‘Well, a little advice for what it’s worth: just let the girl do her job, trust her judgement and don’t expect instant gratification either. Results take time. You didn’t get to the level you’re at professionally overnight, did you?’

‘No,’ he agreed, thinking about his relatively slow and steady career trajectory, and praying that all the hard-earned gains he’d made over the years weren’t now in the rear-view mirror.

‘Don’t expect any public messes you’ve made to disappear overnight either. It took time to build up that macho bad-boy image of yours, so it’s going to take some work to rehabilitate. Just like what we’re doing with your body right now.’

Case in point, Ward groaned as she moved on to his hip flexors.

‘Yeah, but even with your help, I still have some control over this. I feel like I don’t have any over that PR bullshit.’

‘True, but that’s also probably the way it needs to be. You got yourself into this mess – someone else has to get you out of it, but the main thing is you have to be willing to put in the work too, Ward. Just like you’re doing with me. Show this girl some mercy and meet her halfway. Make an effort to prove to her, Hannah, that you have an open mind – and for Chrissakes, don’t look for instant miracles either. Rome wasn’t built in a day. We’re all only human.’ When he rolled his eyes in response, Shelley laughed. ‘Even you.’

Chapter 26

HANNAH

Hannah got out of bed early in preparation for the marble installers to arrive.

Given his history with this stuff, she sorely hoped next door wasn’t upset by the news that there would be more work happening again today, and uttered a silent prayer that all would go OK and that the job would indeed be a one-day thing as promised. And most importantly, any noise and disruption would be kept to a minimum. Keeping the neighbour happy was quite the tightrope but she was more than willing to use all the interpersonal skills at her disposal to keep the peace and ensure her cushy living situation wasn’t put at risk. Tools of the trade and all that.

She switched her phone back off silent mode and flicked through her message notifications while toasting a bagel and sipping a mug of tea.

Then turning her attention back to the matter in hand, she brought up Courtney’s original welcome note, of which she’d taken a snapshot on her phone for reference.

‘Calacatta marble …’ she mumbled out loud, typing the words into the online search bar, and bringing up relevant image results so she was able to verify that the right stuff arrived.

Nice.