Liam went to get up but she stopped him, one hand against his cheek. Say yes, she thought. While you’re here, say yes to as many things as you can.

‘No,’ she said. ‘Don’t.’

Twelve

Anna woke before it was light the next morning, just as Liam was slipping out of bed. When he saw she was awake he leaned down to kiss her.

‘I was trying not to wake you. Go back to sleep,’ he said quietly. ‘The storm’s blown itself out. I’m going to make my way back before anyone’s up and about out there.’

She ran her fingers through his hair, then tugged gently at one dark lock. ‘You don’t have to, Kiwi.’

Liam smiled and then kissed her again, the touch lingering. ‘I’ll write down my number and leave it on the table. Call me any time – if I can answer, I will. If I don’t it’ll be because I’m working.’

Anna shifted under the covers, watching him pull on his boxers. The rest of his clothes were still downstairs. ‘I hope you managed to get some sleep. It’s been a long time since I slept in a single bed with company.’

He laughed. ‘It wasn’t so bad. I spend a lot of time in bunks, remember? Right. I’m going.’ He kissed her again and was gone.

She listened to him moving around downstairs as he dressed. There was a couple of minutes’ silence, then more footsteps. He came back up the stairs, quickly, and a second later he was pressing her into the bed, kissing her hard, the roughness of his knitted sweater scratching against her breasts, the fervent nature of the kiss making her laugh against his stubble. Then he was gone again, his feet loud on the stairs. The door of the Fishergirl’s Luck clicked shut behind him.

Anna stared up at the ceiling for a few minutes. Her body was pleasantly heavy, drowsy in all the right ways. She thought about getting up, but felt her eyes closing instead.

When she woke again, dawn light was edging through her window. Downstairs, the Fishergirl’s Luck held a new kind of stillness, the sort left in the wake of activity. Liam’s note was on the coffee table, scrawled in an uneven hand: his number, and a brief message.

I had fun. Hope you did too. Call me.

Smiling, Anna put the note back down on the table and went into the kitchen to make tea. Through the window the sea looked like tumbled green glass, its rough edges sanded smooth. Suddenly what she most wanted was to be outside, in fresh air.