He returned her smile and hooked his arm around her back, pulling her to him. Nory let herself be pulled; a delightful fizz of excitement made her breath catch. He kissed her once, softly, pulling back just a fraction as though waiting to see if she would push him away. Nory kept her eyes closed, the taste of him still on her lips, hearing the sounds of his breathing, hard and fast, the air taut between them. He kissed her again, more deeply this time, and Nory’s breath matched his for speed. She wondered how comfortable the potting shed floor would be. Isaac pressed himself against her and she let out a gasp of delight. Screw the potting shed, she thought, that compost heap looks pretty soft . . .

“Ahem!”

Nory and Isaac sprang apart like they had electrodes on their genitals.

“Sorry,” said a young man, whose cheeks were flushed red in perfect pantomime dame circles. Nory recognized him as one of the groundsmen.

Isaac cleared his throat, grabbed his fleece jacket off the fence post and tied it around his waist. Nory tried to suppress her smile.

“Everything all right, Milo?” Isaac asked, running a hand through his hair.

Milo had the haunted look of a person who had just caught their parents heavy petting. “Er, a deer got into one of the greenhouses.”

“Which one?”

Milo looked as though he didn’t want to say.

“Not the kitchen garden,” Isaac said, trying to read Milo’s expression.

Milo nodded.

“Shit the bed.” He looked at Nory, one hand rubbing his brow. “You think Jenna was pissed about missing her hack? Wait till she finds out a deer just ate the salad course of her wedding banquet.”

Nory followed Isaac and Milo to the garden in question. The greenhouse was in complete disarray. Wooden potting benches had been overturned, pots lay scattered and smashed, and the planters that remained upright showcased the jagged green stubs of what had been salad leaves mere hours before.

“One deer did all of this?” Nory asked, righting one of the benches and bending to retrieve some seed trays from beneath it.

“There could have been more, but one hungry deer can pretty much devastate a veg patch given enough time. And with the threat of snow, they’re stocking up on calories,” Isaac replied, rescuing some planters that had slid down behind a trestle table out of the deer’s reach.

“You don’t seem that annoyed.”

“You can’t blame an animal for wanting to eat, it’s just trying to survive.”

“What will you do? About the salad course, I mean.”

Isaac looked around. Milo was busily sweeping spilled compost and plant detritus into a pile at the far end of the greenhouse.