‘She’ll be fine,’ Evanna said calmly. ‘Fraser is very responsible. The beach here is pretty safe, and Ryan can keep an eye on them—he’s the strongest swimmer round here.’ Smiling, she gave Ryan a little push. ‘Go on. You’re on lifeguard duty.’

Ryan glanced at Logan, who was expertly flipping steaks on the barbecue.

‘Your wife is a bully.’

‘I know. I love a strong, forceful woman, don’t you?’

It was a flippant remark, with no hidden meaning, but Ryan felt his jaw tighten as he considered the question. He liked a woman to be independent, yes. Strong? He had no problem with strong—he knew from experience that life dealt more blows than a boxer, so strong was probably good. But forceful? Was forceful a euphemism for selfish and singleminded? For doing absolutely what you wanted to do with no thought for anyone else? If so, then the answer was no—he didn’t like forceful women.

The question killed his mood, and he was aware that Jenna was looking at him with concern in her eyes.

‘I’ll keep you company. You made me buy a swimming costume so I might as well use it.’ She put her drink down. ‘If you’re really on lifeguard duty then you can come in the water with me. It’s so long since I swam I’m probably going to need my own personal lifeguard.’

Wanting to escape his thoughts, Ryan put his drink down next to hers. ‘All right.’

They walked across the sand and she quickened her pace to keep up with him.

‘You seem upset.’ She kept walking. ‘Is something wrong?’

Startled by her insight, Ryan frowned, his eyes on the sea, where Lexi was dangling a shrieking Kirsty in the water. ‘What could be wrong?’

‘I don’t know. I just thought—you seem very tense all of a sudden. I thought maybe you needed some space.’ She took a deep breath. ‘If you want to talk to someone, you can talk to me.’

Ryan turned his head in astonishment and she bit her lip, her smile faltering.

‘I know, I know—men don’t like to talk about their problems. But you’ve listened to me often enough over the past month—I just want you to know that the friendship works both ways.’

‘Friendship?’ He realised that he was looking at her mouth again, and the strange thing was he didn’t need to look. He’d memorised everything about it, from the way her lips curved to the soft pink colour. ‘Is that what we have?’

‘Of course. I mean, I hope so. You’ve certainly been a friend to me since I arrived here.’

He stared down into her eyes and something shimmered between them. Something powerful. So powerful that if they hadn’t been standing in the middle of a crowded beach with the entire population of Glenmore watching he would have kissed her again.