‘Men can still go topless in the snow. You’d have an excuse to warm him up then. Seriously, Leah, hasn’t anything happened between you yet?’

‘Oh, something’s happened all right.’ I tell her about what I found out on Friday.

It’s Monday afternoon now and I haven’t seen Noel since. After Fergus and Fiona left, I told him I needed air and walked home, and when he phoned that night, I told him I was tired and going to bed.

Since Friday, the stall at the market has been invaluable now that it’s Christmas tree season, and every tree I’ve sent there has been sold, along with the wreaths, but I’ve made Iain go in my place with the excuse that I need to get the farm ready to open to the public this weekend. This Saturday will be the last day of November and it’s officially opening day, so it’s not exactly an excuse. There is tons to do. There are final checks of the caravan’s food preparation area, and still plenty of trees left to shear. If the snow keeps up, then I’ll have to grit every inch of the path around the farm. The Santa I hired has had to be shown around and it’s taken a while for the background check paperwork to come through. Apparently Noel’s been painting the finished sleigh a beautiful metallic red with gold edges and sparkly silver stars – or so one of the farmhands has reported back to me because I don’t want to run the risk of seeing him – and I’ve sprinkled glitter all over the freshly cut grass in the empty field opposite the house, ready for where it will stand for children to meet Santa.

‘What does it matter if he was the other bidder?’ Chelsea sounds confused. ‘You won and he didn’t, end of story. I lost out on a fabulous handbag the other day because Lewis distracted me. Another bidder got it for an absolute steal, but fair’s fair. I’m not going to track them down and claw it off their arm.’

I laugh at the thought and it makes me realise how much I miss seeing Chelsea every day. We text all the time, but it’s not the same as meeting for lunch or a quick drink on the way home from work. ‘This is a bit more complicated than a handbag, Chels. And the point is that he lied about it. It wouldn’t be as bad if he’d just told me, believe me there’s been plenty of opportunities, but he didn’t.’

‘Probably because he knew you’d react like this.’