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distraction, and checked caller ID: Richard. No doubt with another few tasks for her to-do list. She watched for several seconds as the phone flashed his name at her, wondering if he had been taking her for a fool all this time.
    She pressed the reject button and shoved the phone into the bottom of her handbag. Then she ordered another coffee and settled back down to her brooding.

CHAPTER FIVE
    Tess sat on the sofa in the bay window of her living room looking pensively out at the waves breaking on the seashore and wondering what this latest bombshell was going to mean for her. Her laptop was open at a jobs site but it had only taken her a few minutes to see there was nothing suitable on it. And then she had become distracted by the view from the window. One of the silver linings of the recession was that she could afford to rent this apartment at a fraction of what it would have cost in the boom times. It was nicer than anywhere she’d lived over the past decade, but it looked like she might be moving on again sooner rather than later.
    Apart from work, there was nothing for her in Killty. She and Andrea had been friends in college but now Andrea was married with two children and a husband who’d recently been made redundant. Socialising with Tess wasn’t high on her list of priorities. And Tess had been so focussed on getting to grips with the new job that it hadn’t bothered her too much. Weekdays flew by in a blur and at night she was too tired to care that she had nothing in her life except work. Her weekends were filled with trying to catch up with the chores she didn’t have time for during the week, and trying to prepare for the coming week.
    The prospect of changes at Atlantic was forcing her to reassess her life once more. She could move somewhere else, she supposed. She was used to travelling on a shoestring. But where? Now that she was thirty, a big part of her felt it was time to settle down. To something.
    She glanced at her laptop. Maybe she should go to this reunion after all. At the very least it would be a social outlet and who knew – maybe she’d get a job lead there. Of course, it would mean meeting Chris Conroy again. Tess bit her lip. She had stopped thinking about Chris as the One Who Got Away long ago but that didn’t mean she wanted to see him any time soon. She glanced at the clock and saw it was time to go and see Grandma Rosa, the fortune teller. Resolving to look at Chris’s email again later on, she grabbed her coat and bag and set off.
    By the time she reached Rose Cottage Tess had cheered up immensely. The walk from her apartment had taken her along by the shore and up a cliff road she had never been on before. It afforded her a ridiculously beautiful view over the sea and the climb made her legs ache and her heart beat faster. With each lungful of air her thoughts cleared a little more and by the time she stood outside the cottage, she had begun to put her work problems in perspective. She was young, she was healthy, and she had friends around the world. How had she allowed herself to get so wrapped up in Helene Harper and Ollie Andrews and their stupid mind games over the last six months?
    The house itself was postcard pretty – whitewashed walls, an untidy thatched roof, a crooked wooden fence and the words ‘Rose Cottage’ painted onto a wooden sign in the middle of the garden. Underneath were the words:
    Seventh Daughter of a Seventh Daughter!
    Let Grandma Rosa foretell your future!
    Tea leaves (cup of tea free!), Cards and Crystals.
    Tess lifted the heavy brass doorknocker and hopped from one foot to the other until she heard a tinny voice over an intercom.
    “Push the door and wait in the kitchen, dear! I’m just finishing a reading.”
    Tess stepped tentatively into a small dark hallway. She could hear the rise and fall of voices coming from a room on the right-hand side – presumably that was where the readings went on. She walked to the end of the hall, pushed open the