Page 49 of The Path to the Last House Before the Sea

Alyssa walked along the cliff, until the music dimmed to a distant thud. Then, she sat down on the grass, looking out to sea. The sun was still high in the sky and the water was a beautiful banded green. It was so peaceful here, in Devon: a world away from her old life and past mistakes.

She’d made a new life in this village, and she hoped that Charity and Josiah had been able to do the same, far from Heaven’s Cove. It was strange. She felt close to them up here on the clifftop, as if they still existed and might wander along at any moment. What would they make of her smugglers’ map notion? she wondered. Having lived when smuggling was rife in the village, they would know if she was barking up the wrong tree.

A small plane droned overhead as Alyssa pulled her phone from her pocket and clicked on the photo that she’d studied dozens of times already. That curved line definitely could be the cove, and the cross had to be the church, where Rosie and Liam had just made their vows.

Unless it marked the spot where treasure was buried.Alyssa gently cursed her overactive imagination and dropped the phone into her lap. Buried treasure? She could imagine what Jack would say about that.

‘What were you staring at?’ Jack’s voice made Alyssa jump. He was standing behind her. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.’

‘What are you doing out here?’ asked Alyssa, thrown by Jack’s sudden appearance. She remembered their kiss and her cheeks began to burn with embarrassment.

‘Can I sit down?’ he asked, and when Alyssa nodded, he sat on the grass beside her. ‘Belinda said you were out here, and I wanted to have a word.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I wanted to say thank you, for doing what you did.’ He shuffled round to look directly at her. ‘Why did you do it? Why did you—?’

‘—shamelessly snog you?’ interrupted Alyssa, deciding that making a joke out of the whole thing was the best way forward. ‘I heard you and Miri talking, and I thought you might want her to think I was still crazy about you.’

‘Rather than her thinking our relationship was a figment of my poor, deluded imagination?’

‘Something like that.’ She grinned.

When Jack smiled back, he looked handsome, Alyssa realised, with his hair flopping across his forehead. And he’d been a much better kisser than Alyssa had anticipated. She’d expected precise, evidence-based moves – tried and tested pressure on lips, tongue here, hands there. Cool, calm precision. Whereas, in reality, once Jack had got over his surprise and relaxed into the whole deception, the kiss had been hot. Sexy, even.

Alyssa breathed out slowly as she picked a daisy and ran the petals through her fingers. ‘From what I overheard, I got the impression that she didn’t believe we were in a relationship.’

‘Which we’re not.’

‘Which we’re definitely not, but I figured Miri didn’t need to know that.’

‘But why?’

‘Because… I don’t know.’ Alyssa threw the daisy into the wind. ‘Because she was sitting there with her new boyfriend and being a bit…’

‘A bit what?’

Should she say it? After all, Miri was still legally Jack’s wife.

‘What?’ he asked again.

Alyssa went for it. ‘She was being a bit of a cow. A bit unkind.’

‘Well.’ Jack swallowed. ‘Whatever your reasons, it was kind of you. Thanks.’

Alyssa leaned sideways and bumped her shoulder against his. ‘You’re welcome. Did it work?’

‘I think so. She’s being very frosty with me.’

‘Maybe she’s not so keen on Omen-y Damian as she thinks she is.’

‘Maybe.’ He looked out to sea, his jaw tightening.

‘However…?’ There was something Jack wasn’t saying.

He took a deep breath and laced his fingers together. ‘What feelings she has or doesn’t have for Damian probably don’t come into it. Miri likes to be the woman everyone wants.’

‘An alpha female?’

‘That’s not a term I’ve come across but, I suppose, yes.’ He wiped a hand across his forehead. ‘But I shouldn’t talk about her behind her back with strangers.’

‘Hardly a stranger! I just snogged you in front of half of Heaven’s Cove.’

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