I gave him a stern look. ‘You’re not trying to get out of telling me your ambitions, are you?’

‘No, no,’ he said softly, ‘I’m just trying to look after you.’

Which made me go a bit pinker.

‘I’m happy to talk,’ he went on. ‘I want you to understand why I can’t come back to the vineyard.’

He stood and offered his hand to pull me up. I took it gratefully; my legs felt heavy after all that running up and down and I was ready for a drink. He tucked my hand through his arm and with Starsky pottering beside us we walked slowly back towards the house using the thin line of shadow from the conifers as shade.

He paused when we got to the top of the vineyard and together we turned to admire the view.

It never failed to take my breath away and I glanced at Jensen’s face, unable to believe he wasn’t as in love with this place as I was.

‘If I had the choice, I don’t think I’d ever leave here,’ I said, trying to keep the note of melancholy from my voice.

‘It would certainly be a great place to raise a family,’ he said with a faraway look in his eye.

I followed his gaze and tried to see my future self here, with a child playing alongside me as I tended the vines but I couldn’t; I just couldn’t picture myself as a mother yet. It all seemed so surreal. The thought that I was somehow failing at all this brought a lump to my throat and it took a moment to realize that Jensen was still talking …

‘But despite having reached my self-imposed saddo deadline to meet the one and settle down by thirty-five, I’m single.’ He was single. A flicker of an emotion I wasn’t quite ready to name danced in my stomach.

‘You’re not quite past it yet,’ I said lightly. ‘There’s plenty of time to meet the one.’

He grinned. ‘I hope so. But the upside of that is that I can throw myself one hundred per cent into my career. Within the next five years my goal is to be my own boss.’

‘You’re planning on giving up corporate life?’

He lifted the latch on the wide gate and nodded. Starsky scampered off up the steps and disappeared into the cool of the house. We followed at a more leisurely pace towards my cottage.