A Perfect Cornish Escape by Phillipa Ashley Page 0,90

bring him into the community, and that she’d found the courage to reach out to him personally.

He spent many nights at the cottage, which suited Tiff too, because she spent as many at Dirk’s – though when they were both there, Marina was pleased to see they got on well.

‘Hi there.’ Lachlan leaned down to kiss her one evening when he came round for dinner. ‘Busy?’ Marina had been busy all afternoon, emailing her solicitor and preparing a lecture for the coming term, but while dinner was cooking, she’d broken off for a much happier duty – writing a Facebook review of the lighthouse cottages.

‘I was … but I’m now writing a post about how fantastic our stay was on St Agnes. Do you want to see it while I finish dinner?’

‘Do you really want me to see what you’ve written about our weekend?’ He raised an eyebrow and she was reminded of their days – and nights in bed – on the island.

‘I haven’t gone into too much detail!’ She laughed. ‘Here, you can see for yourself while I serve up the pasta.’

Leaving him with the iPad, she drained the linguine and added it to the white wine and garlic sauce, before tipping two portions into chunky bowls. Just in time, she rescued the garlic bread from the oven and put it into a basket.

When she returned, he was sitting at the dining table staring at the iPad. His expression wasn’t what she expected: slightly stunned rather than pleased or amused.

‘Everything OK?’ she said, putting a bowl in front of him. ‘I haven’t revealed anything I shouldn’t have?’

He closed the case on the iPad and pushed it away, the smile back on his face. ‘It’s great. Love the bit about the “exciting activities” on offer, though I don’t think that what we did was quite what the guide book had in mind.’

‘No … it was much more fun, though.’

He smiled again and inhaled the steam from the bowl. ‘This smells good.’

‘Hope so, I got the mussels and prawns from the harbour fishmonger this morning.’

He poured some chilled wine left over from the sauce into her glass and topped up his own. Marina chattered away about more memories of their trip, hoping they could visit again. Lachlan hmmed in the right places and smiled but, from time to time, he seemed not to have heard what she’d said.

At one point, he paused, with a hank of linguine around his fork.

‘Is dinner OK?’ she asked, half amused, half wondering what planet he was on.

‘Oh, aye. It’s great.’ He popped the pasta into his mouth.

After dinner, they took the rest of the bottle out onto the terrace and sat quietly in the evening sun.

‘I went to see the solicitor earlier,’ Marina said, feeling that they’d relaxed.

She’d got his attention again finally. ‘Oh aye?’

‘Mmm. I should have the legal declaration in a couple of weeks.’ An unexpected lump rose to her throat.

Lachlan squeezed her hand. ‘So soon?’ he said.

‘Well, it has been a long time coming …’

‘Aye. It must feel like a lifetime and yet now, so … strange.’

‘It is. Every time I visit the lawyer or sign something, I tell myself it’s a positive step but it still feels like …’ She was about to say a betrayal of Nate, but stopped just in time. ‘A weird thing to do.’ She kissed him quickly and got up. ‘I’ll get us a coffee. I need perking up.’

When she returned with the coffees, Lachlan was speaking to someone on his phone but he ended the call. ‘Aaron,’ he said, and smiled broadly, accepting the mug.

They sat down and she thought he looked tired, with dark smudges under his eyes. Well, they had been burning the midnight oil, she supposed, with a thrill of delight. Maybe it also had something to do with the extra work he was putting in in Aaron’s business, and the Wave Watchers shifts.

‘Are you still OK with the coastguard coming to assess you on Saturday?’ she asked. ‘It’s a bit of a pain but you can move on to the next stage of the training when she’s given you the certificate.’

‘If she gives me the certificate,’ he quipped.

‘Of course she will.’

His smile faded quickly. ‘Don’t worry, I’m used to assessments. Or rather I was. It’s been a while.’

‘You’ll smash it,’ she said, hoping he wouldn’t lose any more sleep over the test. He’d already made giant strides from the day she met him, when he could hardly bear to talk