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smile.
    “Er… yeah, I was really happy,” agreed Ellie.
    “Lovely couple, her and Craig,” said Lindsey. “There’ll be wedding bells soon, I shouldn’t wonder.” She leaned across the counter and regarded Ellie with a shrewd smile. “What about you? Got yourself a man? No? You modern career girls work too hard! You should find yourself a nice Aussie bloke too. Tell Craig to get one of his mates to show you around our beautiful coastline.” She winked.
    For some reason, Ellie’s thoughts jumped to Dan and she felt the beginnings of a blush tinge her cheeks. Horrified, she gathered her purchases and, after a hasty goodbye to Lindsey, quickly left the store.
    As she stepped out onto the street, Ellie wondered what she was doing. She had been planning to spend a morning with her old friends, PowerPoint and Excel—instead, she was taking a small boy and his rambunctious dog down to the beach to get messy, wet, and sandy—with nothing productive to show at the end of it…
    It was what she would have usually called “wasting time” and yet, somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to care. In fact, she thought, remembering Will’s smiling face, she felt strangely good about it.

CHAPTER 6
     
     
     
    Will hadn’t been kidding about how bright the sun was on the beach. Even with her hat and sunglasses, Ellie felt like she had to squint in the bright glare bouncing off the white sand. There was a small clump of palm trees at the far end of the beach, near the cliffs, but otherwise the rest of the beach was completely exposed with no cover from the blazing sunshine.
    There were a few families on the beach, but there was still more than enough empty space to go around. They found a good spot by the water’s edge, down at the far end of the beach, near the clump of palm trees. Ellie spread out a couple of beach towels and sat down on one to watch Will run and play with Milo. It was wonderful seeing a smile light up that small face again and the boy’s laughter was infectious. He had brought a ball for Milo and seemed to be playing a game where he would throw the ball and then he and the dog would race to see who got to the ball first.
    “D’you want to give it a burl?” asked Will, coming over and holding the ball out to her.
    “No, I…” Ellie looked at his eager face. “Okay. What do I have to do?”
    “Just throw it,” said Will, looking puzzled. “Haven’t you ever played fetch with a dog?”
    “No,” said Ellie, standing up and brushing the sand off her legs. “I’ve never had a dog. I wasn’t allowed any pets growing up.”
    “No pets?” Will’s eyes were round. “That’s awful!” He threw his arms around the Labrador who was sitting, panting happily, next to him. “Milo’s my best friend. I tell him everything—and we do everything together. Didn’t you feel lonely without a dog?”
    Ellie gave a rueful smile. “To be honest, I never thought I liked dogs that much. I mean, I do like them, but I never thought much about spending time with them. My parents always told me that dogs are dirty, messy things which cause a lot of trouble, so I guess I always sort of avoided them.” She laughed. “This is the first time I’ve been to the beach with one.” She held her hand out for the ball. “Okay, so I just throw it, huh?”
    Milo barked excitedly, bouncing around her. Ellie drew her arm back and then lobbed the ball as far as she could down the beach. The dog took off, kicking sand back with his hind legs, as he bolted after the ball. Neck stretched out, tongue flapping from his mouth, legs pumping like crazy. He overtook it, twisted around in mid-air, and scooped it up in his mouth, all without breaking his stride. Then he was racing back up the beach, an expression of sheer delight on his doggie face.
    Ellie felt the corners of her own mouth tugging upwards as she watched him. It was hard not to smile at Milo’s happy exuberance, his pure enjoyment of such a simple activity. She’d