‘Oh, Noah, I am angry and I am hurt, but I’m also really lucky. I’m aware of that. And I’m on the cusp of realising my biggest ever dream. It’s hard to stay angry when that’s the case. I’m going to try to listen to some of Auntie Mags’ advice and start counting my blessings more. I have a great job, with a great partner in crime. I have the best family and friends. I’ll always have a roof to sleep under, even if I have to move out of the flat. And I have timeshare of an amazing dog. Not everyone is as lucky,’ she smiled.

‘Well, when you put it like that,’ Noah said.

‘Exactly,’ Jo replied.

Noah beamed and gave her hand a squeeze and when she looked up, she noticed that Lorcan was staring directly at her. With that same expression on his face that he had given her the night before. The expression that her mother had described as ‘not the way someone on the rebound looks at people’.

She held his gaze for just a second or two before she had to look away, afraid her face would give away everything that was going on in her mind. Because she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she was looking at him the way someone who was most definitely not on the rebound, and may in fact be interested in something romantic, might look at him.

Oh goodness, she thought, was she falling for him? Or was it just that he’d been so kind and open with her? Not that it mattered either way, she realised. Regardless of her feelings, or his, he would be going home to a different country, as he had so clearly explained to Clara the day before.

As Libby appeared from the stockroom, Paddy let out of a yelp of excitement before plodding to her, his tail wagging so strongly it risked knocking over a pair of toddlers who had locked heads over the last copy of Each Peach, Pear, Plum.

Jo watched as Libby smiled broadly, delighted not only to see Paddy but also her fiancé. The look on her brother’s face was equally happy.

‘They’re nice people, you know,’ Lorcan said, as he watched them hug. ‘People round here are pretty cool.’