For a second, I do start to withdraw my hand, thinking that he does mean that. Then I stop and I can't decide whether I should chastise myself for being so worried about it or else just hold his hand properly, fingers and thumb wrapped securely around his.

It's one thing to love Sean Kendrick but it's another to know how to be his, or anyone's, sweetheart.

And now we're talking about the weather. On Thisby, it isn't a topic of conversation so much as a subject of complaint and often deservedly so. Here, it's an unfortunate mystery.

"Sunny days and a safe beach. I don't think I know how to function in this place," I say. "But Dove has never been happier."