She has tried to get this through to Lena. Enjoy yourself but don’t get caught up. Be open to romance but don’t chase it. Know you’re worth fifty of almost every man alive, and if you meet the rare bloke who’s your equal don’t you dare be grateful for his attention. At least no more than he is for yours.

She remembers now that Lena had a crush on some rich looker from uni before all this nonsense began. Sends her a quick text: Whatever happened with thigh-boy? Any progress?

Lena doesn’t answer right away, which is fine, but when she does text a few hours later it’s to say she won’t be in today—too much exam prep. Nic takes the silence to mean things didn’t work out with the farm stud. It’s the family way: no answer is the answer. Nothing to talk about, move on.

WILL

WILL

For three days Will and Lena worked side by side, filling bags and lugging them to the skip, and that entire time she didn’t go more than three minutes at a stretch without checking her damn phone. Conversations longer than the interval between checks were out of the question. Pretty much the only time she spoke was to yell at him for sorting through a pile of something instead of chucking the lot or to remind him how pressed for time they were if he dared to stop for long enough to take a sip of water or wipe the sweat off his forehead.