Rafael shoved his hands in his pockets and turned to stare out over the water. He hadn’t ever been someone who practiced avoidance, but he knew that was precisely what he was doing. Here, it was as if he existed in a bubble. Nothing could intrude or interfere, but the outside world was still there, just waiting. The longer he put off the inevitable, the more he dreaded it.

“Rafael, is something wrong?”

Bryony’s soft voice slid over him at the same time her hand slipped through his arm and she hugged herself up to his side.

He disentangled his arm from her grasp just long enough to wrap it around her waist and then pulled her in close again.

“No, just thinking.”

“About?”

“What has to be done.”

Instead of pressing him for answers as he thought she might, she said, “Why don’t we take off, go for a long walk? Mamaw won’t mind. She’s having fun being the center of attention. She won’t even notice we’ve gone.”

Unable to resist, he leaned down to kiss her brow. She was so in tune with his moods. It shouldn’t have surprised him that she could read him so easily. He’d found that he could pick up on the nuances of her moods just as quickly. He anticipated her reactions much like she did his own.

It was something he imagined a couple doing after years of marriage.

When he drew away, she took his hand and tugged him toward the stone path leading through the garden and down the dune onto the sand.

Sand slid over his toes but he found he didn’t mind as much as he had when he first started wearing these ridiculous flip-flops.

They ventured closer to the water that foamed over the sand. Soon the cool waves washed over their feet, and Bryony smiled her delight as they danced back to avoid a larger one from getting them too wet.

Soon Laura’s and Bryony’s cottages were distant points behind them as they approached the land that he’d purchased from her.

“My father used to bring me here,” she said. “He used to tell me that there was nothing greater than owning a piece of heaven. I feel like I’ve let him down by selling it.”

Rafael grimaced feeling even guiltier over his part in the whole thing. It didn’t matter that if it hadn’t been him it would have been someone else. She could no longer afford the taxes and if someone hadn’t bought it, eventually the land would have been seized for taxes owed. Either way it would no longer belong to her.

But you have the power to give it back to her.