She stayed in the cottage until morning.

Not planned — she had not planned any of it, starting from the moment she put her mug down and found her coat and went out into the rain — but she woke up at seven with the rain gone and the light coming through the cottage curtains and his arm around her and the specific warmth of somewhere she had not expected to be and felt entirely fine about all of it.

He was already awake.

She could tell by his breathing and the specific stillness of someone lying quietly rather than sleeping. She lay still for a moment and felt the...