not just the ownership of an old, run-down house.
Only they were bonded by more than that, Gemma thought. And it would seem that between the three of them, lasting love only did belong in fiction.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ellie
It was early when Ellie arrived at the studio, but unlike the last couple of weeks, her heart didn’t speed up as she passed through town, and she no longer viewed the hours that stretched ahead as being filled with possibility. It was another day on the island, same as always. She’d make some coffee. Some of the guys off the docks would come in to start their week off right. They’d chat about the weather, the choppiness of the water, and then they’d go on their way. She’d call around to the shops to see how her weekend sales had gone, and if any new inventory was needed. And then…
And then this was where things got lonely.
Before she could let her mood get the better of her, she started a fresh pot of coffee to brew and turned a sign on the door that led directly to the docks, letting all the regulars know that she was open. The coffee had only finished brewing when Edward came through the door, holding up his thermos.
“Happy to see you back in business,” he said with a grin.
“I was never out of business,” she said, filling his mug. He dropped a few bucks in her change jar, even though it wasn’t necessary really.
“Well, you haven’t been making your coffee these last couple days,” Edward said, giving her a wink. “Made me drag myself all the way to Cottage Coffeehouse.”
“Which is only around the corner.” She laughed. “And they have the best coffee in town.”
He gave her a wry look as he helped himself to the container of milk she kept in the mini-fridge. “Well, they don’t have the best conversation.”
She grinned. “Aw, Edward. You’re too kind.”
“Just being honest,” he said gruffly, looking her square in the eye, and something in her melted a little. He was one of the fixtures of the island, the kind of local stock that made this place what it was, and she’d known him since she was a little girl.
The warmth in her heart lasted long after he’d taken his leave, after she’d promised to be here bright and early tomorrow, with muffins this time, and he promised to bring her some fresh catch to share with her sisters. This prompted them to share a good laugh about Hope that day last week, and Ellie was still chuckling about it when she was settled at her easel, only this time she didn’t stay in her back room. She pulled her workspace into the brightly lit studio. The sun was reflecting off the water, and she wanted to capture the harbor before the light changed.
She was just sketching a few of the boats when the door opened. She expected to see Edward, back for a refill, but it wasn’t one of the fishermen coming in off the docks.
It was Simon.
She frowned. She couldn’t help herself, and he held up a hand before she could protest.
Still, she did. “Shouldn’t you be with your fiancée?” she asked. She picked up her paintbrush, went back to the boats, but she was angry and her hand was shaking, damn it, and he’d messed up her morning. She wasn’t going to let him mess up her painting too.
“You’re mad,” he said.
She flashed him with a look. “Gee, you think?”
“I’m sorry if you thought I was leading you on,” he said. “That was never my intention.”
“And just what was your intention?” she asked, but it was all so obvious now, so horribly, painfully obvious. She saw what she wanted to see even when real life was staring her in the face.
Simon had moved on. And she was still right here.
“I guess I wanted it to be like old times,” he said. “Like how we left off.”
She raised an eyebrow. “We left off with you saying that you’d be back next summer. And ten summers later, here you are. And here I am.”
“And it was a surprise to see you, Ellie. A good surprise,” he said.
She nodded sadly. She understood, even if she didn’t really want to. “This island has a way of making you forget about the rest of the world.”
“You knew I was engaged, Ellie. I never kept that from you.”
True. He hadn’t. She sighed, and this time she set her paintbrush down for good. “You didn’t seem