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‘I realised I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t tell you how I feel about you.’

‘I know how I feel. I love you,’ Arlo said.

Katie hitched in a breath. ‘You do?’

‘Oh yes. I didn’t want to admit it to myself but I think I knew from the first time you gave me what I deserved at the jetty. Maybe ninety per cent of it was lust initially.’ He broke into the kind of joyful, wicked smile Katie had never seen on his face before. ‘But after that, I thought you were the most remarkable, gorgeous woman I’d ever seen and that you’d brought spring back into my miserable, hermitic life.’

She frowned and laughed. ‘Is “hermitic” an actual word?’

‘I don’t know. It ought to be because that’s how I’ve lived for the past few years. Like a hermit, a recluse. Hiding away, licking my wounds and thinking I’d never meet anyone again.’ Finally, he realised that he was shaking with the cold and that she was almost as wet as he was. ‘Now, it’s my professional opinion that we need to get warmed up as fast as possible and there’s only one way.’

‘I bet that isn’t in the training manual,’ Katie said as they ran hand in hand towards the house.

‘Well, it should be,’ he said, feeling that he must be dreaming or in heaven or something. ‘It bloody should be.’

‘Hold on!’ Katie said in alarm.

Arlo’s spirits sank. ‘What for?’

‘I have to tell Jess I’m safe and haven’t fallen in.’

Arlo laughed in relief. ‘No. That was me.’

Thirty seconds later, he was kissing Katie in the hallway and thanking his lucky stars that they were on an island, and that no one could reach them or stop them from staying in bed for a week or doing anything they wanted in the whole world.

Epilogue

One Year Later

‘Hello! Welcome back!’

Katie broke into a jog as Athene walked towards the jetty, wheeling her case.

‘Jess not here yet?’ Athene asked before giving Katie a warm embrace.

‘No. She messaged me to say she was running a bit late. She’d stopped in Keswick to take a phone call from India about some silk sarongs. She said she wouldn’t be long.’

Katie had taken Arlo’s Land Rover into Keswick for some supplies while he prepared the house for the arrival of this year’s Christmas guests. Wanda was arriving the following day from Manchester Airport after a holiday in Madeira. Katie’s parents were also joining them.

Finally, everyone would be together again at the Island House with one important difference: this time, Katie would be their host alongside Arlo.

Katie couldn’t help bursting into a grin. Since Wanda had returned home from the Island House last Christmas, she had joined the local ramblers and a wild-swimming group and had told Katie she was upgrading the ‘reliable motor’ that Ian had kept for years to something ‘hybrid and racy’.

‘She WhatsApped my mum last night and couldn’t shut up about how wonderful Madeira was,’ Katie told Athene. ‘Mum was amazed that Wanda had decided to go on holiday on her own, although she’s not actually alone since Erin and that Tantric Sex Woman have gone too.’

Athene winced. ‘Good grief. Imagine being known as the Tantric Sex Woman.’

Katie giggled and was about to elaborate on Wanda’s anecdotes about the TSW when her mobile buzzed.

She opened the WhatsApp message and burst out laughing. ‘Oh, it’s Mum! Look, it’s the twins. Harriet is toddling and I swear Caitlin tried to say “Katie” the other day.’

Handing back the phone, Athene smiled. ‘They are impossibly cute, but other people’s babies are always impossibly cute because you don’t have to change their nappies or endure vomit on your favourite top.’

Katie laughed. ‘You might not mind it if the poo and sick were from one of your own although I’m sure I’d still mind a bit.’

‘Hmm. I don’t know.’

Katie thought this was a big leap up from over my dead body. ‘That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you be so positive about having kids,’ she said.