Aaron heaved a sigh. ‘OK. Let’s get it done.’

With both of them working furiously they finished before the first guest hove into view. Clancy led Aaron into the Roundhouse to dump the cleaning things. ‘We could stay here because—’

But he was already grimacing. ‘No! I want to go where no cousins, brothers, parents, guests, exes, pets, phones or emails can interrupt.’ Then he grinned. ‘Get your swimming costume.’

Giggling, Clancy hurried into a one-piece and threw her clothes back on over it, then she grabbed towels, and they hurried along Droody Road, onto the grass of the clifftop to The Leap. Once they’d stripped off their clothes – Aaron to his boxers in lieu of trunks – he took her hand. ‘Ready? Let’s go!’

They raced towards the cliff edge, yelling as they launched themselves into nothingness, scattering gulls in the wind as they plummeted through the air and crashed stingingly through the waves into the near-silent world of underwater. As before, the swim to the surface seemed a couple of seconds longer than was comfortable, but then they broke the surface together.

‘Come on.’ Aaron led the way around the rocks to Secret Beach, empty today. Clancy felt a twinge of sorrow that there was no Harry and Rory hiding out from the rest of the village so they could show their love for each other. Then Aaron was pulling her to her feet in the shallows, helping her over that bit where the waves played at sucking the sand out from underneath your feet as you tried to walk.

Finally, he pulled her down on the beach beside him, kissing her so suddenly and thoroughly that she didn’t know if she was breathless from the swim or from the kiss. Then he broke away. ‘I love you,’ he said firmly. ‘I’m not sure if that’s been completely obvious but I want to make sure you know.’

Her heart flipped like a giddy pancake. ‘That’s good,’ she murmured breathlessly, reaching up to touch his cheek, slippery with water. ‘Because I love you too.’

Relief blazed in his eyes. ‘If you don’t want to live here then I’ll be at home wherever you are. There must be some kind of gardening business I can get off the ground in London.’ He looked struck. ‘I was thinking of specialising in roof gardens and I could call it that, couldn’t I? “Off the Ground Landscaping”.’

Clancy shivered, and not because of the spray from waves breaking nearby. ‘You hate London,’ she said in astonishment. ‘I don’t know who’d be more miserable, you or Nelson.’

He tried to shrug her words off. ‘But if you can’t be happy here—’

Cautiously, she bit back an assurance that she could be ecstatically happy in the tiny little village high up above the sea. There were other hurdles to be cleared. ‘I talked to Oli and Kaz about the B&B yesterday and now they know the truth about what happened with IsVid, Oli wants to talk again about me investing with them.’