Sam exploded. ‘Now hold on. “She” is actually here, you know, and I didn’t force this guy to let me drive. It’s his fault he got wedged on Stippy Stappy Corner in the first place. He was about to take a chunk out of Old Man Garner’s cottage and he’d blocked the road. I was doing my civic duty to move this thing. I mean, who needs a van this big, anyway? Clearly someone with far too much stuff!’

Gabe stared open-mouthed at her while the driver cowered in the passenger seat. Her heart thumped. Obviously, she’d seen him on screen; she’d watched enough reruns of his cheffy appearances, but in the flesh, he was shockingly gorgeous.

‘I was only trying to help,’ said Sam. ‘Anyway, I’ll be on my way now. I was on my way home. I’ve got work to do.’

‘I thought you said you were desperate for a large gin and tonic?’ the driver muttered.

‘That too. Bye.’ She moved away.

Gabe caught up with her. ‘Wait. I was hoping to talk to you.’

She kept on going, striding along the track downhill towards Wavecrest Cottage. ‘I’ve nothing to say to you.’

‘Great. That’s perfect. So, you’re going to ignore me and freeze me out?’

‘I’m the chair of the festival and I’ll behave with total professionalism when it comes to that,’ Sam said coldly. ‘Even if it wasn’t my idea to ask you. Chloe, the deputy chair, had no idea of our … connection, or she would never have suggested it.’

‘I must admit I was a bit surprised to be approached. Especially after all this time.’

‘All what time? Seems like yesterday to me.’

Gabe shook his head and held up his hands in despair. ‘So, it’s going to be like that, is it?’

She swallowed hard. She knew she ought to count to ten, or twenty or even a hundred, but right now it seemed as if no period of time would cool her down. She’d known this moment would come and she’d rehearsed how it would be, armed herself with a long list of polite platitudes. None of them were helpful now. Seeing Gabe again had flooded her with memories that drowned out all her social armoury.

‘Like what?’

‘Daggers drawn. Naked hostility. Sam, I should never have agreed to come. I had hoped that you’d agreed to Chloe asking me. I should have checked with her, but I see she had no idea of our history.’

‘No. I had to tell her that we were … that we were close once, a very long time ago, but she doesn’t know the exact details of why we split up – although she probably has half a dozen different theories by now, helped by the village grapevine.’

‘Hmm. I bumped into Troy Carman earlier.’

‘Great,’ Sam said. ‘He’s on the committee, by the way. Evie too.’