to share with her that he’d called me “cute.” Lucy would read too much into it.

She rolled her eyes. “Details, details.”

“Not everyone’s as lucky as you and Lorcan,” I said. “You two make it look easy. It’s been, what, two years?”

“Yeah.” Lucy gave me a curious look. “Hasn’t Penny been with Chad for way longer, though?”

“Oh, right. Yeah. She has.” I gave the rim of the mug a furious swipe, wishing I could scrub the words out of Lucy’s mouth in as easy a gesture. My sun-bleached hair escaped the crook of my ear and fell into my face.

On reflex, my hand shot up to push my hair behind my ear. The movement drew my eye to the gold butterfly ring on my middle finger, a birthday present from Chad.

Chad. I still had no idea what to say to him. How to even talk to him after what we did. The one thing I knew was that it would be way easier than talking to Penny.

“Babe?” Lucy touched my shoulder. “I know I’m not Penny, but you can talk to me. You’ve looked kinda edgy all morning. Don’t just say you’re fine.” She looked at me sternly. “Not unless you mean it.”