know if it was because I needed people to cling to during a difficult time in my life, or if I’d genuinely found special friendships with them all.
No, that wasn’t true.
I knew for a fact that I’d found something special with Roane, and I was afraid of it. Yet, thinking of leaving him, now or in a week, was a scary thought.
I reluctantly faced Penny. “What’s going on?”
She held her hair in a tight fist to stop it blowing around in the breeze. The wind was picking up as if to mirror my mood, and I shivered in my T-shirt and shorts. Although it was the warmest day of the year so far, that didn’t mean it was superhot and that sea breeze was cool.
“Evie, I have a proposition for you, and you’ll probably think I’m mad for even asking but I’m going to do it anyway.”
I felt a flutter in my stomach. “Okay.”
“Remember I told you my sister wants me to sell up and move to Australia?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I’ve been thinking about it, and what’s stopping me is the unknown. I don’t want to sell my store and leave my life here only to go over there and three months in discover I bloody hate the place.”
“That makes sense.” But what did this have to do with me?
Penny’s gaze sharpened. “Evie, we haven’t known each other long, but I have good instincts about people, and I trust you. I know from our talks that things are a little unsettled for you right now, and I think we can help each other.”
“Help each other how?”
“I’m going out to Australia for three months as a trial run. I’m gonna rent out my own flat while I’m gone, but I’ll still need someone to look after the store and its apartment. I want that person to be you.”
Stunned, I gaped at her. The ramifications of her proposition cluttered my headspace instantly. Greer would be upset. So would my mother. Phil would be concerned too. But it would give me more time to figure out a path.
And I’d get to spend more time with Roane.
“Now I can’t pay you much, like, but you can stay in the apartment rent-free.”
A tremor of excitement ran through me. My immediate reaction was to scream YES! at the top of my voice, but that goddamn sensible side of me took control first. “I’m only here as a tourist. I’d need a work visa for that.”
Penny waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. “Already looked into it.” She pulled a folded-up piece of paper out of the back pocket of her jean shorts. “I filled out the employer form and I have the address you need to send it to, to update them about the change in situation of your stay.”
I gaped.
But what about Greer?
“My friend is pregnant—”
“I thought she had her boyfriend, Anders, or something?”
“Andre.”
Penny took a step toward me. “Before you come up with excuses not to do it . . . can I ask if you want to do it?”
The only thing back in Chicago for me was Greer. The thought of missing out on the majority of her pregnancy made my heart twinge in my chest . . . but . . .
Three more months running the bookstore, getting paid to do something I was loving more and more by the minute.
Three more months with Caroline, Milly, and Dexter.
Three more months with Roane.
Something stressful that had been knotted tight in my belly for a week, something I didn’t want to put a name to because it seemed ridiculous to feel so strongly about a person when we’d known each other only a few weeks . . . well, that something began to dissolve, loosening, relaxing.
I was relieved.
“Yes.” I nodded a little frantically. “Yeah, I want to do it.”
Penny smiled, and gripped my hand. “Then why not do it?”
Why not indeed?
Three months was plenty of time to figure out my life, and I’d get to do it during the summer on the coast of England. Rent-free.
I’d be crazy to turn this down, even if a certain farmer and his friends weren’t a factor.
“If they give me a work visa, I’ll do it.”
Smiling from ear to ear, Penny pulled me into her arms and squeezed me tight. “Thank you, Evie. You’re a godsend, lass.”
* * *
• • •
We were lucky to procure the table and benches in the garden of The Anchor an hour later. On a day like today, on a Sunday, the pub was heaving