This caused the soft laugh to morph into a full-bodied one. I did my best not to enjoy the sound of it so much and dutifully squashed the flickers of flame low down in my stomach it produced. If I was totally honest, I would miss Lorcan once all this was over even though, had you asked me that several weeks ago, the answer would have been entirely different. He’d grown on me. Where once I would have avoided his company, now I missed him when we parted. He was caring and funny, and more complex than I’d given him credit for. And I liked him. Perhaps a little more than I wished to.

‘You look exhausted. We really are going to get out of your way now. Please don’t let me find out you went back to work after we left…’ he said, studying me from his height advantage as he heaved me up from the sofa with a lot less effort than it would have taken if the position had been reversed.

‘No, I’m not. That’s another benefit of being able to use my garden office again now someone kindly had a path put in.’ I looked up at him through my lashes. ‘It’s easier to separate work and home again now. When it’s all there staring at you on the kitchen table…’

‘Yeah. Five minutes more is easy to say but harder to stick to.’

‘Exactly. But I am paying you for that path.’

Lorcan held up his hands. ‘Seriously, like I told you, you did me a favour. I don’t know how I managed to over-order but trying to split and return some of the goods…’ He shook his head. ‘Just a massive headache.’

‘Funny how it was exactly the paving slabs I happened to have chosen when you were apparently innocently chatting about what I’d thought of for the path though, isn’t it?’

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ he said, bending down and scooping Bod up with one large hand. ‘You, Miss Hart, are a very suspicious woman.’

‘You, Mr O’Malley, make me so.’

He did that grin, the one that lit up his whole face and made those incredible eyes sparkle before turning towards the door.

‘Thanks for the help today,’ I said.

‘No problem. It’s not like I have far to go at the moment, now the schoolhouse project is under way.’

‘Yes, you’ve made yourself quite the local hero saving that.’

‘With everyone except you, it would seem.’

‘Oh, rubbish. You know I was thrilled when I found out. It’s just that I know you’re not as angelic as Betty and the others think you are.’

‘Ah, I see. You know the true me, then?’

‘Exactly.’