I briefly filled her in on the day’s walking, followed by my eviction from the initial camping spot. I had debated whether to mention that Sam caught me half naked, but I knew that it was precisely the kind of story she needed to hear.

‘What?’ She sat back, mouth dangling open with glee. ‘Mr May caught you in your fancy new underwear? Oh, now this is perfect! Did he manage not to drool?’

‘Once he saw I’d lit a campfire he was quite scary, actually. All health and safety and forestry regulations.’

‘Nice to hear he’s not a total softie.’

Under her onslaught of questions, I described how he’d shown me a safe place to pitch up, and left me to it.

‘So you kept to the mandate?’

‘Mmhmm,’ I replied, plucking at a loose thread on a cushion in the kind of noncommittal way that automatically got Steph’s antennae twitching.

‘No kiss goodnight?’

‘No!’

‘Hand-holding?’

‘Nope.’

‘What about flirting?’

‘I told you he was on call! He was literally being paid to come and move my tent.’

‘You’re right. Stupid question. You wouldn’t have noticed even if he was.’

I summed up the following morning as quickly as possible, skimming over Sam’s breakfast invitation and enquiry about hanging out. But the whole time, I was back in the moonlit forest, the firepit now glowing embers, silver streaks shimmering off Sam’s hair and the angles of his face. I’d made a silly joke about nothing much but Sam had flung his head back, teeth glinting as he guffawed, sending a flush of pleasure through me.

As our amusement faded away, it had been replaced with a weighted silence. I glanced up, expecting Sam’s grin to dispel the charged atmosphere, but instead my eyes met his, and stayed there, held by the intensity in his gaze.

Woah.

He was less than a blanket away. Even with Nesbit curled up between us, it wouldn’t take much to lean in until our mouths met. It felt as though there was no room inside my ribcage to breathe, my heart was so inflamed with desire and intimacy, blending together into what might have been the tiny beginnings of love.

His eyes dropped to my lips and he swallowed so hard I could almost hear it through the stillness of the night.

As if drawn in by an invisible magnetic force, my body swayed a tentative inch towards him. Sam moved closer in unspoken reply.

Oh my goodness! The thoughts whined about my brain like a mosquito. Are you really going to do this, Ollie? If you lean another millimetre forwards then this MAN, who you are meant to be staying away from, given that he’s a MAN, and you’re on a NO-MAN MANDATE, is going to kiss you.

SHUT UP! I argued back, trying and failing to come up with a split-second counterargument. Just… shut up!