His face filled with surprise. ‘Really?’

‘Really!’

‘You clearly left it somewhere obscure as hell. I never found it.’

‘It was pretty obvious, on top of the bed with your name in capitals.’

He laughed. Then the smile dropped from his face and he shrugged. ‘It’s fine, it’s in the past. Let’s not worry about it. I’m pleased we get the chance to see each other again for an hour or two.’

‘Hour or two?’ I put my hand on his arm. ‘I wanted you to call me, you know. I thought you didn’t want to. If I’d known you’d never got the note, then I’d have done everything to contact you.’

He avoided my gaze. ‘It was a misunderstanding. Life is full of them. And now we know.’ He looked behind me. ‘Is your friend here?’

‘You mean Cole?’

‘No,’ he replied, voice serious. ‘The tall blond guy I’ve seen you hanging around with.’

‘What? I’m confused.’

‘I turned up at the filming location when I arrived two months ago. You were with a man, dancing, drinking …’ He let his voice trail off.

My stomach dropped. ‘Why didn’t you come talk to me?’

‘I told you. You were with someone,’ he said stiffly. ‘It was good to see you happy.’

‘You mean Lyngar? He’s just a friend, you know.’

‘Didn’t look like it to me.’

‘Fine, maybe more than a friend on a few lonely nights.’ I grabbed Dylan’s hand. ‘But it’s been nothing like what we had. Nothing. You came here to find me, didn’t you?’ I asked, my mind buzzing with it. ‘That means you felt what we had between us too.’

‘I needed closure,’ he said stiffly.

‘Closure,’ I repeated.

He rubbed at his dark beard. ‘I’ve been feeling this restlessness since you left. I just couldn’t focus, you know? I knew I had to track you down. Plus I remember how I felt when I was working on this house, so peaceful here.’ He seemed to force a smile on his face. ‘It was a no-brainer really. Kill two birds with one stone. And now I have.’

I could see what he was doing, trying to sweep what we had under the carpet. Maybe he didn’t believe I’d left a note? How could I convince him?

Asher clapped his hands then. Everyone turned towards him. ‘Dinner is served,’ he said. He walked over to us, Cole by his side. ‘We’ve set places for you, I insist you both join us.’

Cole and I shrugged at each other.

‘How can we resist?’ Cole said. ‘It smells delicious.’

And how could I resist spending more time with Dylan? I smiled at him but he didn’t smile back. I chewed at my lip. Maybe I’d got it all wrong?