The words were so bold that Kate was glad her face was buried in Tilly’s neck. The last thing she wanted was for her surprise to discourage Tilly from trying, testing, discovering this new, sensual part of herself that was suddenly blossoming.

Smirking, she pulled back. “No.” She took the lemonade from Tilly’s hands and held it away from them. Tilly huffed and Kate grinned wider. She tightened her arm around Tilly’s waist and drew her hips flush against her own. “Because I want to kiss you up there knowing what I know now.”

Tilly wet her lips. “And what is it that you know now?” she asked coyly.

“That I can make you happy.”

“Mmm?” Tilly asked playfully.

Kate tilted her head to brush her lips against Tilly’s. “Really, really, really happy.”

The whisper of Tilly’s breath against her lips was maddening, the nervousness cloaked in flirtation drawing breath from Kate’s lungs. “Oh?”

Kate’s eyes slipped closed. “And that in your heart, you feel married to me.”

Tilly’s lips met hers with a different kind of electricity. Soft, familiar, sweet like lemonade. Need burned inside her as Tilly’s hands bunched the front of her shirt roughly. Maybe they should have gone straight back to Lords, to the cottage. All she wanted was Tilly molten and messy over her sheets. Tilly pressed a hand against her chest and drew back.

“What’s wrong?” she breathed.

Breathless, Tilly blinked up at her. “My lips are tingling.”

Kate smirked. “Good.” She lowered her mouth to Tilly’s.

Again, Tilly pushed her away. “I’m having a reaction.”

Kate blinked. “Huh?”

“To the sunflowers.” Tilly winced as she unclenched her hand from Kate’s shirt and scratched at the back of her neck.

Kate’s eyes widened as her gaze set on the rash on the side of Tilly’s forearm. With a gasp, she grasped Tilly’s wrist. “Jesus Christ, your arm’s the colour of a lobster. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You were so sweet about coming here—”

“Oh my god, Tilly, you should have said something earlier!”

“I didn’t realise there would be an entire sunflower labyrinth on the other side of the boundary wall! You said it was just a hedge maze.”

A pink, patchy rash was blooming on Tilly’s neck, creeping down to her collarbone. “Jesus Christ. How do I not know that you’re allergic to sunflowers?”

Tilly grinned. “I’m fine,” she said coolly as she reached out to take the lemonade from Kate’s grasp. “But I’m completely parched.”

“What are we having for dinner?” Lexi asked, the wheels of her cabin bag rolling loudly across the gravel of Mornington slipway as she made her way toward Kate later that night.

“Rabbit stew,” she said dryly. “And good evening to you too.”

Lexi rolled her eyes. “Hi. What are we actually having?”

“Consider it a surprise and consider yourself glad that you abandoned that vegan phase before it began.”

“So meat?”

“So-I-don’t-know.”

Cassie brushed past them, heading for the ramp of the car ferry for boarding. “Hi, Kate.”