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‘Normal?’ he murmured.

‘A different version of normal – if that makes sense?’

‘Normal can never be the same, though, can it? I imagine,’ he added.

‘Not quite. Sometimes, I can’t decide if I want the same “normal” I had before or not …’ Katie felt a lump settle in her throat. She’d never admitted that she might not want her old life back – in more ways than one – to another soul. Sensing a panicky moment, she took a breath and gathered herself as she’d learned to over the past year.

‘I think booking this holiday is a really thoughtful thing to do for your friends and family,’ Arlo said gently. ‘I hope the Island House lives up to your expectations. I’ll do everything I can to make your break run smoothly.’

‘Oh, don’t feel obliged. That’s not your job!’

He laughed. ‘Well, it kind of literally is.’

‘Only as far as the house is concerned,’ Katie insisted, touched by his concern. She didn’t need another saviour, lovely though Arlo was. Unease rippled through her. He was kind and gorgeous and she could easily fall for him, but that wasn’t why she’d come here. She wasn’t looking for a holiday romance; her love life had been complicated enough and getting involved with someone else, even for a fling or a one-night stand – tempting though it was – after the year she’d had would be madness.

‘You’ve already gone beyond the call of duty. All I ask is that you make sure the Wi-Fi and heating works and we don’t sink on the lake or run out of logs. Beyond that, what happens is all my – our – responsibility. You don’t have to be my therapist; the house and the landscape can do that. And as for the other thing that happened after the nightmare … I don’t want to lie, you are lovely and sexy and, oh God—’ Her cheeks burned. ‘Please understand that, since the accident, I’ve been known to make some impulsive decisions.’

Risky decisions like splitting with Ned, she might have added. That’s what Wanda and Ned had told her. Jess had hinted too.

‘I suppose what I’m trying to ask is, can you please keep what happened to yourself? It would only make people worry and I’d never hear the last of it, especially from Wanda.’

‘It’s OK,’ Arlo said with a kind of gentle gruffness that made Katie warm to him even more. ‘I have absolutely no intention of ever sharing with anyone what happened last night. Or what didn’t happen. What happens in the Island House stays in the Island House.’

CHAPTER FIVE

Katie hoped Arlo would keep his vow and that not a word about the previous night would pass his lips. Lips that Katie could still remember were velvety-soft and warm.

‘It looks as if we’re early,’ he said.

‘Oh?’ She refocused on the scene as he guided the launch to the jetty where Katie had set off from the previous day.

The contrast made her tingle and her anxieties ebbed away. The air was sparkling and crisp like chilled champagne and she drank it in, inhaling it and relishing the bite that caught her breath. The fells on all sides were topped with snow above the treeline and the lake itself reflected the scene, as if showing off its own magnificence.

Katie exhaled. ‘Wow.’

Arlo glanced at the landscape and murmured, ‘Mmm. Not too shabby,’ before nipping on to the jetty and tying up the launch. Pongo immediately shot off into the woods.

‘Don’t go near the road,’ Arlo ordered and Pongo turned and trotted back, as if he understood every word and might still choose to ignore them.

Butterflies of anticipation and nerves took flight when Katie stepped off the boat on to the jetty. A year ago, lying in the wreckage, unsure if she was going to survive, she could never have dreamed of a time like this: a beautiful day with the people she loved about to arrive to celebrate Christmas. For weeks and months afterwards, during her recovery, she didn’t know if she’d ever have the physical or mental strength to live her life in the same way ever again.

Yet here it was: the miracle had happened, even if some people had been lost along the way, and she had to be grateful for being here at all, impulsive decisions or not.

‘Helloo-ooooo!’

A shout reached her from the wooded area behind the beach where a figure swathed in layers bumped a large suitcase over the tree roots. With a huge rucksack slung over her shoulders, Wanda was equipped for Arctic conditions but had still managed to get into the spirit of things by donning a Christmas-pud-shaped bobble hat. Katie stifled a giggle.

‘Wanda!’

Katie flew to her aunt and would have hugged her but the rucksack got in the way. So she kissed her cheek. ‘Let me help with your luggage.’

Arlo appeared. ‘I can do that,’ he said with a warm smile. ‘May I take your case?’

Wanda huffed. ‘I wish you would, thanks. It’s so heavy but I had no idea what to pack so I brought a bit of everything. I’ve left the presents in Athene’s car. We couldn’t carry them all and the luggage.’

‘I can go back for those,’ Arlo offered. ‘Shall I take your rucksack too?’

‘Oh yes, please, do you mind?’ Wanda said, obviously relieved that this handsome stranger was ready to help.