‘I’d been nicked a couple of times for shoplifting. Ted sat me down with a cuppa and gave me a talking-to about life choices. Then he helped me get a job at a pub and, long story short, I’m now the landlord of my own pub, The Golden Arrow in Flittham. As soon as he got the winery up and running, I asked if I could get involved. If I didn’t come here I don’t know what I’d do with my spare time.’

‘You never wanted to work here full time?’ I asked, thinking what a good manager he’d have made.

‘Nah. The pub is doing well, my girlfriend runs the food side and I’ve got a great team of bar staff. It’s busy, noisy, hectic and I love it. Coming here is like the antidote to the pub and a few hours here, tinkering with the tanks, with nobody to manage, is like therapy, but I like the balance as it is. I’ll leave the management of this place to you.’

‘Me? No!’ I laughed. ‘I couldn’t manage the winery; I don’t know the first thing about wine.’

‘I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,’ said a smooth voice from the doorway.

I turned to see Jensen, leaning on the door frame, arms folded and a wry smile on his face. My stomach flipped; was I destined to say or do something idiotic every time he saw me?

‘Oh, hello!’ I felt the heat from my earlier sunburn turn up several notches. ‘What I meant was—’

‘Lottie’s too modest,’ Matt interrupted. ‘She’s not got a bad palate, actually. She’ll probably know as much as any of us within a fortnight.’

‘I take it back.’ Jensen cocked an amused eyebrow. ‘Seems you’ve made a good first impression.’

‘The feeling’s mutual.’ I smiled at Matt and then held Jensen’s gaze, wondering what sort of impression I’d made on him.

We stared at each other until Matt broke the moment.

‘Good to see you, Jensen.’ He crossed the gap between them and gave him a manly thump on his back.

‘You too, Matt,’ said Jensen, returning the bigger man’s greeting with a more reserved pat. ‘How are you getting on here?’

He looked past Matt to the tanks.

‘Well …’ Matt sucked in air.

‘The winery isn’t part of my remit,’ I jumped in, ‘but we urgently need to talk to Betsy about a plan of action. No one has the experience to progress the wine from tank to bottle.’

‘She’s right.’ Matt’s brow furrowed. ‘And we can’t seem to get through to your gran how important it is.’

Jensen stroked his chin pensively. ‘I thought as much. The wine business was Granddad’s domain; I don’t think she can face it without him.’

There was a loud gasp as Clare noticed Jensen’s arrival.