‘Hang on, what date is it?’ What with everything else going on, I’ve lost track of the days and feel sudden alarm. ‘You can’t have got your exam results yet.’

‘No, they aren’t for a couple of weeks.’ She grimaces, then holds out her phone. ‘But look.’

I peer at her screen. It’s all blurry as I don’t have my glasses. ‘What am I looking at?’

‘The total!’

‘Of what?’

She gasps in frustration. ‘It’s the crowdfunding page. For the village hall. How much money we’ve raised. We’ve reached our target!’

I squint at it again. Hang on, surely that can’t be right.

‘Forty thousand pounds?’

She grins then. ‘Isn’t it brilliant?’

‘Maya, that’s incredible!’

‘Talking about me again, ladies.’

We both turn round to see Ben standing behind us, grinning. Beside him is Stanley. Holding an ice cream, Stanley is wearing ear defenders and a slightly anxious expression. His face lights up when he spots Harry at my heels, busy hoovering the field for any scraps of dropped food.

‘Hi, Ben. Hi, Stanley.’

Harry launches himself upon Stanley, nearly knocking him off his feet. Stanley laughs delightedly and we watch them both making a fuss of each other.

‘How’s it going?’ I turn to Ben.

‘Great. I just bumped into the local farmer – he asked after your bath.’

‘Did you tell him he’s responsible for making one woman very happy?’

He rubs his chin. ‘Well, he was with his wife, so I thought best not.’

I laugh at his expression. I’ve spent the past week thanking Ben profusely and insisting that I pay the cost of getting my bathtub re-sprayed, plus all the fittings and fixtures, which can’t have been cheap, but he wouldn’t hear of it. ‘Don’t be daft – it’s me that should be thanking you. If it wasn’t for you, Stan wouldn’t be going to his new school. I can finally sleep at night, knowing I’m not letting him down.’

‘So about the fundraiser,’ interrupts Maya, a little impatiently.

‘Sorry, yes.’ I shoot her an apologetic look. ‘Maya set up a crowdfunding page to fix the roof and do all the work needed on the village hall, and it’s amazing how much it’s raised,’ I explain quickly to Ben.

‘Oh, someone shared that on Facebook. I gave a donation.’

‘Did you? Thanks.’

‘My pleasure. It was always the heart of the village. We used to have parties there – wedding receptions, concerts, plays, you name it. When it closed, it was like something broke.’

‘But now we can afford to do all the stuff needed to get it open again,’ points out Maya.

‘That’s great. Well done.’ Ben looks genuinely impressed. ‘So you’ll be needing a good builder then.’

‘Got any recommendations?’ I tease.

‘Well, now you’re asking: I do know a really good building company,’ he says, playing along. ‘They’re going to be finished on a renovation project next week. I’m sure I can get the owner to give me references.’

‘You’ll be finished next week?’ Surprised, I stop joking. ‘I thought it was going to be the end of the month.’