‘Don’t be silly, not a date… just a thank you.’ Outside, big fat snowflakes were falling to the footpaths and Liv pulled her coat up around her, even though it wasn’t cold on the bus. ‘It’s definitely not a date!’ There were too many reasons not to get hung up on Finn, not least of all, the fact that she could absolutely fall head over heels for him and the last thing she needed was to have her heart broken again.

‘You are impossible, sometimes, you know that?’

‘I certainly am not.’

‘Liv…’ And she knew what he was saying, even if he never put it into words. Rachel would want her to move on with her life, to grab every opportunity that came her way and now, Pete wanted it too.

The good news was that Finn O’Connell had been sent home today, so at least he had a clean bill of health, although she was going to miss popping up to him and she had really enjoyed going for coffee and chatting with him on her lunch breaks. She’d agreed to dinner with him, even though probably, she was in no fit state to be out socialising with devastatingly handsome men – after all, hadn’t she just made a complete fool of herself over Eddie? It was Pete who really convinced her she had to go out with him in the end – it hadn’t taken a lot of convincing to be fair.

*

She spotted the jeep in her parking space from the top of the road. Not that it mattered much now that Eddie wouldn’t be parking his van there. She should probably think about letting one of the neighbours use it occasionally. It was only as she drew nearer to it that she spotted Maya’s registration and her sister’s familiar silhouette in the driver’s seat.

‘Oh, it’s so lovely to see you,’ Liv said, opening the door to greet her sister.

‘Well, I wanted it to be a surprise. I have a few days off and I figured, if you couldn’t come down at least one of us could come up. Obviously, there was no dragging Dad away from the maternity ward!’ They both laughed at that, but Liv wouldn’t want him to leave the farm at this time for all the world. Lambing season was the busiest and best time of the year. ‘Mind you, I’ve been sitting here for half an hour wondering if it was a stupid idea. I forgot about your new lock on the front door.’ She got out of the jeep and threw her arms around Liv. Honestly, in that moment, it felt to Liv as if she was actually home, safe and sound; the world as she knew it had not been torpedoed from under her.