Sam turned to her. ‘Lily?’
‘I think I’ve had enough boat journeys for one day.’
‘We’ll stay here then.’
‘And I’ll get off to Zumba,’ said Elspeth, getting up off the sofa. ‘Enjoy your evening – though I warn you, this will probably be the talk of the islands before too long.’
‘I’m used to being gossiped about,’ Lily said, and gave Elspeth a warm hug. ‘Thank you for making me welcome, even though you had so many misgivings.’
‘Yes, well, you two aren’t the only people who can change their minds. I’ll see you tomorrow.’
‘Yes, I’ll come by the café. I need to talk to you about a more permanent office arrangement.’
‘Great. I shall up my rates!’
‘I’d do the same, if I were you.’
Chuckling to herself, after a farewell wave, Elspeth left them alone.
‘I’m glad you chose to stay here,’ Sam said when silence returned to the house again. He closed and locked the French doors with a firmness that sent a delicious shiver up Lily’s spine.
‘Why’s that then?’ she said.
He walked towards her, the fire of desire in his eyes. ‘Because I don’t think I can wait a moment longer to take you to bed.’
Lily smiled back, almost trembling. ‘Why else do you think I wanted to stay here?’
She took his hand and let him lead her up the stairs to their bedroom.
Epilogue
Three months later
‘Oh my God. You are not frigging going to believe this!’ Morven burst through the door of Lily’s new office, waving her phone in the air.
Fortunately, Lily had just finished a Zoom meeting with her new client Cockahoop – otherwise Morven would have played a starring role.
‘You’re in the news again!’ she declared, standing behind the laptop and blocking Lily’s view of Cromwell’s Castle.
Lily let out a resigned breath. ‘Oh, God, what have I done this time?’
Morven was unwilling to surrender her phone for a nanosecond. ‘I’ve sent you the link.’
Lily pushed aside her brownie plate and returned to her laptop screen. She had needed a base on Scilly and had found the perfect spot: a room above a net loft next to the café.
The neglected space had been used by Elspeth for storing junk but was now a bright and cosy office with an upgraded WiFi package and Lily’s own dedicated landline. It might not have a view over the London skyline, but thevista over the sparkling channel to Tresco more than made up for that.
Morven moved, hovering behind Lily’s shoulder while she opened the page of a Cornish newspaper site. The headline read:SCILLY LOVES LILY?Under it were several grainy shots of her and Sam on Tean Porth. She was in a bikini and he was in board shorts. One showed her emerging from the sea, pulling a face; another showed Sam lifting her into the air above a wave. Lily groaned. The worst was a shot of them locked in a passionate embrace.
‘Ewww,’ Morven said, holding her phone away from her in case she might be infected by a deadly disease. ‘That’s disgusting.’
‘Thanks,’ Lily muttered, more worried about the gurning expression captured on her face when she’d run out of the sea. ‘How do they get these shots? And why? Who really cares?’
‘It’s clickbait,’ Morven said. ‘It makes people look at the gross ads.’
Lily sighed, scrolling past banners for revolting diets, miracle cures for wrinkles and fake pictures of celebs looking like wizened goblins. The online world was as hideous as ever.
‘You’re on a few other sites too,’ Morven declared with relish.
