He started the engine and drove over the bumpy dirt path back to the main road and then accelerated.

“Feel like some breakfast?”

It sounded like he grunted in return, but she couldn’t be sure. Still, he hadn’t said no, so she took it as an affirmative.

“I’ll make your favorite.”

He glanced sideways at her. “My favorite?”

“Eggs Benedict.”

“Yeah, it is,” he mumbled. “I guess I told you that before.”

“Uh-huh.”

Clearly he wasn’t in a talkative mood. He looked downright surly. She was more of a morning person, but Mamaw wasn’t, and she often told Bryony she was too cheerful for her own good before noon. Mamaw didn’t have any compunction about telling her to shut up and go away, but Bryony guessed Rafael was too polite to do the same.

Funny, but she hadn’t noticed him being particularly grumpy in the mornings before, but then more often than not, they’d slept late after a night of making love.

Just the memory of them waking in bed, wrapped around each other, had her cheeks warming and a tingle snaking through her body.

She missed those nights. And the mornings. Most of the time she’d cooked for them both, but at least twice, Rafael had risen while she still slept and brought her breakfast in bed.

So instead of saying anything further, she reached over and took his hand, squeezing it before lacing her fingers through his.

He looked surprised by the gesture, but he didn’t make any effort to extricate his hand from hers.

“Thank you.”

He cocked his head.

“For doing that. It means a lot not just to me, but also to the people on this island.”

He looked uncomfortable. “You need to understand that this is only a temporary solution. I can’t suspend operations indefinitely. There are a lot of people counting on me. They’ve trusted me with their money. My partners are heavily invested with me. This is…This is huge for us.”

“But you understand I would have never sold you the land if you hadn’t given me your promise,” she said. “The result would be the same. It’s not as though I sold you the land under false pretenses.”

Rafael sighed but then squeezed her hand. “For now let’s not talk about it. There’s no simple solution to all this whether I regain my memory or not.”

For the first time she weighed his position in the matter. If all he’d said were true, then it couldn’t have been easy for him to call off the operation.

Regardless of whether he’d lied to her before, he’d done the honorable thing now and it was costing him dearly.