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and admired the small bowl of cucumber soup a waiter had placed in front of her. Taking a taste, she was delighted with the combination of cold and creamy in her mouth and grateful for the few seconds of respite it bought her.
    “This is delicious, Jason.”
    Heather was all too aware of Jason’s gaze on her as she enjoyed her soup. She knew he wanted a response to his suggestion. Feck it . She’d have to be honest and hope he’d understand. Forcing herself to look into his eyes again, Heather took a deep breath. “I’m not sure I can do that, Jason.” Seeing he was about to interrupt her, she continued, “I’m trying to move forward, revisiting my past will only hold me back.”
    “But”—Jason hesitated for a moment—“aren’t your memories happy ones?”
    Shit . She so didn’t want to get into this right now. “Yes. Yes they are, but it hurts they’re only memories. It shouldn’t be my past. I should be doing this with Darren, not on my own.” She hated the tears trying to make their way to her eyes, betraying themselves in her voice. “I’m not sure I can do this if I don’t keep the past behind me, where it belongs.” She felt the one tear rolling down her cheek despite her best efforts to hold it back. “Please don’t make me do this.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    Jason brushing the tear from her cheek fueled her confused feelings even further.
    “I won’t ask you again if it’s too painful. Sure, we can talk about anything you want.”
    It was pathetic how relieved and grateful she felt. “I’d love to hear all about your life though, Jason. How did you end up owning The Blowhole? I know it’s not fair to ask when I’m not willing to share”—she smiled—“but I am very curious.”
    She couldn’t suppress the sigh of relief when Jason sat back in his chair and nodded his head.
    “I guess that’s only fair. You need information about me, and what I want to achieve if you’re going to help me. And I suppose I do know more about the work you do, thanks to your company website, than you could ever have found out about me.”
    Heather sat back and took a long sip from her glass of wine while Jason started.
    “After Wexford—you do remember Wexford, don’t you, Heather?”
    As if by magic, his words brought her back to that glorious summer when she’d only been eighteen years old. It had been her first holiday without her parents, without any adults to restrict her freedom. The summer before she’d started college, the summer before she’d met… No, she wasn’t going there.
    Once she’d switched her thoughts off again, she found she enjoyed listening to Jason as he revisited those weeks in Wexford. The long sunny days on the beach, the lazy afternoons and those midnight walks all had conspired to make it six weeks of pure pleasure. The more he talked, the more vivid her memories of those days became.
    She and her friend Moira had only just settled into their cottage when they’d run into Jason and Rick, who were staying next door.
    Heather nodded her thanks as a waiter placed a small seafood platter in the middle of the table and smiled when she remembered how they’d paired off almost immediately.
    “There was one moment, Heather, when I thought you were the one for me.”
    She thought she heard regret in Jason’s voice and despite her reservations, Heather opened her mouth.
    “Then why did you pick Moira?”
    Jason’s smile held a quality she couldn’t identify.
    “Remember what we were like back then, Heather. You were so innocent and Moira was… Hell, Moira was Moira. She was up for anything and didn’t have an innocent bone in her body. I hadn’t yet figured out what I wanted and needed at the time, but I knew it wasn’t innocence.”
    The naughty smile on Jason’s face did funny things to Heather’s insides.
    “The things I wanted to do to you, everything I ended up doing to, and with, Moira, all the experiences she brought me. Back then I couldn’t imagine you