I sneak into the cottage as quietly as I can to take a look at how things are going. If Winnie catches me, she’s going to pitch a fit. Dr. Whittaker came to the house last night, thanks to Winnie calling him, and he said I have severe influenza B. He gave me Tamiflu and told me I was on bed rest for at least forty-eight hours. I thought that was overkill, but now that I’m up and walking around, I realize it wasn’t. Every single muscle in my body aches. My joints are stiff and I’m still feverish. But I can’t stop myself from checking on the guys.

Kidd showed up, remarkably on time at seven in the morning and to my surprise Dave was back. He said he wasn’t a hundred percent, but his fever and aches were gone and he wanted to help out for at least a few hours. I was beginning to think that this job might end on time, but I still wasn’t relaxed about it. I hated that I wasn’t there working with them.

I quietly walk up the porch stairs and slowly open the screen door, hoping it won’t squeak. I can hear them talking. Dave is telling Winnie about his kids. “They just started Thornton Academy. Can you believe I have kids in high school? I can’t.”

“That’s awesome. Do you like Thornton? Is it a good school?”

“They love it. Pam and I like it too. All the teachers are great,” Dave explains. “They’re a little short staffed though. I think they’re looking for more math teachers and a biology teacher. Are you interested?”

“I don’t know…,” Winnie says vaguely and it hits me…we haven’t talked about whether she’s going to stay in Maine. We never got that far, but if she’s not interested in a job…maybe she’s thinking of heading back to Toronto. Or San Francisco to be with the rest of her family. Maybe she thinks we can do this long distance. The idea makes me feel sicker than the flu. I don’t want long distance, but I also don’t want to leave Maine. Does she expect me to if this continues?

“What are you doing up?”

Her voice startles me out of my thoughts, and I blink and realize I was standing frozen on the porch. Like a tool. She is holding a paintbrush as she walks over to me in a pair of jean overalls her hair in pigtails. “Do you need something? Are you feeling worse?”

Oh my God, she’s fucking adorable. I smile but shake my head. “No, I’m feeling a little better, so I wanted to check in.”

“Hey, Hendricks,” Kidd calls and pops his head out from the kitchen. “Don’t come too close, dude. I don’t want to catch your disease.”

“Yeah, yeah, how’s the sink coming?” I call back. He grins and I wonder if he’s been to a dentist once in his adult life.

“Fixed. It was nothing for a pro like me,” he says. “I’m working on helping Dave with the appliances now.”

“Cool. Let me take a—”

“Nope!” Winnie blocks my path. “Pretend it’s a design show on HGTV and you don’t get to see it until the final reveal now.”

“But I’m not the client. You’re the client,” I remind her.

She winks at me with a sassy little smile on her face. “Role-play. You’ve got a wild side, Holden. Aren’t you into role-play? I’m your naughty little contractor and you’re my sexy…sick client.”

I laugh, but it just makes my muscles start to ache again. “You wait until I’m healthy, Winona, and then we’ll see how you feel about role-play.”

“You aren’t going to get healthy if you keep disobeying doctor’s orders,” she says in her favorite snarky tone and points her paintbrush at me. “Back to bed. I will be in at lunch with an update. I ordered and Cat’s delivering.”

I’m instantly sad at the thought of missing out on lobster rolls. “Fine, fine,” I grumble and leave the cottage.

Almost two hours later at a little before one in the afternoon, I’m dozing on the bed when there’s a knock at the trailer. Winnie’s pretty face appears in the open door. “Hi you. How you doing?”

“Not great but better than yesterday,” I reply and pull myself up to a sitting position.

She walks up and into the trailer but doesn’t close the door behind her and then I see someone else—Cat. She’s frowning but holding a brown paper bag. “Winnie, my ex lifelong friend, ordered lunch for the crew and included a lobster roll and lobster bisque for you.”

“Which you wouldn’t have made if you knew it was for me,” I say and she nods.

As soon as Cat is fully in the trailer Winnie takes a subtle step back toward the door. I get off the bed and grab the necklace out of the night table. “Well, how about you give me the soup and sandwich and I give you this.”

I hold out my hand and let the pearls dangle. Cat stares at it, eyes narrowed in suspicion. Behind her Winnie slips out of the trailer. Cat doesn’t notice as she puts the paper bag down on the kitchen counter and reaches out for the necklace. “You bought me a new pearl necklace?”

“No. I found your grandmother’s,” I reply, and she looks absolutely baffled. “It wasn’t fenced. It was given to someone. I just had to track that person down, and luckily they still had it and were willing to give it back.”

“It can’t be the same…” She lifts it up to examine it in the light streaming in through the windows. She fiddles with the clasp. “Holy shit! It has her initials engraved on it. It’s actually hers!”

Her face lights up and tears swim in her eyes as she looks at me. “I can’t believe you found it!”

“I meant it when I told you I would change things if I could,” I say and shrug. “So I found a way to change things.”

The next thing I know she’s hugging me. “Thank you.”

“Cat, I have the flu. You might want to stay away,” I warn.

“I got a flu shot,” Cat explains and squeezes me harder. “I’m not a dummy like you.”

I laugh as Winnie appears in the doorway again, sees the hug and smiles. “Everything okay in here? Is he getting his soup and roll or do I need to share mine?”

“He gets whatever he wants,” Cat declares and lets go of me to turn to Winnie and hug her. “You were right about him.”

My heart swells and I feel a wave of relief.

We all eat lunch together on the porch, and by the time it’s over, I’m feeling wiped out again. God, this sucks. I have no choice but to go back to the trailer and sleep. When I wake up again the sun is setting and the trailer is almost dark. I feel better, but I know I’m not one hundred percent. I’m, like, fifty, tops.

I hear Winnie talking and then Kidd’s voice. Neither sound angry, although I can’t make out what they’re saying. I start to sit up just as an engine roars to life. Winnie opens the door and steps inside. She walks right over to the bed and flops down on it face first. “I’m so exhausted,” she mumbles into the pillow.

I rub her back. “How’d it go? Was Kidd a jerk at all because if he was…”

“No,” she murmurs and slowly rolls over. She looks exactly the way she says she feels—exhausted. She has flecks of paint in her hair and on her cheeks. “He was…decent. He worked pretty hard actually, and guess what? It’s all done.”

“All of it?”

She nods and her eyes start to droop as she yawns. “Well, except putting everything back like the dishes and artwork and crap. I wanted you to approve things first. You are the boss.”

“I like when you call me the boss,” I say.

“Don’t get used to it.” She yawns again. “This is a partnership.”

“It is, huh? Like a girlfriend-boyfriend partnership.”

Her eyes open again. “No like a brother-sister partnership.”

“I don’t know what you and Jude—”

“Oh gross!” she bellows dramatically and reaches out and swats me. “Don’t even joke about that.”

“Sorry, but you started it.” I kiss her cheek, still too scared to kiss her on the mouth and give her this death flu. “I feel like I should go over there and take a look. What time does Jude get here tomorrow?”

“I think around noon.” Her voice is growing fainter and her words are slurred with fatigue. Poor beautiful girl. “I can’t remember. Right now I can’t remember my own name.”

“Winona Skye,” I tell her softly and kiss her cheek again, but I swear she’s asleep before my lips leave her skin.

I watch her for a little while and have plans of getting up and checking on the cottage and then making her dinner, but I’m still so sick all I manage to do is drift off beside her.