‘What you up to?’ he asks, heading behind the desk and yanking open a series of drawers in turn. ‘Skiving?’

‘Er, no!’ I exclaim, getting up from the sofa. ‘I’ll have you know, I was actually reading Tui a story.’

‘Good one, was it?’ Kit is enjoying this. ‘I don’t suppose it was about a guy who’d lost his mobile phone and couldn’t remember for the life of him where he’d left the bloody thing?’

‘No,’ I confess. ‘But I did see a blue phone in the tack room earlier.’

‘You did?’ Kit stops rifling. ‘Oh, you beauty!’

Before I am aware of what is happening, Kit has stepped around the desk, placed his big hands on either side of my face, and planted a kiss right on my lips.

Laughing with shock, I stumble backwards and almost end up on my bottom, but Kit reaches out and catches me, letting go only when he’s sure that I’m upright again.

‘Sorry about that,’ he says, looking mildly surprised, as if someone other than him had boldly decided to kiss me. ‘You know what it’s like when you lose your bloody phone,’ he adds.

I have barely looked at my phone over the past year – and didn’t use it much even before then – but I agree with him regardless, keen to follow his lead and gloss over what just happened. I’m glad he hasn’t said anything else about me riding, or let the slightly heated discussion we had about it a few days ago interfere with our friendship. I haven’t mentioned to Kit that I know about his decision to move to Wellington after all, and I certainly haven’t mentioned it to Tui. I think if she was aware that her favourite man was leaving, then she would be gutted, and it’s certainly not down to me to be the one to break it to her. Then again, aren’t I planning on doing the exact same thing? Haven’t I allowed myself to get close to Tui knowing that I will soon be gone from her life again? The realisation upsets me enough for Kit to notice.

‘Hey,’ he says, raising a hand towards me, ‘less of the long face, yeah? We’ve got enough of those around here as it is.’

‘Funny,’ I deadpan, but, as always, he has managed to cheer me up.

Changing the subject, he asks what I made of the Christmas present he got for Tui, and I have to admit that she hasn’t even mentioned it to me.

‘That’s gratitude for you,’ he laughs. ‘I’m taking her up to a place called Oamaru in a few days’ time, to visit the blue penguin colony.’

‘Oh, wow – that does sound like an amazing present.’