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“I don’t know. He’s left a note for you, but it’s not very helpful.”

“Well, what does it say?” Gemma asked, wishing Sophie had started with that point.

“I think you should probably come and see for yourself.”

CHAPTER 82

Sophie was right. The note wasn’t exactly useful.

Gem,

I’ve got to put things right.

I’ll be back when they’re sorted.

I love you

K.

Gemma read through it multiple times.

Therandom manin the kitchen, as Sophie had called him, was Adam, the chef who had been cooking at the Yacht Club when Sophie and Kent went there for a meal.

“He asked me to cover for a week,” Adam said when Gemma asked him what Kent had told him.

“That’s it? So he’s coming back in a week?”

“That, or he’s hoping to find someone to take the job, I guess,” Adam replied with a shrug.

His words caused a knot to tighten in Gemma’s stomach. Was Kent’s plan to come back in a week and try to put thingsright or was a week all it would take until the sale was finalised with Harrison Dean and the cafe was halfway to becoming a Coffee-X? No, she decided. The note said he was going to put things right. And it said he was going to come back. But there was that one other line—the three words she couldn’t tear her eyes away from. The words that made her simultaneously laugh and cry. And that was why she took out her phone and dialled his number.

She was half-expecting him not to answer. Half-hoping he wouldn’t. But it was less than three rings before the phone stopped ringing. Her heart lurched as she realised he had picked up.

“Gem, I?—”

“Really? The first time you say you love me is in a note that you leave in the café? An apology note?”

Silence followed her question. Silence, which she was happy to fill.“That’s not an apology. That’s emotional blackmail.You know that. I’m not coming back to work. You think you can throw those words around, and I’ll just come running? They actually mean something to me.”

“Gem, that’s not what I intended. You know it’s not. And you know I mean them. From the bottom of my heart, I do. But you’re right. I should have said I love you before. I should have said I love you the first time I knew it was real, when we kissed in the Muddy Duck, and I should have said it every day since, but I didn’t. I’m sorry.”

Tears clogged Gemma’s throat. She didn’t want to let him do this. She didn’t want him to have that power over her and yet she could hear the truth in his voice.

“Gem, I’m so sorry. I’m going to put things right. I promise. I really do love you, and you know what they say. Actions speak louder than words. I’ll be back soon. Please stay working at our cafe. It’s nothing without you there.”

And with that, he hung up.

CHAPTER 83

“Wow, well, at least you know how he feels about you,” Sophie said after Gemma told her what Kent had said on the phone. “He loved you since the Muddy Duck? Wasn’t that your second date?”

“First official,” Gemma said, but she didn’t want to talk about that. There were other parts of the conversation playing over in her mind. There was the way he had saidour cafe,stressing the first word, like it genuinely belonged to them both, which it didn’t. And then the actions speak louder than words part too. “What actions is he talking about?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Sophie said. “You made him sentimental. He’s not going to accept Harrison Dean’s offer. That’s what he means.”

“But he needs to,” Gemma replied. “He can’t afford to keep the place going and pay himself a living wage. He lives in a caravan on his friend’s farm, for crying out loud.”

“You didn’t tell me that?” Sophie said, but Gemma didn’t respond.