The worst of the mess had been cleaned up while I was out looking for Joan. Ebenezer had helped me roll up the dance floor and stack the remaining hire chairs, insisting that it was only to protect his lawn, before he’d shuffled back to Middle Cottage. I was now alone in my beautiful, hand-crafted garden chair, a glass of flat Prosecco in hand and the thick blanket that Aunty Linda had crocheted for my birthday tucked around my knees.

‘Is it okay if I join you?’

Sam’s voice was husky with tiredness. It still managed to generate a shiver of attraction.

I used my foot to push out the nearest chair in invitation.

‘I thought I was the only one left awake.’

Sam picked up an empty glass from the stack waiting to be collected in the morning. I offered him my Prosecco bottle, and he sloshed out the remains before sinking into the chair. ‘I wondered if you might need help tidying up.’

‘I think you’ve helped enough for one night.’ We sat and surveyed the garden for a moment. ‘I know you don’t want to hear this again, but I need to say it…’

Sam visibly braced himself. ‘Are you going to shout at me for acting like a total prick at your party?’

I shook my head, a smile tweaking the corner of my mouth. ‘I was going to say thank you for lugging my dead weight a quarter of a mile through the pouring rain.’

‘The rain had stopped by then.’

‘Oh, well, that makes all the difference. No biggie.’

I met Sam’s eyes in the darkness, the light from the remaining lanterns sending shadows flickering across the contours of his features. Despite the chill of the night, a heat burnt where his gaze held mine. I hadn’t noticed that the rain had stopped when he carried me, because he’d opened his jacket, so that I was pressed up tight against his jumper, my face nestled in the crook of his neck. Feeling the warmth of his chest, I had felt utterly secure in his arms.

‘I am so sorry. For ruining your party.’

I smiled.

‘I forgive you,’ I said. ‘Although I am wondering if we’re still friends. Not that I don’t want to be,’ I added hastily, when Sam started to protest. ‘But ever since we danced, and then I said that I only want to be friends, you’ve acted as if you don’t want to be. It made me question whether you were only ever interested in more, and now you don’t think there’s any point in us hanging out together.’

Sam was silent for a long time. A prickle of fear slid slowly down my back, as I speculated on what could possibly be so awful that it was taking him this long to come out with it.