“How was your day?” Kate asked. “Take a spin on the Cha-Cha?”

Grinning, Tilly shook her head. “No. I worked the cake stall.”

Kate leaned back in her chair. “Of course you did.” She folded her arms over her chest. “The vicar at least try to win you a stuffed panda?”

Tilly looked to the floor. “I can’t say anybody has ever tried to do that for me. And I can’t say I feel that I’m missing out.”

Kate grinned.

“It’s cold in here,” Tilly said.

“It’s a cold night. Do you want me to pop back to the cottage and start the fire for you?”

Tilly pressed a hip against the edge of Kate’s desk. “You very well know I can start the fire myself.”

“Can you?” Kate teased.

Tilly didn’t bite. “How long will you be here?” she asked.

“I just have to mark three more and I’ll be over.”

“So…an hour?”

Kate raised an eyebrow. What was with the third degree? “Are we entertaining guests?” she asked playfully.

Tilly planted both palms on the edge of her desk and leaned forward. She bit her lip. Her gaze was downcast, like she was too busy holding a secret close to her chest to look at Kate. “I want to watch last night’s episode of The Bachelor with you.”

Kate grinned. God, did she have to be so cute? “Okay, I won’t be long. I’ll chew very, very quickly.”

Tilly nodded. “Don’t give yourself indigestion,” she said, and then she was gone, leaving Kate as endeared as she was confused.

Smoke billowed from the cottage chimney. In just a T-shirt, Kate shivered in the cold night air as she struggled to balance her glass and empty bowl atop her work folders, the spoon sliding about inside with each step she took down the cottage path. By the front steps, she did a double take as her eyes locked on a pair of dirtied work boots placed neatly to the side of the mat. Male work boots. What in God’s name…

The moment she opened the door, Tilly shot from the lounge.

Kate wasn’t sure what she’d expected to find inside the cottage, but it certainly wasn’t the elderly stranger seated on the lounge, Kate’s coffee mug in hand. Dressed in a bright tropical-printed shirt, his anxious gaze flickered between Kate and Tilly.

“Hello,” Kate said. She looked to Tilly.

Quickly, Tilly’s focus jerked back to their visitor. “Kate, this is Jim,” she said, not sparing a glace to where Kate stood in the open doorway. “We met on the ferry tonight and I asked Jim if he’d like to have dinner with me.”

“Hi Jim.” Kate set her folders and bowl on the edge of the counter. She stared at the side of Tilly’s face. “I thought you already had a fiancé?”

Tilly’s eyes widened as Jim laughed. Kate looked between them as she closed the front door behind her.

“Kate teaches music and English, Jim,” Tilly explained over the blaring volume of the television. “She lives here too.”