She’d pushed her luck with dinner. Hell, she blew it before that. When everything exploded over the summer and the press showed up, she should have run again. Her safe space had caved in around her, and all of her naive thoughts about being able to move on and be normal shriveled. She knew better but she’d stayed, and now Connor might pay a price for that hubris.

“In what? I don’t even understand what’s happening.” His body froze. “Wait. Am I the him in the note?”

“You. Maybe Ben. You’ve both been here. I haven’t really seen anyone else. Not a he anyway.” But every cell inside of her screamed that it was Connor. She’d implicated him in her messed-up life. “I don’t know, but I’m betting it’s you.”

“Do you know who’s writing the notes?”

“No.”

“Really?” He lifted his hands slowly, as if giving her a chance to move or bolt. When she didn’t, he rested his palms on her forearms and brushed them up and down along her jacket sleeves in a soothing gesture. “We all have a past, Maddie. I swear I’m not judging. I really want to help here but I can’t do that with the limited information I have.”

Her insides shook. She could feel her resolve, that thick wall of determination she practiced and shored up around her, crumble. A few more minutes and she’d be on the floor, rocking back and forth while she forced her brain to focus.

Before common sense could blink out, she made herself think. Nonsense chatter filled her brain and she let some of it slide out. “Do you have secrets? From what I can tell you’re kind of perfect.”

He shook his head. “Not even close.”

“Smart. Hot. This super businessman. The stable one in a family that’s still reeling from loss.” She closed her eyes when she realized she’d said the hot part out loud.

“Maddie.”

The energy pinging around inside of her wouldn’t let her stand still. She broke out of his reassuring hold and paced. “I’ve worried about something just like this. It’s why I don’t get involved. I stick to the house. Watch the island for visitors. Weigh every move. I’m careful and always watching. It’s the only way to live.”

“That doesn’t sound like living.”

“Surviving, then. Call it whatever you want because it wasn’t enough. Not if someone can slip in and leave that, here, on an island where everyone knows everyone and strangers stick out.” She stopped and faced him, suddenly convinced she could still save him if this ended now. “You should go. This was a mistake.”

“Dinner?”

The note. Those words. How could he not get it?